Construction lien

Key Takeaways

• Under RCW 60.04.021, anyone furnishing labor, professional services, materials, or equipment to improve real property can claim a construction lien for the contract price of what was furnished.
• Washington uses construction lien as the umbrella term. A mechanic's lien for labor and a materialman's lien for supplies are both recorded under chapter 60.04 RCW.
• A claim of lien must be recorded in the county where the property sits within ninety days after the claimant last furnished labor, services, materials, or equipment.
• Priority runs from the date work began or materials were first delivered, so a construction lien can outrank a deed of trust that was recorded later.

What It Means

A construction lien is the security a builder gets when the work is done and the money is not. Washington uses that one label for the whole family of claims older textbooks split into mechanic's liens for labor and materialman's liens for supplies. Under RCW 60.04.021, any person furnishing labor, professional services, materials, or equipment for the improvement of real property has a lien on the improvement for the contract price of what was furnished at the instance of the owner or the owner's agent. That reaches the framer, the electrician, the architect, the equipment rental yard, and the lumberyard alike. It is a Specific Lien, so it attaches to the improved parcel and nothing else, which is what separates it from a General Lien such as a judgment that follows the debtor everywhere. The lien does not need the owner's signature or agreement. It arises from the work itself, and that is why an owner who paid the general contractor in full can still face a claim from a subcontractor the contractor never paid.

How It Works in Washington

Chapter 60.04 RCW runs on deadlines, and missing one destroys the claim. A claimant who did not contract directly with the owner usually has to send a notice of the right to claim a lien first. RCW 60.04.031(1) says that notice only protects professional services, materials, or equipment supplied after a date sixty days before it is mailed or delivered, and only ten days before on new construction of a single-family residence. RCW 60.04.031(2) excuses anyone who contracted directly with the owner, and excuses laborers whose claim rests solely on performing labor.

Recording comes next. RCW 60.04.091 requires the notice of claim of lien to be filed in the county where the property is located no later than ninety days after the claimant ceased to furnish labor, professional services, materials, or equipment, and the statute calls that ninety-day window a period of limitation. Then comes suit. RCW 60.04.141 says no lien binds the property longer than eight calendar months after recording unless the claimant files an action in superior court within that time and serves the owner within ninety days of filing.

Priority is the part that surprises lenders. RCW 60.04.061 makes the claim of lien prior to any lien, mortgage, deed of trust, or other encumbrance that attached after, or was unrecorded at, the time the claimant commenced labor or first delivered materials. A Deed Of Trust recorded midway through a project can end up behind the framer, which is one reason a subordination clause matters so much to construction lenders.

Example

Alicia Ruiz hires Cascade Framing LLC directly to frame an addition on her Spokane house. Cascade starts on January 8 and finishes on March 12 with $18,400 still unpaid. Because Cascade contracted directly with the owner, no advance notice was required. Its ninety-day clock runs from March 12, so the claim of lien has to be recorded in Spokane County by June 10. Cascade records on June 5 for $18,400, which starts the eight-month clock. File suit by February 5 or the lien is gone.

Alicia had also drawn on a home equity line, and that deed of trust was recorded on February 20, six weeks after Cascade commenced framing. Under RCW 60.04.061 the construction lien is prior to it. When Alicia sells, the lien and the threat of Foreclosure both surface in the title search, and the payoff is sorted out at closing: escrow pays Cascade's $18,400 out of seller proceeds ahead of the home equity balance.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• A construction lien is a specific lien on the improved parcel. A general lien, such as a judgment, reaches everything the debtor owns.
• The ninety-day recording clock runs from the last day the claimant furnished labor, services, materials, or equipment, not from the date an invoice went unpaid.
• Recording is not the finish line. RCW 60.04.141 ends the lien eight calendar months after recording unless a foreclosure action is filed within that time.
• Mechanic's lien and materialman's lien are not separate Washington statutes. Both are construction liens under chapter 60.04 RCW.