Notice of Intent to Lien form: an annotated sample letter and a blank PDF template

The blank template

The PDF below is the structure NoticeSent's own Notice of Intent to Lien uses, with every fact left blank: the date, the owner and the general contractor, the property, the work, the amount, the pay-by date, the intent-to-record statement and the claimant's signature block. It cites no statute, because the letter is not a statutory form, and it makes no promise about what happens next.

The sample letter, annotated

The same template with example facts filled in. The numbered markers point to the parts explained below. Every name here is invented.

What each part is for

1. The date. A demand is measured from when it was sent. The date on the letter and the date on the certified mail receipt should be the same day, or the receipt should be the earlier one.
2. The recipients. The property owner is the person a lien would reach, so the owner is always addressed. The general contractor is the usual second recipient: the party who owes the money, or who can make the owner pay it. Each is written with the full mailing address, because the envelope has to match the letter.
3. The property. The street address, and where you have it a fuller description, so that no one can say the letter concerned a different parcel. A project reference such as an invoice or contract number ties the letter to your paperwork.
4. What was furnished. Labor, services, equipment or materials, described plainly and with dates. This is the sentence that shows the claim is about real work on this property.
5. The amount. One figure, net of payments and credits, and the plain statement that demand has not been satisfied. Interest, fees and adjectives weaken a demand more often than they strengthen it.
6. The deadline and the intent. The sentence the whole letter exists for: pay by a date, or the claimant intends to pursue the remedies available under applicable state law, including recording a claim of lien. It says what a recorded lien does to a property in one breath, and it says nothing about what the claimant will do beyond that.
7. The claimant. Who is owed, where payment goes, and the signature. A letter that cannot be answered is easy to ignore.

A demand letter, not a statutory form, in most states

The template above cites no section of any statute, and that is deliberate. In most states there is no prescribed form for a Notice of Intent to Lien; the letter is a business demand with legal weight, and its power comes from being accurate, dated and provable. That is also why it can be sent in any state, and why this page does not claim that any state requires one.

Some states do prescribe a pre-lien notice of intention, with a form and a deadline of their own, and on this site those are separate statutory documents rather than this letter. Two of them are pinned from the official text. Wyoming's W.S. 29-2-107(a) says:

Before filing a lien pursuant to this chapter a lien claimant shall send written notice to the record owner or his agent of any claim against real property, a building or an improvement stating the amount of any claim and from whom it is due. The notice shall be sent no later than twenty (20) days prior to filing a lien statement.

Kentucky's KRS 376.010(4)(a) says, of a person not in direct contract with the owner:

A person who has not contracted directly with the owner, the owner's agent, or the lessee, if applicable, shall not acquire a lien under this section unless he or she notifies, in writing, the owner of the property to be held liable

within seventy-five (75) days on claims amounting to less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) and one hundred twenty (120) days on claims in excess of one thousand dollars ($1,000) after the last item of material or labor is furnished, of his or her intention to hold the property liable and the amount for which he or she will claim a lien

Those are statutory notices, with their own recipients, deadlines and forms, and NoticeSent prepares each from its pinned statute as its own product: the Wyoming Notice of Intention to File Lien and the Kentucky Notice of Intention to Hold Property Liable. For any other state, whether a statutory pre-lien notice applies to your job is a question this page does not answer; read the state's lien statute or ask an attorney before relying on a customary letter where a statutory one may be required.

What the letter does not do

• It is not a lien. Nothing is recorded and nothing attaches to the property. The letter announces an intention.
• It does not replace a preliminary notice. Florida's Notice to Owner, California's preliminary notice and their cousins in other states are given near the start of the work on statutory deadlines; a demand letter sent when payment is overdue does not substitute for a missed one.
• It does not move a lien deadline. The time to record a lien is set by the state's statute and runs regardless of the letter. The guide covers the timing in more depth.

Sending it so it can be proven

A demand only matters if it can be shown to have been sent, to whom, and when. Mail it by USPS Certified Mail, keep the tracking number with a copy of the letter as mailed and the addresses used, and keep the delivery record when it arrives. NoticeSent's $49 service fills this template from your facts, certified-mails it to the owner and, if you choose, the general contractor, captures each tracking number at dispatch and keeps the letter, the tracking and a timestamped record on a permanent archive page. It does not decide whether a lien is available to you or whether a statutory notice applies; it prepares and mails the letter.

Frequently asked