Preliminary notices in Alabama
Subcontractors and suppliers give a notice to owner before furnishing (full-price lien) before you start work. It is required only in some cases. Without it, a sub or supplier's lien is limited to what the owner still owes the GC.
Lien filing deadline in Alabama
If the GC hired you, you have 4 months after your last day furnishing labor or materials to record a mechanics lien in Alabama, about 32 days longer than the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 40 of the 51 jurisdictions we track have a shorter lien deadline and 7 have a longer one.
The clock starts on your last day furnishing labor or materials under your contract. In many states, warranty visits and punch list work done mainly to extend the deadline don't restart it, so use your last day of real contract work.
If you're the GC, in contract with the owner, you have 6 months after your last day furnishing labor or materials instead.
Deadline to sue on the lien
To keep the lien alive you must sue to enforce it within 6 months after your last day furnishing labor or materials. That comes to about 183 days after your last day on the job, about 182 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 6 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 39 have a longer one.
Alabama counts the suit deadline from last furnishing, not from recording, so recording late eats into the time left to sue.
Suit is due 6 months after the whole debt became due; last furnishing is used here as the earliest likely date.
How Alabama compares
Days are counted on a sample job with the lien recorded on its last allowed day, so states that count from recording or from completion can be compared with those that count from your last day on site. The median is across the jurisdictions with a dated rule on file.
- Record the lien (from last day)
- Alabama: 122 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Alabama: 183 daysNational median: 365 days
Public and federal projects
Public property can't be liened, so subcontractors and suppliers on state and local public jobs in Alabama claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Alabama's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Ala. Code §39-1-1. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Alabama follow the Miller Act instead of state law: those hired by a sub or supplier give the prime contractor notice within 90 days of their last furnishing, and suit is due within 1 year, in federal court. Prime contractors on federal work have no lien or bond claim.
Retainage and prompt payment in Alabama
On public work the cap is 5%, the most common cap among states that set one. Up to 5% of each estimate; none after the work is 50% complete. It also steps down partway through the job, so check that your pay applications reduce retainage when the project reaches the threshold.
On private work we have no statutory cap on file, so retainage is usually whatever the contract says. Read the retainage and release clauses before you sign.
Once the GC is paid, it has 7 days on private work to pay its subs. GC pays subs within 7 days of receiving payment.
Late payments carry interest of 1% per month. That turns a slow payment into a number you can put in a demand letter.
| Public work | Private work | Federal work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retainage cap | 5% | Verify | 10% |
| Release | With final payment. | Verify with state statute | Released with final payment, or earlier once progress is satisfactory. |
| GC pays subs within | Verify | 7 days | 7 days |
| Late-payment interest | Verify | 1% per month (12% a year) | Treasury prompt payment rate (reset every January and July) |
Not legal advice. Retainage and prompt payment rules differ by agency, contract size and contract date, and change often. Confirm the rules with the current statute, your contract and a construction attorney before relying on them.
Worked example: a drywall sub in Alabama
A drywall subcontractor hired by the GC on a private medical office building in Alabama starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Alabama's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Notice to owner before furnishing (full-price lien) | March 2, 2026 Verify | First furnishing |
| Record the lien | November 17, 2026 | Last furnishing |
| Sue to enforce the lien | January 17, 2027 WeekendVerify | Last furnishing |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Notice to owner before furnishing (full-price lien)” on March 2, 2026, counted from the day the crew started, long before any payment is late.
One date lands on a weekend (January 17, 2027). Not every state rolls a deadline to Monday, so the safe move is to record or serve by the Friday before.
Rows marked "Verify" depend on facts or readings we can't settle for you. Check them against Ala. Code §35-11-210 to -234.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Alabama and enter your own dates to get this table for your job, with countdowns and a PDF deadline calendar.
Check your own dates with the free tools
- Mechanics lien and notice deadline calculator (AL): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (AL): check your contract's retainage against the cap and work out late-payment interest.
- Schedule of values and pay application builder: bill each period with retainage calculated, so what you're owed is documented.
- Cash flow and retainage forecaster: see what slow payment and held retainage do to your bank balance.
Statutes cited
- Ala. Code §35-11-210 to -234
- Ala. Code §39-1-1 (public bonds)
- Ala. Code §39-2-12 (public)
- Ala. Code §8-29-1 to -8 (private prompt pay)
- Federal work in Alabama: 40 U.S.C. §3131 to §3134 (Miller Act)
Not legal advice. Lien and bond claim rules change and have exceptions for project type, contract terms and how notices are served. Confirm every deadline with the current statute or a construction attorney in the project's state before relying on it. Rules shown as "Verify with state statute" have exceptions or variations we could not reduce to one number.