Arizona mechanics lien and payment rules

Preliminary notices in Arizona

Subcontractors and suppliers on a private job in Arizona serve a preliminary 20-day notice within 20 days after your first day furnishing labor or materials. It is required. That is tighter than the 26-day middle of the states that set a fixed window, so it belongs on day one of the job.

A late notice covers only work furnished in the 20 days before it's served.

General contractors have their own step: preliminary 20-day notice within 20 days after your first day furnishing labor or materials, optional but recommended. Arizona's notice statute has been read to reach prime contractors too; many GCs serve one to be safe.

Lien filing deadline in Arizona

If the GC hired you, you have 120 days after completion of the project to record a mechanics lien in Arizona, about 30 days longer than the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 9 of the 51 jurisdictions we track use this same lien deadline.

60 days after a recorded notice of completion, if that is earlier.

Note what the clock counts from: completion of the project, not your own last day. A trade that finishes early may have more time than the number suggests, but the completion date is often unclear. The calculator uses your last furnishing date when you leave completion blank, which gives the earlier, safer date.

Deadline to sue on the lien

To keep the lien alive you must sue to enforce it within 6 months after recording the lien. If you record on the last possible day, that is about 302 days after your last day on the job, about 63 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 19 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 27 have a longer one.

Because the clock counts from recording, recording early also moves the lawsuit deadline earlier.

How Arizona 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.

Public and federal projects

Public property can't be liened, so subcontractors and suppliers on state and local public jobs in Arizona claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Arizona's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Ariz. Rev. Stat. §34-223. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.

Federal jobs in Arizona 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 Arizona

On public work the cap is 10%, above the 5% median of states that set one. Up to 10%, dropping to 5% once the work is 50% complete if progress is satisfactory. It also steps down partway through the job, so check that your pay applications reduce retainage when the project reaches the threshold.

Private work has a cap too: 10%. Up to 10%, dropping to 5% at 50% complete.

Once the GC is paid, it has 7 days on private work to pay its subs. Owner pays within 7 days of approving a pay request (approval within 14 days); GC pays subs within 7 days of receipt.

Late payments carry interest of 1.5% per month. That turns a slow payment into a number you can put in a demand letter.

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 concrete sub in Arizona

A concrete subcontractor hired by the GC on a private bank branch in Arizona starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Arizona's rules, those dates give:

The first deadline on the calendar is “Preliminary 20-day notice” on March 22, 2026, counted from the day the crew started, long before any payment is late.

3 dates land on a weekend (March 22, 2026, December 26, 2026, June 26, 2027). Not every state rolls a deadline to Monday, so the safe move is to record or serve by the Friday before.

Because Arizona counts from project completion (August 28), not the sub's last day (July 17), the lien deadline is later than a last-furnishing state would give.

Open the lien deadline calculator for Arizona 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 (AZ): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
• Retainage and prompt payment rules (AZ): 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

• Ariz. Rev. Stat. §33-981 to -1008
• Ariz. Rev. Stat. §34-223 (public bonds)
• Ariz. Rev. Stat. §34-221 (public)
• Ariz. Rev. Stat. §32-1129 to -1129.07 (private prompt pay)
• Federal work in Arizona: 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.