Ohio Mechanics Lien (Subcontractor)

A subcontractor on an Ohio project has no contract with the owner, yet Ohio law gives that subcontractor a lien on the owner's land for unpaid labor, work, or material. This Ohio affidavit for mechanics' lien, prepared for a subcontractor as the lien claimant, is the sworn instrument that perfects that lien under Ohio Revised Code Section 1311.06. It is filed with the county recorder where the improved property sits and carries one fixed recital: the claimant is a subcontractor as defined in Section 1311.01(D), a person who undertook part of the improvement under a contract with someone other than the owner, part owner, or lessee.

A lien that reaches past the contracting party

Section 1311.02 gives every subcontractor who furnishes labor, work, or material to an original contractor or another subcontractor a lien upon the improvement and the owner's interest in the land or leasehold. The lien is a claim against the property itself, and under Section 1311.15(A) it is superior to any lien the original contractor takes for the same work.

Because the subcontractor stands one step removed from the owner, Chapter 1311 ties its lien rights to two notices: the owner's notice of commencement under Section 1311.04 and the subcontractor's notice of furnishing under Section 1311.05, served within twenty-one days after first furnishing labor or material where a notice of commencement is on record, with exceptions for direct privity with the original contractor, a project with no recorded notice of commencement, and a home construction contract. The guide walks through each, and through the home construction limits of Section 1311.011.

What the affidavit swears to

Section 1311.06(A) lists the contents: the amount due over and above all legal setoffs, a description of the property, the name and address of the person to or for whom the labor or work was performed or material was furnished, the name of the owner, part owner, or lessee, the name and address of the lien claimant, and the first and last dates of labor or material. The form collects each in numbered sections and then, in the words of the statutory form in Section 1311.06(C), claims a lien on the land, building, or leasehold for the sum stated.

Sixty days or seventy-five days from the last work

The filing window runs from the claimant's last labor, work, or material: sixty days for a one- or two-family dwelling or a residential condominium unit, one hundred twenty days for an oil or gas well lien, and seventy-five days for every other improvement. The lien then continues for six years under Section 1311.13(C). Within thirty days after filing, Section 1311.07 requires a copy of the affidavit to be served on the owner, part owner, or lessee by a method Section 1311.19 lists.

One affiant, one jurat, a subcontractor claimant

The form is set up for exactly one lien claimant that is a subcontractor and one affiant who swears to the affidavit: the subcontractor personally where it is an individual, or an officer, member, or other agent of a subcontractor that is a company, whose capacity the form records as a factual entry, since Section 1311.06(A) allows the affidavit to be made by the claimant or the claimant's agent. The affidavit carries one signature block and one jurat certificate, the sworn-to-and-subscribed certificate of Section 147.542(C)(3)(b), rather than an acknowledgment. An electrical subcontractor working under a general contractor, or a framing crew engaged by a higher-tier subcontractor, presents the pattern this affidavit recites. An original contractor's claim, a material supplier's claim, a laborer's wage claim, and a claim against a public improvement each follow a different pattern under the chapter, and the form is not set up as any of them.

Built for the Ohio recorder

The affidavit follows the standard format of Section 317.114, with a three-inch blank top margin on the first page for the recorder's indorsement, and carries the preparer's name Section 317.111 requires on an instrument creating a lien. Recording fees under Sections 317.32 and 317.36 are thirty-four dollars for the first two pages and eight dollars for each additional page, before any county surcharge.

The package includes the fillable affidavit, a completed example for a Franklin County commercial project, and the guide that walks through each section, the notice of furnishing, the filing deadlines, service on the owner, and release after payment. The description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.