An Ohio Notice of Commencement is a sworn affidavit that the person contracting for a construction project records with the county recorder before any work starts or materials arrive. It identifies the owner, contractors, lender, and any surety, and it sets the timeline that subcontractors and suppliers must follow to preserve mechanics’ lien rights. Recording it protects the owner from surprise liens and double-payment claims; skipping it does the opposite.
Who Has to File
The obligation falls on whoever contracts for the improvement. That is usually the property owner, but it can also be a part owner or a lessee who hired the contractor directly. A tenant paying for a build-out on leased space files the notice, not the landlord, because the statute ties the duty to the party that signed the construction contract.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
General contractors do not file on their own initiative, but they have a backup right. If the owner has not recorded the notice within ten days after work begins, or within three days after the contractor makes a written demand, the original contractor can record it on the owner’s behalf. A mortgage lender on the property has the same fallback and can record at any point after the owner’s failure to do so.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
What Must Go in the Notice
The notice must be in affidavit form and must include all of the following:1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
- A legal description of the property sufficient to identify it for conveyance purposes. A street address is not enough; use a metes-and-bounds description or the description from the deed.
- A brief description of the planned improvement, specific enough that a subcontractor or supplier can recognize the project.
- The name, address, and capacity of the contracting party, stating whether that person is the owner, part owner, or lessee.
- The fee owner’s name and address, when the contracting party is a lessee or land-contract buyer rather than the title holder.
- The name and address of any designee the owner has appointed to receive notices.
- The name and address of every original contractor on the project. For single- or double-family homes with more than one contractor, the owner may instead state that multiple contractors are involved without listing each one.
- The date the owner executed the first contract with an original contractor for the improvement. This is the contract date, not the date work is expected to begin, and confusing the two is a frequent error that muddies later deadlines.
- The name and address of any lending institution financing the project.
- The name and address of any surety on a payment bond guaranteeing the contractor’s obligations.
Where and When to Record
Record the notice with the county recorder in every county where the property sits. A project that crosses a county line needs a separate recording in each county. The filing must be in place before any labor is performed or materials delivered to the site, and there is no grace period once work has started.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
Recording fees in Ohio run $34 for the first two pages and $8 for each additional page under the statewide fee schedule. Only one notice is required per improvement. If someone accidentally files a second notice for the same project, the second filing is treated as an amendment to the original.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
Posting a Copy and Responding to Requests
After recording, the owner must post a copy of the notice in a visible location at the job site and serve a copy on the original contractor. Subcontractors and material suppliers can request a copy directly from the owner, who has ten days to respond. If the owner ignores or refuses the request, the requesting subcontractor is excused from having to serve a Notice of Furnishing at all, which broadens that subcontractor’s lien rights rather than narrowing them.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
Subcontractors rely on the recorded notice to find the correct names and addresses for the paperwork that preserves their liens. Refusing to share it undermines the very structure the owner is trying to set up.
How the Notice Triggers a Subcontractor’s Notice of Furnishing
Once the Notice of Commencement is recorded, any subcontractor or material supplier who wants to keep the right to file a mechanics’ lien must serve a Notice of Furnishing within 21 days of first performing work or delivering materials to the site. The Notice of Furnishing goes to the owner’s designee (or the owner, if no designee is listed) and to the original contractor, using the names and addresses from the recorded notice.2Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.05 – Subcontractor or Material Supplier Lien Rights
A late Notice of Furnishing does not wipe out lien rights entirely, but it narrows them. A subcontractor who serves outside the 21-day window can only claim lien rights for amounts owed during the 21 days before service and anything earned after. Work performed earlier is uncollectable through a lien.2Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.05 – Subcontractor or Material Supplier Lien Rights
Some parties never have to serve one. Original contractors are exempt. A material supplier who contracted directly with the owner does not have to serve the owner, and a subcontractor who contracted directly with the original contractor does not have to serve that contractor. On single- or double-family homes where the notice states that multiple original contractors are involved, subcontractors and suppliers are excused from serving any original contractor.2Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.05 – Subcontractor or Material Supplier Lien Rights
What Happens If the Owner Doesn’t Record
Skipping the notice does not stop liens from being filed. It removes the owner’s protection. When no notice is on file, subcontractors and suppliers are fully excused from serving a Notice of Furnishing and can proceed straight to filing a lien affidavit if they go unpaid.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
Without the early warning that Notices of Furnishing provide, an owner may not learn about unpaid subs until a lien lands on the property. At that point the owner risks paying twice: once to the general contractor for the work, and again to the subcontractor to clear the lien. An unrecorded notice also invites disputes about whether the Notice of Furnishing requirement applied at all and whether downstream deadlines were met, questions that tend to end up in court.
Amending a Recorded Notice
When any material information in the notice changes, the owner must file an amendment with the same county recorder that received the original. Amendments are specifically required when the owner contracts with additional original contractors, lenders, or sureties not listed in the original filing.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
The statute treats the amendment’s filing date as the same as the original notice’s filing date. Amending does not reset the lien-rights clock, and subcontractors who already served a Notice of Furnishing based on the original filing keep their existing deadlines.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
If wrong information in the original notice caused a subcontractor to file a flawed lien affidavit, that claimant can file an amended lien affidavit referencing the corrected details. The amended affidavit must contain everything the original was required to include and must be served on the owner. It does not extend the time the original lien stays in effect.
Mechanics’ Lien Filing Deadlines
The Notice of Commencement anchors the process, but the mechanics’ lien itself has its own deadline running from the claimant’s last date of work or material delivery:3Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.06 – Affidavit, Time Period for Filing, Contents
- Residential projects on one- or two-family homes and condominiums: 60 days.
- Commercial and other non-residential projects: 75 days.
- Public improvements under ORC 1311.021: 120 days.
The clock runs from the individual claimant’s last contribution, not from the project’s overall completion date. A subcontractor who wrapped up in March still has a March start date for the deadline, even if the rest of the job runs until June. Missing the window forfeits lien rights, which is why every earlier step, from recording the notice to distributing copies to tracking the 21-day Notice of Furnishing window, matters.