What does it mean to “perfect” a mechanics lien?

So you’re considering filing a mechanics lien to recover payment: Smart move! Mechanics liens are incredibly effective at getting you paid. But you’ll likely come across legal terms that can make the process feel more complex than it really is. You may have read that you have to perfect your lien in order for it to be effective. So what does it mean to “perfect” a mechanics lien? Here, we’ll break it down – and explain some of the other legal jargon you’ll come across in the lien process.

When a construction business submits or files payment documents – pay applications, notices, waivers, liens, and more – they must meet requirements and deadlines that can be quite complicated. Disagreements or misunderstandings about these documents can easily lead to a payment dispute. 

Legal jargon in the mechanics lien process

Navigating the complexity of getting paid in construction is hard. It can be even more work when there are multiple parts to a single document. When you add the issue of legal terminology, it can be a headache that some construction companies don’t even want to deal with. But they slog through anyway, as best they can, because they know that they need to. After all,  important. When it comes to mechanics liens, there are a few terms that can cause confusion.

The first bit of jargon is in the definition of a mechanics lien: It is an involuntary security interest in real property. The related terminology follows the general terms related to security interests in general.

Some of the terms you’ll likely hear in the mechanics lien process are attach, perfect, and enforce. These legal terms all have specific meanings and are very important in determining things like the lien’s priority, or even its validity.

Date of lien attachment

The date of attachment is generally used to determine the lien’s priority in the event there are competing claims. A competing claim may be from a mortgage on the property, or from another contractor’s mechanics lien filing.

For mechanics liens, the date of attachment generally relates back to the start of the project as a whole. This means that all mechanics liens are of equal priority.