Ohio Notice of Furnishing: 21-Day Deadline and Delivery Rules

Ohio’s Notice of Furnishing is the written notice a subcontractor, material supplier, or equipment lessor must serve within 21 days of first providing labor or materials to a project if they want to keep the right to file a mechanic’s lien. It goes to the property owner (or the owner’s designee) and to the original contractor, at the names and addresses listed on the recorded Notice of Commencement. Miss the deadline or skip the notice, and the lien rights that would otherwise secure your payment shrink or disappear. The rules sit in Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1311.¹

Who Has to Serve One

The notice targets parties who do not have a direct contract with the property owner. If the general contractor hired you, or a subcontractor is buying your materials, or you are renting equipment to the job, you need to serve a Notice of Furnishing to protect your lien rights. Rented equipment is covered, with the lien limited to the reasonable rental value for the period of actual use plus any nonuse period written into the rental agreement.¹

A few participants are excused:

Original contractors, because they already have a direct relationship with the owner.
Material suppliers selling directly to the owner, for the same reason.
Subcontractors or suppliers in direct contract with the original contractor do not have to serve the notice on that contractor, but they still must serve it on the owner or designee.²

The practical test is privity of contract. If you are not dealing directly with the owner, assume you need to send the notice. When in doubt, send it. The cost of serving one you did not strictly need is a stamp; the cost of skipping one you did need is your lien.

The 21-Day Deadline

You have 21 days from the first day you perform labor or deliver materials to the project. The clock starts on that first day of actual work or first delivery, not when the contract was signed and not when a purchase order came through.²

Miss the 21-day window and you do not lose everything, but you lose a lot. A late notice preserves your lien only for the labor and materials you provided during the 21 days immediately before you served the notice, plus everything after. Anything furnished before that 21-day lookback is gone and, in the statute’s words, “not revived.”² On a long-running delivery schedule, the amount stripped out can dwarf what the lien still covers.

When the Owner Never Recorded a Notice of Commencement

Before work begins, the owner is supposed to record a Notice of Commencement with the county recorder identifying the owner, the property, and the original contractor. That document is where you pull the names and addresses for your Notice of Furnishing.³

If no Notice of Commencement was ever recorded, you do not have to serve a Notice of Furnishing at all. Your lien rights are preserved automatically.² That is one of the strongest protections lower-tier contractors have under the statute.

If the owner records a Notice of Commencement late, your 21-day deadline does not start until it is actually recorded, and you do not need to serve a Notice of Furnishing for work performed before that recording date. Once it is recorded, the 21 days runs forward from that point. The owner is also liable for your actual expenses in tracking down the project information that should have been in the Notice of Commencement to begin with.³

What the Notice Must Say and Who Gets It

Pull the recorded Notice of Commencement from the county recorder’s office before drafting. It gives you the owner’s name and address, the original contractor’s name and address, and the owner’s designee if one was named. The information in your Notice of Furnishing has to match.

The notice itself has to include:

Your name and address as the party providing labor, materials, or equipment.
The name and address of the party you contracted with, typically the original contractor or another subcontractor.
A brief description of the labor you are performing or the materials you are furnishing.
The date you first furnished labor or materials, which anchors the 21-day calculation.
The address of the property.

The statute provides a form the notice must “substantially” follow. That gives you some latitude in formatting, none in content.²

Serve it on two parties: the owner’s designee (or the owner, if no designee was named) and the original contractor, both as listed in the recorded Notice of Commencement, at the addresses shown there. If the designee has died or no longer exists, serve the owner named in the Notice of Commencement instead. Serving only one of the two recipients does not satisfy the statute.²

How to Deliver It

Any delivery method is acceptable so long as it produces written proof the recipient received the document. The statute specifically allows:⁴

Certified or registered mail, with the return receipt serving as proof. Keep it stapled to your file copy of the notice.
Overnight delivery through any commercial carrier that provides a delivery receipt.
Hand delivery, with a signed acknowledgment taken on the spot.
Sheriff service, using civil procedure methods, which adds fees and time.
Any other method that produces written proof of receipt.

If payment later becomes a court dispute, service is the first thing the owner’s attorney will attack. A certified mail receipt or signed acknowledgment ends that argument quickly. Without written proof, you are left trying to persuade a judge by a preponderance of evidence that the recipient actually received the document.⁴

Filing the Lien Affidavit After the Notice

The Notice of Furnishing preserves your right to file a lien. It does not create one. To place the lien on the property, file a mechanic’s lien affidavit with the county recorder within the deadline that matches the project type:

Residential projects covering one- or two-family dwellings and condominiums: 60 days from your last day of work or last material delivery.
Commercial projects: 75 days from the last day of work or last delivery.
Oil and gas improvements: 120 days from the last labor or material furnished.⁵

After filing, serve a copy of the affidavit on the owner, designee, or lessee within 30 days. If you cannot reach them through the standard delivery methods, you have an additional 10 days to post the copy in a visible location on the property.¹ Calendar both deadlines the day work starts, not the day a payment problem shows up.

If the Project Is a Home

Residential work on single-family homes, duplexes, and residential condominiums carries extra limits that can cut into what a Notice of Furnishing protects.

If the homeowner has already paid the original contractor in full before receiving a copy of your lien affidavit, your lien is void and the property is discharged, regardless of whether the general contractor ever paid you. The only exception is fraud by the owner.¹

If the homeowner has not paid in full, your lien is capped at the unpaid balance remaining on the home construction contract. When multiple subcontractors and suppliers file liens and the balance is not enough to cover everyone, each lien gets a pro rata share of what is left, with laborers taking priority over other claimants.¹ On a residential job where the owner is paying the general contractor on a regular draw schedule, speed matters. Serve the notice early, and move quickly to the affidavit if payment stalls.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1311 – Liens
2
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.05 – Subcontractor or Materialman to Serve Notice of Furnishing
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.04 – Recording Notice of Commencement
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.19 – Service
5
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 1311.06 – Affidavit – Time Period for Filing