How to Put a Lien on a House in Washington State

To put a lien on a house in Washington state, you record a Claim of Lien with the county auditor where the property sits within 90 days of your last day supplying labor or materials, after first sending a pre-lien notice to the owner if the law requires one for your role. You then have 14 days to serve the owner with a copy, and eight months to file a foreclosure lawsuit if the debt still isn’t paid. Missing any of those deadlines can wipe out your rights entirely.

Who Can File

Anyone who furnishes labor, professional services, materials, or equipment to improve real property at the request of the owner or their authorized agent can claim a lien for the unpaid contract price.¹ That includes general contractors, subcontractors, electricians, plumbers, architects, engineers, surveyors, and material suppliers.

Two eligibility rules trip filers up. If your work required you to be registered as a contractor or licensed as an electrical contractor under Washington law, you must have held that active registration or license while doing the work. Without it, you have no lien rights at all, no matter what you’re owed.² And if you worked on an owner-occupied single-family residence, you must have given the homeowner a written disclosure statement with your registration number and bond information. If you can’t prove you delivered that disclosure, you cannot bring or maintain a lien claim.³

Send the Pre-Lien Notice

Most people supplying professional services, materials, or equipment must send the property owner a written Notice of Right to Claim a Lien before filing anything.⁴ This notice tells the owner you’re contributing to the project and preserves your right to lien if you go unpaid.

You can send the notice at any time, but timing controls how much of your work it protects. On most projects, the notice only covers labor or materials supplied within 60 days before you send it. On new construction of a single-family residence, that window is only 10 days. Wait too long and you lose lien rights on everything you did earlier. Send it by certified or registered mail, or serve it personally with proof of delivery.

Some people are exempt from the notice requirement:⁴

Anyone who contracted directly with the property owner.
Laborers whose claim is based solely on performing labor.
Subcontractors who contracted directly with the prime contractor, except on existing owner-occupied single-family residences, where they still must send the notice.

Prepare the Claim of Lien

The Claim of Lien is the document that gets recorded against the property. Courts can invalidate a lien with missing or inaccurate information, so the details matter.

It must include:⁵

Your name, phone number, and address.
The first and last dates you provided labor, materials, or services.
The name of the person or company that owes you.
The property owner’s name.
The principal amount owed.
A legal description of the property, available from the deed through the county auditor’s or assessor’s office.

Sign the document and include a sworn statement that the information is true. A lien that substantially follows the statutory sample form is valid without formal notarization.

Record Within 90 Days and Serve Within 14

File the completed Claim of Lien for recording at the county auditor’s office in the county where the property sits. You have 90 days from the last day you supplied labor, materials, or services. Miss it and the lien is dead.⁵ If the project straddles two counties, record in both.

Within 14 days after recording, mail a copy to the property owner by certified or registered mail, or serve it personally. Missing this 14-day step does not void the lien itself, but you forfeit any right to recover attorney’s fees and litigation costs if you later have to sue to enforce it. Foreclosure suits are expensive, and losing fee recovery makes a bad situation worse.

Where Your Lien Sits Against the Mortgage

Most houses already carry a mortgage, and other liens may already be on title. Your position in line decides how much you actually collect if the property is sold.

The Washington rule: a construction lien takes priority over any mortgage, deed of trust, or other encumbrance that attached after you first began work or delivered materials, or that was unrecorded when the work started.⁶ In practice, that means you usually sit behind a first mortgage recorded before the project began, but ahead of any financing the owner took out during or after the work.

File a Foreclosure Suit Within Eight Months

Recording the lien puts the debt on the public record, but it doesn’t force payment. The lien is a placeholder with a fuse. To actually collect, you have to file a foreclosure lawsuit in superior court.

The deadline is eight calendar months from the date the Claim of Lien was recorded. If that passes without a lawsuit filed and the owner served within 90 days of filing, the lien is void and your secured interest vanishes.⁷ Even after filing, the court can dismiss the case if you fail to prosecute it to judgment within two years.

The prevailing party in a foreclosure action can recover recording fees, title report costs, bond costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees.⁸ That cuts both ways. If you file a weak lien and lose at trial, you can end up paying the owner’s legal bills. A successful foreclosure can result in a court-ordered sale of the property, with the proceeds applied to the debt.

One boundary to keep in mind: if an owner, contractor, subcontractor, or lender thinks a lien is frivolous, filed without reasonable cause, or inflated, they can bring a fast-track motion in superior court to have it released or reduced, with attorney’s fees shifted to the losing side.⁹ Overstating what you’re owed carries real financial risk.

Release the Lien After You’re Paid

Once you receive and accept payment in full, you must immediately prepare, sign, and deliver a written release of all lien rights to the person who paid. If the owner has to sue to force the release, the court will order you to deliver it and award the owner costs, reasonable attorney’s fees, and any damages caused by your delay.¹⁰

File the signed release with the same county auditor’s office where the lien was recorded. Recording the release clears the encumbrance from title. Until it’s on record, the lien stays visible and can continue to block the owner’s ability to sell or refinance.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.021 – Lien Authorized
2
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.041 – Registration and Licensing Requirements
3
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 18.27.114 – Disclosure Statement Required, Prerequisite to Lien
4
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.031 – Notices, Exceptions
5
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.091 – Recording, Time, Contents of Lien
6
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.061 – Priority of Lien
7
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.141 – Lien, Duration, Procedural Limitations
8
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.181 – Rank of Lien, Application of Proceeds, Attorneys Fees
9
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.081 – Frivolous Claim, Procedure
10
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 60.04.071 – Release of Lien Rights