A Tennessee mechanics lien lets contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers secure payment by placing a claim on the improved real property, but the statute is unforgiving. You must hold any required contractor’s license, fit the definition of a prime or remote contractor, meet strict notice deadlines, record a sworn statement in the county register of deeds within 90 days of completion, and file suit to enforce within one year. Miss a step and the lien is unenforceable.
Who Can File
Tennessee grants lien rights to anyone who provides work, labor, materials, services, equipment, or machinery to improve real property. The threshold requirement is licensure: if the claimant has not complied with Tennessee’s contractor licensing rules, no lien is established at all.1Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-102 – Lien for Work and Materials A license that lapses mid-project can wipe out lien rights for the entire job.
The statute then splits claimants into two groups, and the difference controls almost everything else.
Prime Contractors
A prime contractor contracts directly with the property owner (or the owner’s agent) to supervise or perform work, furnish materials, or provide professional services for an improvement. Licensed architects and engineers who contract directly with an owner also qualify. Prime contractors have the broadest rights: no Notice of Nonpayment is required, and they are the only party that can lien residential property in most situations.
Remote Contractors
Everyone else is a remote contractor. Subcontractors, material and equipment suppliers, laborers, land surveyors, and design professionals who contract with someone other than the owner all fall in this group. Remote contractors have lien rights on commercial projects but carry extra notice burdens and, as a rule, cannot lien residential property.
The Residential Property Trap
This is the rule that most often turns a lien filing into wasted paperwork. On contracts to improve residential real property, only a prime contractor can assert a mechanics lien.2Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-146 – General Contractor Defined Subcontractors and suppliers have no lien against the homeowner’s property.
“Residential real property” means a building of one to four dwelling units where the owner lives or intends to live as a principal residence, including improvements to the surrounding parcel.2Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-146 – General Contractor Defined An investor-owned rental duplex where the owner doesn’t live isn’t residential for this purpose, so remote contractors may still have lien rights there. If the owner occupies one of the units as a primary home, the restriction applies.
One exception: when the property owner and the general contractor are the same person, or one person controls both the property-owning entity and the contracting business, remote contractors in direct contractual privity with that owner-contractor can assert liens.2Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-146 – General Contractor Defined This covers a homeowner acting as their own general contractor who hires subs directly.
Notice Deadlines Before You Record
Different notices apply depending on which side of the prime/remote line you sit on and whether the project is residential or commercial. These are the deadlines most often blown.
Notice of Nonpayment (Remote Contractors, Commercial Projects)
On commercial projects, every remote contractor who intends to claim a lien must serve a Notice of Nonpayment within 90 days of the last day of each month in which unpaid work was performed or materials furnished. The notice goes to the property owner and to the prime contractor with whom the remote contractor has a contractual relationship.3Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-145 – Notice of Nonpayment
The notice needs the remote contractor’s name and address, a general description of the work or materials, the amount owed as of the notice date, the last date of work, and a description of the property sufficient to identify it. A remote contractor who fails to send this notice forfeits lien rights, with one narrow carve-out: retainage held to guarantee performance is not subject to the requirement.3Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-145 – Notice of Nonpayment The Notice of Nonpayment doesn’t apply to one-to-four family residential units, since remote contractors generally can’t lien residential property anyway.
Truth in Construction Notice (Prime Contractors, Residential Projects)
Prime contractors doing residential work have their own notice obligation under Tennessee’s Truth in Construction and Consumer Protection Act. Before beginning the improvement or entering the contract, written or oral, the prime contractor must deliver a written notice to the owner by registered mail or other delivery, telling the owner that work is about to begin and that state law grants the contractor a lien on the property for one year after work is finished or materials are furnished.4Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-203 – Notice to Owner
On completion, the prime contractor must also deliver a sworn affidavit and receipt to the owner stating that everyone who furnished labor or materials has been paid in full (or will be within ten days of billing) and that no outstanding claims or liens exist against the property.5Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-205 – Contractor’s Notice to Owner Failing to comply, or willfully falsifying any of these statements, is a Class B misdemeanor.6Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-206 – Noncompliance by Contractor
Recording the Lien
Perfecting the lien means recording a sworn statement in the register of deeds office for the county where the property sits. The statement must include the amount claimed and a reasonably certain description of the property.7Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-112 – Recordation
The recording deadline is 90 days after the improvement is completed or abandoned. Before recording, the lien is still effective against purchasers and encumbrancers, but once the 90-day window closes an unrecorded lien loses its force.7Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-112 – Recordation “Abandoned” carries a statutory meaning: operations have stopped for 90 days and the owner or prime contractor intends to cease permanently or indefinitely.
Remote contractors have an added step. Beyond recording the sworn statement, they must serve a written notice of lien on the property owner within the same 90-day window, and they must have already satisfied the Notice of Nonpayment requirement described above.8Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-115 – Liens by Remote Contractors Filing fees vary by county.
How Much You Can Claim
Tennessee caps the total amount secured by mechanics liens on a single project at the contract price, plus extras, between the owner and the prime contractor. All lien claimants combined cannot exceed that ceiling. The lien amount also cannot include interest, service charges, late fees, attorney fees, or any other charge that didn’t directly result in an improvement to the property.1Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-102 – Lien for Work and Materials Padding a claim with those add-ons can jeopardize the entire filing.
Priority and the Visible Commencement Rule
A Tennessee mechanics lien relates back to the date of visible commencement of operations on the project, not the recording date. That relation-back rule can put mechanics liens ahead of mortgages and other encumbrances recorded after construction visibly began. Some preliminary activities are excluded from the trigger: demolition, surveying, excavating, clearing, filling, grading, utility line placement, temporary security fencing, and material deliveries for those activities don’t count as visible commencement.9Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-104 – Time of Attachment of Lien
If all operations at a site cease for more than 90 days and then resume, liens for work done after resumption attach only from the date operations visibly restart, not from the original commencement date.9Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-104 – Time of Attachment of Lien A mortgage recorded during the gap can leapfrog the resumed work. Government tax liens take priority over mechanics liens regardless of timing.
Enforcing the Lien
Recording is only half of it. The claimant must file suit to enforce within one year of the recording date, or the lien becomes unenforceable. The suit goes to chancery or circuit court in the county where the property sits. The complaint identifies the unpaid amount, describes the work or materials furnished, includes the property’s legal description, and names the owner and anyone else with an interest in the property, such as mortgage lenders, as defendants. A favorable judgment can lead to a foreclosure sale.
Pre-Work Lien Waivers Are Void
Any contract provision that tries to waive lien rights before work is performed is void and unenforceable as against public policy. If a contractor asks you to sign one, you can report it to the state licensing board, which will notify the offending contractor; refusal to remove the clause can lead to license revocation. The person asked to sign such a waiver can also recover reasonable attorney fees and costs in any action to enforce lien rights.10Justia. Tennessee Code 66-11-124 – Waiver of Lien – Payment Bonds This is different from a conditional or unconditional waiver signed at the time of payment during the draw process, which remains routine.
Releasing a Paid Lien
Once the underlying debt is satisfied, the claimant must file a release in the same register of deeds office where the lien was recorded, referencing the original lien and confirming payment. Refusing to release a paid lien exposes the claimant to damages if the filing blocks a sale or refinance, and to a possible slander-of-title claim.