Updated Sept 2026 | Private Projects: 770 ILCS 60
A mechanics lien is the strongest collection tool a construction business has. Recording one attaches your claim to the property itself, which makes the property harder to sell or refinance until the debt is settled. Illinois sets out exactly who gets that right and how to keep it, in the Mechanics Lien Act, 770 ILCS 60. Miss a step and the right disappears.
This guide covers who can file in Illinois, what the lien claim must say, where and when to record it, and how to enforce or release it.
Who Can File a Mechanics Lien in Illinois
Under Sec. 1, a contractor is anyone who contracts with the owner of the property or with someone the owner authorized or knowingly permitted to contract to improve the land or manage a structure under construction on it. The contract may be express or implied, written or oral, so long as you can prove it.
“Improve” is defined broadly in Sec. 1(b). It covers labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus, machinery, and the forms or form work used in concrete construction. It also covers filling, sodding, excavating, landscaping, raising or moving a house, drilling a water well, and services performed as an architect, structural engineer, professional engineer, land surveyor, registered interior designer, or property manager.
Sec. 21 extends the same lien to subcontractors anyone furnishing labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus, machinery, or forms or form work to the contractor. Sec. 22 carries it one tier further: when the contractor sublets the contract or a portion of it, the party furnishing labor or materials to that subcontractor also has a lien and enforces it the same way.
Two more categories worth noting:
- Equipment lessors. Sec. 1.2 gives a lien for the rental value of construction equipment leased for a specific improvement, but only to the extent the equipment is used on or about the site. It does not apply to a single-family residence or to a multi-family residence of fewer than 12 units in a single building.
- Wage claimants. Under Secs. 15 and 26, a claim for wages personally performed is a preferred lien and is paid first out of sale proceeds.
The lien attaches as of the date of the contract and covers the amount due plus interest at 10% per annum from the date it became due.
Protect Your Lien Rights Before You File
Illinois preliminary notices are covered in detail in our guide to Illinois preliminary notices. In short:
- Contractors dealing directly with the owner must give the owner a sworn statement, under oath or verified by affidavit, listing everyone furnishing labor or materials and the amounts due or to become due to each, before the owner pays anything (Sec. 5(a)). Merchants and dealers in materials only are exempt. On an owner-occupied single-family residence, the contractor must also give the owner a separate 10-point boldface notice about that sworn statement, either in the contract or before the first payment (Sec. 5(b)).
- Subcontractors and suppliers on an existing owner-occupied single-family residence must notify the occupant within 60 days of first furnishing, personally or by certified mail, return receipt requested (Sec. 21(c)). Late notice preserves the lien only to the extent the owner has not been prejudiced by payments already made.
- Subcontractors and suppliers generally must serve a written notice of claim within 90 days after completing the work, on the owner of record (or the owner’s agent, architect, or superintendent) and on the lending agency if known, by registered or certified mail with return receipt, by a nationally recognized delivery company with tracking, or by personal service (Sec. 24). The notice is not necessary when the contractor’s sworn statement already tells the owner the amount due and to whom but if that statement understates your amount, you are protected only up to the figure it names.
One correction to a common misconception: the required notices are directed at the owner and the lending agency. Neither Sec. 21(c) nor Sec. 24 requires restricted delivery to the addressee. Restricted delivery applies to liens against public funds under Sec. 23, which is a separate remedy.
How to File a Mechanics Lien in Illinois
1. Prepare the Claim for Lien
Sec. 7 keeps the required contents short. The claim for lien must be verified by the affidavit of the claimant, or the claimant’s agent or employee, and must state:
- A brief statement of the claimant’s contract.
- The balance due after allowing all credits.
- A description of the lot, lots, or tracts of land sufficiently correct to identify the property.
Because the claim is verified by affidavit, sign it in front of a notary.
In practice, most Illinois lien forms also identify the claimant, the owner, and the hiring party, and give the dates of the contract and of last furnishing. That information is not required by Sec. 7, but you will need it later: Sec. 11 requires a pleading that asserts a lien to state the contract and its date, the date work or material was last furnished, whether the claimant finished and if not why, the amount due and unpaid, and a description of the premises.
Two protections built into Sec. 7 are worth knowing. An error or overcharge does not defeat the lien for the proper amount unless it was made with intent to defraud. And a lien for material is not defeated by a lack of proof that the material was actually used in the improvement, so long as it was delivered to the owner or the owner’s agent for that improvement, or delivered to the site for that purpose.
If the contract covers two or more buildings on two or more lots, Sec. 7(b) lets you include all of them in a single claim.
2. Record It With the County Recorder
Record the claim for lien in the office of the recorder of the county where the improvement is located not the county clerk. Fees and submission requirements vary by office, and some counties accept electronic recording, so call ahead. Sec. 38 sets the recorder’s fee for filing a claim for lien at $12 for the first four pages, plus $1 for each additional page and $1 for each additional document number noted.
When Must You Record?
Illinois has two deadlines, and they do different things.
Four months after completion to bind third parties. Under Sec. 7(a), you cannot enforce the lien against any other creditor, encumbrancer, or purchaser unless, within 4 months after completion, you either record the claim for lien or bring an action to enforce it. If you did extra or additional work, the 4 months run from the completion of that extra work or the final delivery of that extra material.
Two years after completion as against the owner. As to the owner, the claim may be recorded any time after the contract is made and within 2 years after completion of the contract or of any extra work or material furnished under it. A claim recorded in that window, but after the 4-month period, still works against the owner you dealt with it just will not reach a buyer, lender, or other creditor whose interest arose in the meantime.
There is also an outer limit on the work itself. Sec. 6 requires the work to be done or the material furnished within 3 years of commencement on residential property, and within 5 years on any other type of property.
3. Serve a Copy If You Are a Contractor on an Owner-occupied Home
Sec. 7(d) requires a contractor who improves an owner-occupied single-family residence to give the owner written notice within 10 days after recording a lien against the owner’s property. The notice is served when it is sent or personally delivered.
If you miss that deadline and the owner suffers damages before the notice is given, the lien is extinguished to the extent of those damages. The recording of the lien claim by itself is not damages. This requirement does not apply to subcontractors, and it applies only to contracts entered into after the provision’s effective date.
Enforcing the Lien
Recording the claim preserves the lien. It does not collect the money. To collect, you file suit to enforce the lien in the circuit court of the county where the improvement is located (Sec. 9).
The deadline is firm: suit must be commenced, or a counterclaim filed, within 2 years after completion of the contract or completion of the extra or additional work, or the furnishing of extra or additional material. Recording within 4 months does not extend this.
A few things to expect once you are in court:
- Sec. 11 requires you to name as parties the owner, the contractor, everyone in the chain of contracts between you and the owner, everyone who has asserted or may assert a lien, and anyone else whose interest you are attacking. Failing to give notice to necessary parties is grounds for judgment against you on the merits.
- Sec. 28 requires a subcontractor’s suit to be brought against the contractor and the owner jointly. The owner is liable to you only for the pro rata share you would be entitled to out of the funds due the contractor.
- Sec. 17(b) lets the court tax the owner your reasonable attorney’s fees if it specifically finds that the owner who contracted for the improvements failed to pay a lien claimant the full contract price, including extras, without just cause or right. Sec. 17(c) runs the other way: if the court finds you brought the action without just cause or right, it may tax you the owner’s fees. “Without just cause or right” means a claim or defense not well grounded in fact and not warranted by existing law or a good-faith argument to change it.
- Under Sec. 16, a prior encumbrance such as a mortgage is preferred only up to the value of the land at the time the improvement contract was made. Lien creditors are preferred as to the value of all subsequent improvements.
The 30-day Demand That Can Kill Your Lien
Sec. 34 lets the owner, another lienor, the recorder, or any person interested in the real estate serve a written demand requiring you to commence suit or file an answer in a pending suit. You then have 30 days. Miss it and the lien is forfeited. The demand may be served by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, or by personal service, and it must carry this warning in at least 10-point boldface type: “Failure to respond to this notice within 30 days after receipt, as required by Section 34 of the Mechanics Lien Act, shall result in the forfeiture of the referenced lien.”
Treat any envelope from an owner’s lawyer as urgent.
Releasing the Lien After Payment
Under Sec. 35(a), once a recorded claim for lien has been paid along with the cost of filing it or once you have failed to institute suit after a Sec. 34 demand you must acknowledge satisfaction or release the lien in writing on the written demand of the owner, another lienor, or any person interested in the real estate.
If you neglect to do so for 10 days after that written demand, you are liable to the owner for $2,500, recoverable in a civil action along with costs and the reasonable attorney’s fees the demanding party incurred in bringing it.
File the release with the recorder whose office holds the claim for lien. Once filed, it discharges the claim and bars any action on it. Sec. 35(c) requires the release to carry this line in bold letters at least 1/4 inch high: “FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE OWNER, THIS RELEASE SHOULD BE FILED WITH THE RECORDER IN WHOSE OFFICE THE CLAIM FOR LIEN WAS FILED.”
No demand is required to trigger the release obligation in every case but once you have been paid, releasing promptly is simply good business. The lien has done its job.
Best Practices
1. Serve your 90-day notice even when you think you are covered. The contractor’s sworn statement is the owner’s roadmap for paying everyone below. If it names you but understates your amount, Sec. 24 protects you only to the extent of the amount named there. Your own notice fixes that: under Sec. 21(d), where you have given notice, you have a lien to the extent of the amount named in your notice regardless of the price in the original contract.
2. Record within 4 months, not within 2 years. The 2-year window only reaches the owner you dealt with. Property changes hands, lenders record mortgages, and other creditors appear. Recording inside the 4-month window is what makes your lien good against all of them.
3. Calendar the 2-year enforcement deadline the day you record. A perfectly recorded lien is worthless if the suit deadline in Sec. 9 passes. Diary it immediately, and diary any Sec. 34 demand for 30 days out.
4. Release promptly once you are paid. Waiting exposes you to the $2,500 penalty plus costs and fees under Sec. 35, and it costs you a client relationship you may want again.
A final note on the Act’s tone: Sec. 39 directs that it “shall be liberally construed as a remedial act.” Courts read the statute in favor of the people who did the work but that liberality does not rescue a missed deadline.