Michigan Mechanics Lien (Claim of Lien)

Michigan counts a construction lien in days furnished, and then it stops counting. The right of a contractor, subcontractor, laborer, or supplier to a construction lien ceases to exist, MCL 570.1111(1) provides, unless a claim of lien is recorded within 90 days after that claimant's last furnishing of labor or material, with the register of deeds for each county where the improved real property is located. The lien came from the work; this recorded instrument, the one usually searched for as a Michigan mechanics lien, is what keeps that lien from lapsing.

A form the statute itself prints

Section 111 of the act, MCL 570.1111(2), provides that a claim of lien is to be in substantially the form it sets out, and this form follows that exemplar entry for entry: the lien claimant and address, the day labor or material was first provided, the legal description taken from the notice of commencement, the owner or lessee named in that same notice, the last day of providing labor or material, the contract amount including extras, the payment received, and the amount of the lien claimed. Pulling the description from the notice of commencement is what keeps the recorded claim and that notice pointing at one parcel, and MCL 570.1111(1) adds that a claim of lien is valid only as to property described in it and located in the recording county.

Three money entries, one calculation

The amount lines are not a demand figure. MCL 570.1107(1) caps a construction lien at the amount of the claimant's contract less payments made on the contract, so the contract amount including extras, the payment received, and the lien claimed sit on the face of the instrument in that order, and the third follows from the first two. The last furnishing date carries its own weight: Michigan reads the 90 days exactly, as the Supreme Court held in Northern Concrete Pipe, Inc v Sinacola Companies-Midwest, Inc, 461 Mich 316 (1999).

Recording is the middle of the sequence

MCL 570.1111(5) starts a second clock at the recording date: within 15 days, a copy of the claim of lien, with a copy of any proof of service recorded with it, goes to the designee named in the notice of commencement, personally or by certified mail with return receipt requested, and to the owner or lessee where no designee was named or the designee has died. Service by certified mail is complete on mailing. MCL 570.1112 makes the recording constructive notice, and MCL 570.1117(1) allows one year from that date for proceedings to enforce the lien and foreclose the interests subject to it.

Sworn, then recorded

The statutory exemplar closes with the words subscribed and sworn to before me, so the certificate here is a jurat rather than an acknowledgment, and the Michigan Law on Notarial Acts, MCL 55.261 to 55.315, supplies its content, including the county of commission and the county of the act under MCL 55.287. The page answers to MCL 565.201: a first line naming the recordable event, 2 1/2 inches clear at the top of page one, 10 point print in black ink on white paper, the signer's name printed beneath the signature, and the drafter's name and business address. MCL 600.2567(1)(a) sets the fee at $30.00 for a document regardless of page count.

How this claim of lien is set up

The form recites one lien claimant, with one signature block headed LIEN CLAIMANT and one jurat certificate for that signer, and it preprints no role, because a contractor, a subcontractor, a supplier, and a laborer all record under the same section. A subcontractor closing out a mechanical scope on a commercial building, a supplier whose final delivery fixed the last furnishing date, and a trade contractor left holding retainage each present the single claimant pattern this instrument recites, with the statutory laborer block left blank by a claimant who is not a laborer. Two shapes sit outside it: a claim prepared by an agent for several laborers under MCL 570.1111(6), and an assigned claim, which MCL 570.1111(3) has state that the construction lien having been assigned, the claim is made by the named assignee.

The package holds the fillable claim of lien form, a completed example filled out for an Oakland County commercial project, and a guide covering the statute, the entries, the jurat, and recording. The material is informational and is not legal advice.