Preliminary notices in the District of Columbia
The District of Columbia is one of the states with no general preliminary notice for subcontractors on commercial work in our summary. That doesn't mean you can skip paperwork: the lien itself still has a hard deadline, and the other notices below still apply.
Lien filing deadline in the District of Columbia
If the GC hired you, you have 90 days after completion of the project to record a mechanics lien in the District of Columbia, about the same as the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 23 of the 51 jurisdictions we track use this same lien deadline, which makes it the most common rule.
Any time during construction or within 90 days after the building or improvement is complete.
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.
Recording isn't the last step. Subcontractors and suppliers then serve notice of the lien on the owner (verify the timing with the statute).
Deadline to sue on the lien
To keep the lien alive you must sue to enforce it within 180 days after recording the lien. If you record on the last possible day, that is about 270 days after your last day on the job, about 95 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 11 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 34 have a longer one.
Because the clock counts from recording, recording early also moves the lawsuit deadline earlier.
How DC 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)
- District of Columbia: 90 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- District of Columbia: 270 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 the District of Columbia claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced the District's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is D.C. Code §2-201.01. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in the District of Columbia 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 the District of Columbia
We haven't reduced the District's retainage and prompt payment rules to single numbers yet: they depend on the agency, the contract size or the contract date. Rather than guess, the table shows "Verify" and the statutes to read are D.C. Code §2-221.01 to .06 (prompt pay). Your contract's payment terms still matter, and the federal rules below apply on federal work.
| Public work | Private work | Federal work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retainage cap | Verify | Verify | 10% |
| Release | Verify with state statute | Verify with state statute | Released with final payment, or earlier once progress is satisfactory. |
| GC pays subs within | Verify | Verify | 7 days |
| Late-payment interest | Verify | Verify | 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 masonry sub in the District of Columbia
A masonry subcontractor hired by the GC on a private distribution warehouse in the District of Columbia starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through the District's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Record the lien | November 26, 2026 | Project completion |
| Sue to enforce the lien | May 25, 2027 | Lien recording |
| Serve notice of the lien on the owner | Verify with state statute | No single date |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Record the lien” on November 26, 2026.
Rows marked "Verify" depend on facts or readings we can't settle for you, and rows without a date have no single number in the statute. Check them against D.C. Code §40-301.01 to -303.20.
Because the District of Columbia 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 DC 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 (DC): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (DC): 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
- D.C. Code §40-301.01 to -303.20
- D.C. Code §2-201.01 (public bonds)
- D.C. Code §2-221.01 to .06 (prompt pay)
- Federal work in the District: 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.