A practical guide to securing payment on Arkansas construction projects.
A practical guide to securing payment on Arkansas construction projects.
This publication is intended to be a practical guide to preparing and filing construction liens in Arkansas, known in the statutes as Mechanics’ and Materialmen’s Liens. It is written for construction-industry participants, the professionals who advise them, and anyone who needs the lien process to secure payment for unpaid and qualifying construction work.
Arkansas amends these statutes periodically, and its courts interpret them regularly. The citations here are current only for the edition shown at the beginning. We will attempt to update the guide as the law changes, but you should confirm the current state of the law, with us or another knowledgeable lawyer, before acting on a specific project.
This guide is not legal advice. Filing a construction lien involves detailed, and often unforgiving, requirements, and a misstep can invalidate a lien. There are also nuances beyond the scope of this guide. If you are not experienced with Arkansas lien law, we encourage you to seek the advice of an attorney.
We hope it serves as a useful resource to our clients, fellow practitioners, and to the Arkansas construction industry, and we welcome your questions, feedback, and corrections.
This guide is built to work from, not just to read. It opens with an overview of the process, then the threshold questions (e.g., do you have a lien right at all?), then the heart of it: the Notice and Deadline System, which walks every notice and filing in the order you have to meet them, with the required form set beside the step that uses it. After that come contesting, foreclosing, and closing out (releasing the lien of record once you are paid, which Arkansas law requires within ten days); a set of role-based checklists you can run on a live project; and a library of the forms.
Two online companion tools give you quick access to the same deadlines when you do not need the full guide: the Jobsite Playbook, a color-coded quick scan, and the Lien Clock, which computes each deadline from your project dates. One caution runs through all of it: Arkansas courts require strict compliance, and the deadlines are unforgiving. If you miss a single link in the chain, the lien is void.
Where applicable, citations to the Arkansas Mechanics’ and Materialmen’s Lien law (Ark. Code Ann. § 18-44-101 et seq.) are included for reference.
Residential projects start with the Pre-Work Notice. Commercial projects start with the 75-Day Notice. Every claim ends the same way: file within 120 days, foreclose within 15 months, and record a Release of Lien when you are paid.
On residential projects (four units or fewer), give the owner, the owner’s authorized agent, or the owner’s registered agent the exact statutory warning (Attachment A) before you commence work (§§ 18-44-106 and -107 define “owner” and “contractor”). Deliver it personally, send it by certified mail (no signature required), or incorporate it into the signed contract. Given by the contractor before work begins, it covers every later claimant, including subcontractors, laborers, and suppliers. Two exceptions and one limit on that coverage are set out under “Who must give notice” in Part II.
Miss it: no lienExceptions: bond or direct saleOn commercial real estate (any nonresidential property, or residential property with five or more units), serve the owner and the contractor within 75 days of your last labor or materials provided. This notice (commonly called the “75-Day Notice”) must state that you are currently entitled to payment and have not been paid. It describes the labor, service, or materials and the amount due and unpaid, gives your name and address and the name of the person who contracted to purchase them, identifies the job site, and includes the Attachment B language. Subcontractors, service providers, material suppliers, and laborers all owe this notice (see Part II).
Must be served on owner + contractorBefore you file a lien, give the owner at least ten days’ notice, stating that you hold a claim against the improvement, the amount due, and from whom it is due. Keep verified proof of delivery. This notice is required on every project, residential and commercial alike.
File a verified lien with the circuit clerk of the county where the property sits, within 120 days of your last labor or materials (for contractors, substantial completion). Include a correct legal description of the property, an accounting of the amount due after all credits, and proof of every required notice. The recording fee is $15 for the first page and $5 for each additional page.
A street address voids the lienEnforce the lien by filing suit and a lis pendens within fifteen months of recording. Miss the fifteen-month deadline and the lien is void by operation of law. Winning alone does not earn you a fee: to recover one, first serve notice of the filed lien on the owner by one of the service methods the 75-day notice allows, then go twenty days unpaid, and only then sue. If instead the owner prevails, the owner is allowed a reasonable fee against you.
Miss it: lien voidIt is a claim created by statute to secure payment for the value of work performed or materials furnished in building, improving, or repairing a structure. In plain terms, it attaches your unpaid claim to the improved real estate itself, and it can be enforced by a sale of the property if it is not paid.
Every contractor, subcontractor, or material supplier who furnishes labor, services, material, fixtures, or machinery to improve or repair real estate under a contract with the owner, the contractor, a subcontractor, or their agent. Certain design professionals (architects, engineers, surveyors, and the like) have parallel lien rights.§§ 18-44-101, -105
On residential work the pre-work notice is the residential contractor’s duty (Step 1), and the lien statutes do not define “residential contractor.” The Arkansas Court of Appeals has read it broadly. It has held that a company that contracted for a fixed price to install a backyard swimming pool was a residential contractor required to give the notice, because the pool was a structure appurtenant to the family’s property, rejecting the argument that only work on the dwelling itself counts. If you contract directly with a homeowner, assume the notice applies to you, even if you do not think of yourself as a home-builder. Pool installers, landscapers, and similar trades are potentially covered.§§ 18-44-107, -115; § 17-25-502
The building or improvement and the land it sits on, up to one acre, including the unimproved part of that land, but only to the extent of the owner’s interest. The “owner” is whoever holds legal title and any person for whose immediate use, enjoyment, or benefit the improvement is made.§§ 18-44-101, -102, -106
Four things have to be true. Confirm them before you assert a lien.
Because public works are not lienable, an unpaid claimant on a public job pursues the statutory bond instead. On a public construction contract of more than $50,000 the contractor must furnish a payment bond for the full contract amount, covering claims for labor and materials, and must file it with the circuit clerk of the county where the work is performed before construction begins. You can obtain a copy from that clerk; confirm the bond is on file before you contract. The bond carries its own deadlines, and they are shorter than the lien deadlines. Your claim for unpaid labor or materials is a claim on the payment bond, and suit on it must be brought within one year of the earlier of final payment or the contractor’s ceasing work. (A claim on a performance bond runs two years, but that is not the bond your payment claim rides on; do not plan around the longer time frame.) If you have no contract with the contractor that furnished the bond, you must give that contractor and its surety written notice within ninety days of your last labor or materials before you sue; it is a condition of the suit, not merely a deadline.§§ 18-44-503, -506, -507, -508
The lien is a sequence of notices and filings, each with its own deadline. Start by identifying your project and your role; the guide then walks you through every notice and filing in order. The two companion tools below work the same deadlines faster when you do not need the full guide.
Start here: what kind of project is it?
On residential projects (four units or fewer), give the owner, the owner’s authorized agent, or the owner’s registered agent the exact statutory warning (Attachment A) before you commence work (§§ 18-44-106 and -107 define “owner” and “contractor”). Deliver it personally, send it by certified mail (no signature required), or incorporate it into the signed contract. Given by the contractor before work begins, it covers every later claimant, including subcontractors, laborers, and suppliers. Two exceptions and one limit on that coverage are set out under “Who must give notice” in Part II.
Consequence if missedA residential contractor who does not give this notice loses its right to lien, and commits a violation punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. Subcontractors, laborers, and suppliers lose the lien only if the owner never received the notice from anyone; one copy, from any claimant, protects them all. The current rule bars the lien only, not a suit for the unpaid contract balance, and Arkansas appellate courts have applied that softened rule retroactively, so a claim on the contract generally survives.
Miss it: no lienExceptions: bond or direct saleOn commercial real estate (any nonresidential property, or residential property with five or more units), serve the owner and the contractor within 75 days of your last labor or materials provided. This notice (commonly called the “75-Day Notice”) must state that you are currently entitled to payment and have not been paid. It describes the labor, service, or materials and the amount due and unpaid, gives your name and address and the name of the person who contracted to purchase them, identifies the job site, and includes the Attachment B language. Subcontractors, service providers, material suppliers, and laborers all owe this notice (see Part II).
Must be served on owner + contractorBefore you file a lien, give the owner at least ten days’ notice, stating that you hold a claim against the improvement, the amount due, and from whom it is due. Keep verified proof of delivery. This notice is required on every project, residential and commercial alike.
File a verified lien with the circuit clerk of the county where the property sits, within 120 days of your last labor or materials (for contractors, substantial completion). Include a correct legal description of the property, an accounting of the amount due after all credits, and proof of every required notice. The recording fee is $15 for the first page and $5 for each additional page.
Consequence if missedThe lien must contain a correct legal description of the property. A street address is not a correct description, and Arkansas appellate courts have held that a description so broad it cannot identify the improved area fails for the same reason.
A street address voids the lienEnforce the lien by filing suit and a lis pendens within fifteen months of recording. Miss the fifteen-month deadline and the lien is void by operation of law. Winning alone does not earn you a fee: to recover one, first serve notice of the filed lien on the owner by one of the service methods the 75-day notice allows, then go twenty days unpaid, and only then sue. If instead the owner prevails, the owner is allowed a reasonable fee against you.
Consequence if missedThe fifteen-month deadline is hard: if the claimant does not file suit and a lis pendens by then, the lien is void by operation of law. The fee is separate and can be lost without losing the lien: the claimant’s fee depends on notice of the filed lien and the twenty-day wait, so informal notice, or suing before the twenty days run, forfeits it. Those twenty days must also fit inside the fifteen months.
Miss it: lien voidOn commercial real estate the 75-Day Notice is owed by subcontractors, material suppliers, laborers, and service providers. A “service provider” is an architect, engineer, surveyor, appraiser, landscaper, abstractor, or title insurance agent. Those trades hold lien rights of their own, so they carry the notice duty that conditions them.§ 18-44-115
On residential work, two exceptions remove the pre-work notice requirement altogether: the residential contractor supplies both a performance and a payment bond, or the transaction is a direct sale to the property owner. A sale is direct only if the owner orders the materials or services from the claimant and the claimant is neither a home improvement contractor nor a residential building contractor as those terms are defined in the licensing statute.§ 18-44-115(a)(8); § 17-25-502
The 75-day and 10-day notices carry service rules that must be strictly followed. Service must be made by a process server, by certified mail (return receipt requested, delivery restricted to the owner or the owner’s agent), or by a package-delivery company to a place where the owner keeps an office, does business, or resides. The 10-day notice may also be served by any person who would be a competent witness, which the 75-day notice does not allow. The 75-day notice must reach both the owner and the contractor. For both notices, service by mail is complete when mailed, so the deadline is measured to the mailing, not to delivery.§§ 18-44-114, -115
An owner (or another interested party) has two ways to challenge a lien. One is to file a bond with the circuit clerk in the amount of the lien and serve it on the claimant; the bond stands good for the amount later established in a foreclosure suit. The other is to file a separate civil action challenging whether the lien was filed in the required form or whether the required notices were given. A lien contest is expedited on the court’s calendar, and the prevailing party is entitled to a reasonable attorney’s fee and the costs of the protest.§ 18-44-118
Foreclosure is a lawsuit, subject to the same rules of venue, procedure, and evidence as any other. Two requirements are specific to liens: the lawsuit and a lis pendens must be filed within fifteen months of recording the lien, and the complaint must allege the facts necessary to secure the lien and describe the property. Failure to meet the fifteen-month deadline will make the lien void. Arkansas appellate courts interpret that deadline strictly; a narrow relaxation of the deadline exists only where a proper lawsuit was filed within the original 120-day window.§§ 18-44-119, -122, -123; § 16-59-101
Bring in the necessary parties. Those who contracted and other persons interested in the property may be made parties, and anyone left out is not bound by the result. If someone other than the contractor filed the lien, the contractor generally must pay to defend the suit, and the owner may deduct what it pays in judgment and costs from what it owes the contractor. Attorney’s fees run both ways in a foreclosure. A claimant who gave notice of its filed lien by one of the service methods the 75-day notice allows, went unpaid for twenty days after that notice, had to sue, and won is allowed a reasonable fee; but if the owner is the prevailing party, the owner is allowed fees instead. Informal notice forfeits the fee.§§ 18-44-123, -124, -128
Once the amounts owing are paid, the lien claimant must enter satisfaction of the lien of record with the same circuit clerk that recorded it, using a Release of Lien (Attachment D). File it within ten days of payment. A claimant who refuses or neglects to do so for ten days after payment is liable to anyone injured by the delay for the amount of the injury and the costs of suit.§ 18-44-131
Consult these for a live project. Start by fixing the project type, then work the punch list for your role. The forms each step calls for are in the Forms Library that follows.
The required language and form documents, worded as the statute demands. Adapt the bracketed fields to your project. The all-caps notices must appear in boldface, exactly as written.
Pre-Work Notice for Residential Projects
Language That Must Be Included in the 75-Day Notice
Lien Form (with Affidavit of Notice)
____________ [Name], ______________ [Position, if applicable] of ______________ [Company, if applicable] (“[Company]”), first being duly sworn, upon oath states of personal knowledge:
1. [Name or Company] sold, furnished, and delivered to the [improvement] being [constructed or improved, as applicable] on the real property described as: [Full Property Description], more commonly known as [Street Address] (the “Property”), certain materials and certain labor within the last one hundred twenty (120) days, with the last delivery of materials or labor being performed on or about [Last Date of Labor and/or Materials].
2. As reflected on the invoices dated [Date Range of Invoices], which collectively are attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibit “A,” the value of the materials supplied and labor performed is $________________. [Name or Company] has not been paid this sum, and there is now due and owing to [Name or Company] for materials supplied and labor performed, after allowing all offsets and credits and excluding interest and other direct and consequential damages, the sum of $________________, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and court costs.
3. The above-referenced materials were sold, delivered, furnished for, incorporated into, and used in the construction of the improvements located on the real property commonly known as [Street Address]. [Name or Company]’s work constitutes an improvement on and to the Property.
4. [Name or Company] claims a lien on the above-referenced property to secure the sum of $________________, which is owed by [Contractor or Owner]. [Name of Owner(s)] own the above-referenced Property and the improvements on that property.
5. The Affidavit of Notice is attached to this lien account.
6. The person authorized to release this lien is [Name and, if applicable, position and company of person(s) authorized to release lien].
7. The foregoing statements constitute a just and true account of the demand due and owing to [Name or Company] and are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
____________ [Name], ______________ [Position, if applicable] of ______________ [Company, if applicable] (“[Company]”), after first being duly sworn, upon oath states of personal knowledge:
1. [Name or Company] has complied with the notice provisions of Arkansas Code Annotated §§ 18-44-114 – 18-44-116.
2. Copies of each notice given under Arkansas Code Annotated §§ 18-44-114 – 18-44-116, along with any evidence of receipt of those notices, are collectively attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibit “A.”
Release of Lien Form
Know all persons by these presents:
That in consideration of a negotiated payment, [Name or Company] hereby discharges and releases in full the account and affidavit of account / materialman’s lien recorded on [Date of Recording], as instrument number [Record Instrument No.], in the records of the [County] County Circuit Clerk, [County] County, Arkansas, and executed by [Name of Person Signing Lien], on the following real estate located in [County], Arkansas: [Same Property Description as on Lien].
The lien on the real estate mentioned above is hereby discharged and released in full this ____ day of ____________, 20__, and all claims made under such lien are released.
Arkansas amends its lien statutes periodically. The change most likely to affect a claim filed after August 2025 concerns lien priority, where your lien stands relative to a construction lender.
Act 479 narrows the old relation-back rule: a construction-funding mortgage now takes priority over lien claims for labor or materials first provided after the mortgage is recorded, rather than every lien relating back to the first commencement of construction. Additionally, the Act creates a lender “affidavit of non-commencement” safe harbor. A lender may conclusively rely on an affidavit by a licensed appraiser, architect, surveyor, or engineer (for a one-to-four-family residential structure, a lender employee or designee or a licensed title agent may make it) stating that work had not begun, if the inspection and filing occur within four business days before or after the mortgage is recorded. Absent proof of actual fraud, the affidavit’s facts cannot be challenged to defeat the lender’s priority.
For a contractor, subcontractor, or supplier, this narrows the practical value of the relation-back priority and rewards documenting work and lien rights early.
Ark. Code Ann. § 18-44-110 (eff. Aug. 5, 2025).
Three published Arkansas Court of Appeals decisions in the 2022–2026 window construe these statutes. Names and full citations are in the Authorities note below.