What to Do When a Iowa Customer Does Not Pay

Iowa runs liens through one statewide registry

Iowa does not record mechanic's liens at the county courthouse. Everything runs through a single statewide Mechanic's Notice and Lien Registry administered by the Secretary of State, created by Iowa Code 572.34 and accessible to the general public through the administrator's internet site. The registry is indexed by owner name, general contractor name, registry number, property address, legal description and tax parcel identification number.

Perfection means posting to that site. Iowa Code 572.8 requires a verified statement of account of the demand due, after allowing all credits, setting out the date the material was first furnished or labour first performed and the date of the last, a legal description adequate to describe the property, the owner's name and last known mailing address, the property address or a description of its location, and the tax parcel identification number. Once posted, the administrator mails a copy of the lien to the owner.

Who may claim is broad. Iowa Code 572.2 gives a lien to every person who furnishes material or labour for, or performs labour upon, any building or land for improvement, alteration or repair, including those engaged in grading, sodding, installing nursery stock, landscaping, sidewalk building and fencing, by virtue of a contract with the owner, owner-builder, general contractor or subcontractor. Rented material is covered too, for its reasonable rental value during actual use.

One structural note the Secretary of State makes plainly: the notice machinery described on its page "apply only to residential construction projects. Commercial construction projects file only a lien." Commercial has its own separate notice rule, at 572.33, described further below.

Official sources: Iowa Code Chapter 572, Mechanic's Lien; Iowa Secretary of State Mechanics Liens; Iowa Mechanic's Notice and Lien Registry

The deadline everyone gets wrong

Iowa's filing window is long, and it is routinely misreported as short. The statute is unambiguous. Iowa Code 572.9 provides that the statement of account "shall be posted by a general contractor or subcontractor within two years and ninety days after the date on which the last of the material was furnished or the last of the labor was performed". Two years and ninety days, measured from your last day of labour or last delivery of material on that project.

The ninety-day figure that gets quoted as the deadline is real, but it is a different rule with a different effect. Iowa Code 572.10 allows a general contractor or subcontractor to perfect a lien beyond ninety days after the last material or labour by posting to the registry and giving written notice to the owner, served in the manner original notices are served. Iowa Code 572.11 then states the price of being late: liens perfected under 572.10 are enforceable "only to the extent of the balance due from the owner to the general contractor" at the time that notice is served. If the owner has already paid the general contractor in full, that balance can be zero.

So both numbers matter, and they answer different questions. Within ninety days, your lien reaches the property on the ordinary terms of the chapter. Between ninety days and two years and ninety days, your lien is still available but its practical value is capped by whatever the owner still owes upstream. After two years and ninety days, there is no lien to post. A separate section, 572.14, preserves an owner's liability to a subcontractor for the full value of material or labour despite payment to the general contractor within ninety days, where the subcontractor posts a lien within ninety days.

Suing is a third clock. Iowa Code 572.27 requires any action to enforce a mechanic's lien to be brought "within two years from the expiration of ninety days" after the last material or labour. And an owner can shorten your timetable unilaterally: under 572.28, on written demand served on the claimant requiring action to enforce the lien, the action must be commenced within thirty days "or the lien and all benefits derived therefrom shall be forfeited".

• Post the lien: within two years and ninety days of last labour or material, section 572.9.
• Post within ninety days: full ordinary effect under the chapter.
• Post after ninety days: written notice to owner required, and value capped at the balance the owner still owes the general contractor, sections 572.10 and 572.11.
• Enforce in court: within two years from the expiration of ninety days after last labour or material, section 572.27.
• After an owner's written demand to sue: thirty days, or the lien is forfeited, section 572.28.

Official sources: Iowa Code Chapter 572, Mechanic's Lien

On residential work, the job that protects you starts on day one

The Iowa rule that actually costs contractors their lien rights is not a deadline at the end of the job. It is a filing at the beginning. On residential construction, Iowa Code 572.13A requires a general contractor, or an owner-builder who has contracted or will contract with a subcontractor, to post a notice of commencement of work to the registry "no later than ten days after the commencement of work on the property", including the owner's name and address, the contractor's name, address and telephone number, the property address, the legal description, the date work commenced and the tax parcel identification number.

The sanction is total. Subsection 4 states that a general contractor who fails to provide that notice "is not entitled to a lien and remedy provided by this chapter". The same sanction attaches to the owner notice at 572.13, which requires the general contractor to give the owner specified warning language in writing "in boldface type of a minimum size of ten points", and which likewise provides that a general contractor who fails to give it is not entitled to a lien. The Secretary of State states that the owner notice must include the registry internet address and its toll-free telephone number.

Subcontractors have their own step. Iowa Code 572.13B requires a subcontractor to post a preliminary notice to the registry, and a preliminary notice posted before the balance due is paid to the general contractor or owner-builder is effective as to all labour, service, equipment and material the subcontractor furnishes. Subsection 4 states that a subcontractor who fails to post it "shall not be entitled to a lien and remedy provided under this chapter". A notice of commencement must exist before preliminary notices can be posted, and where the general contractor has not posted one, a subcontractor may post it and must then also post its own preliminary notice.

The Secretary of State prices these steps at $7 for an electronic posting and $10 for a paper filing by fax or post, for both the notice of commencement and the preliminary notice. Iowa Code 572.34(6) separately caps what the administrator may charge for a mechanic's lien itself, providing that the administrator "shall not charge a posting fee that exceeds forty dollars for a mechanic's lien". Against a five-figure receivable, that is the cheapest insurance on the job.

Official sources: Iowa Code Chapter 572, Mechanic's Lien; Iowa Secretary of State Mechanics Liens

Commercial work follows a different notice rule

If the project is commercial, do not apply the residential checklist. The Secretary of State states that the notice requirements it describes "apply only to residential construction projects. Commercial construction projects file only a lien." The chapter says the same, with 572.13, 572.13A and 572.13B each closing with a subsection stating that the section applies only to residential construction properties.

Commercial has its own notice, aimed one level further down the chain. Iowa Code 572.33 provides that on commercial construction a person furnishing labour or materials to a SUBCONTRACTOR is not entitled to a lien unless that person gives the general contractor or owner-builder a one-time written notice containing their name, mailing address and telephone number and the name of the subcontractor they supplied, "within thirty days of first furnishing labor or materials for which a lien claim may be made", and then supports the lien claim with a certified statement that the notice was given. Additional work for the same subcontractor on the same project is covered by that single notice.

Commercial owners get a matching protection at 572.33A: an owner is not required to pay the general contractor for work done or material furnished until ninety days after completion unless the general contractor supplies signed receipts and waivers of lien claims from everyone who furnished material or performed labour, or a bond approved by the owner holding the owner harmless. Expect that ninety-day retention conversation on commercial jobs and plan cash flow around it.

Official sources: Iowa Code Chapter 572, Mechanic's Lien; Iowa Secretary of State Mechanics Liens

Before you post: what a bad lien costs you

A mechanic's lien is a serious instrument and Iowa penalises misuse of it specifically. Iowa Code 572.32(2) provides that in a court action challenging a lien posted on a residential construction property, a prevailing challenger may be awarded reasonable attorney fees and actual damages, and that where the court determines the lien "was posted in bad faith or the supporting affidavit was materially false", the court "shall award the owner reasonable attorney fees plus an amount not less than five hundred dollars or the amount of the lien, whichever is less".

The registry itself is not a referee. The Secretary of State states that its office "is a filing repository and does not determine the authority of a filer to make a submission", that it does not alter documents filed electronically, and that reliance on information on the site "is solely at your own risk". Iowa Code 572.34(4) provides that a person posting fictitious, forged or false information to the registry is subject to a penalty determined by rule, in addition to all other penalties and remedies available under law. A correction statement may be posted where a record is believed inaccurate or wrongly posted.

The practical sequence for an unpaid Iowa contractor is therefore: confirm the exact date of your last labour or material on the project, check the registry for the project and its registry number, verify that the notice of commencement and, if you are a subcontractor, your preliminary notice were actually posted, compute both the 572.9 posting deadline and the 572.27 enforcement deadline, and only then post a verified statement of account for an amount you can substantiate after all credits. Where the numbers are contested or the amount is large, take advice before posting rather than after.

Official sources: Iowa Code Chapter 572, Mechanic's Lien; Iowa Secretary of State Mechanics Liens; Iowa Mechanic's Notice and Lien Registry