Who must receive a California preliminary notice

Three recipients, named by the statute

Except as otherwise provided by statute, before recording a lien claim, giving a stop payment notice, or asserting a claim against a payment bond, a claimant shall give preliminary notice to the following persons:

(1) The owner or reputed owner.

(2) The direct contractor or reputed direct contractor to which the claimant provides work, either directly or through one or more subcontractors.

(3) The construction lender or reputed construction lender, if any.

Section 8200(a) is a list of three. Not one notice to the owner with copies as a courtesy: three recipients, each entitled to the notice, each a separate envelope when the notice goes by mail. The list is the same whether the notice is given on day 5 or, under §8204(a), long after day 20.

The owner

First on the list, and the party the boldface statement in §8202(a)(3) is addressed to. The owner is the person whose property a lien would attach to, which is why the statement warns that paying the contractor in full does not prevent a lien from further down the chain. Section 8102(a)(1) asks for the name and address of the owner or reputed owner, to the extent known.

The direct contractor

Second, and defined by the chain rather than by a title: the direct contractor to which the claimant provides work, either directly or through one or more subcontractors. A second-tier subcontractor who has never spoken to the direct contractor still names it; the notice travels up the chain to the party holding the contract with the owner. If you are the direct contractor yourself, see the exceptions below.

The construction lender, if any

Third, with the qualifier that does the work: if any. A project financed by a construction loan has a lender recipient; a project without one does not. The wizard prompts for a lender and lets you continue without one, recording that none was known. Section 8102(a)(3) carries the same if any in the contents list, and §8102(a) as a whole asks only for what is known to the person giving the notice.

Reputed

Each of the three lines pairs its recipient with a reputed counterpart. The pinned sections do not define the word. Read alongside the contents rule, which asks for the recipients' names and addresses to the extent known to the person giving the notice, the pairing accommodates the ordinary case: a claimant two tiers down the chain who has been told who the owner is and has no way to verify it. Name the party you understand to hold the role, at the address you have. What the word means when the understanding turns out to be wrong is a question for an attorney; §8102(b), quoted on the form page, says a variance does not invalidate a notice that still substantially informs.

The two exceptions

(1) A laborer is not required to give preliminary notice. (2) A claimant with a direct contractual relationship with an owner or reputed owner is required to give preliminary notice only to the construction lender or reputed construction lender, if any.

Section 8200(e) opens with the words notwithstanding the foregoing subdivisions and then carves out two cases. A laborer gives no preliminary notice at all. A claimant who contracted directly with the owner, typically the direct contractor, gives it only to the lender, and only if there is a lender; the statute does not list the owner as a recipient in that case. The wizard plans the recipients from the role you select and shows the plan before you pay, so a claimant who contracted with the owner sees one recipient or none, not three.

Why the list matters

Compliance with this section is a necessary prerequisite to the validity of a lien claim or stop payment notice under this title.

The recipients are part of this section. Section 8200(c) makes compliance with §8200 a prerequisite to a valid lien claim or stop payment notice, and §8200(d) does the same for a payment bond claim, with §8612 as the alternative route it names. A notice that reached the owner but not the direct contractor is not the notice §8200(a) describes. Three recipients means three deliveries, and the record should show all three.

Addresses: what the notice must carry

(1) The name and address of the owner or reputed owner. (2) The name and address of the direct contractor. (3) The name and address of the construction lender, if any.

Those are the first three items of §8102(a), the contents rule every notice under the part follows. The addresses on the notice are also the addresses on the envelopes. NoticeSent mails to the addresses you verify on the review screen; the notice and the mailing agree because they come from the same answers.

Three envelopes, one record

The flat $39 covers every recipient the statute names for your role: three for a subcontractor or supplier with a lender on the job, two without one, and the lender alone for a claimant who contracted with the owner. Each piece goes by certified mail with its own tracking number, which is one of the methods §8110 allows, and the deposit record §8116(b) turns on is kept with the document on a permanent archive page. How to send it quotes those sections.

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