Preliminary notices in Maryland
Maryland 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.
There is one more step: subcontractors and suppliers give a notice of intent to claim a lien within 120 days after your last day furnishing labor or materials. It is required.
Lien filing deadline in Maryland
If the GC hired you, you have 180 days after your last day furnishing labor or materials to file the petition to establish the lien in Maryland, about 90 days longer than the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 44 of the 51 jurisdictions we track have a shorter lien deadline and 6 have a longer one.
A petition to establish the lien, filed in circuit court.
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.
Deadline to sue on the lien
A lien that isn't enforced in time expires. For Maryland we don't show one date: once the court establishes the lien, suit to enforce is due within 1 year. Verify with the statute.
How Maryland 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)
- Maryland: 180 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Maryland: No single number: verify with state statuteNational median: 365 days
Public and federal projects
Public property can't be liened, so subcontractors and suppliers on state and local public jobs in Maryland claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Maryland's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Md. Code, State Fin. & Proc. §17-101 to -111. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Maryland 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 Maryland
We haven't reduced Maryland'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 Md. Code, State Fin. & Proc. §15-226 (public); Md. Code, Real Prop. §9-301 to -304 (private). 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 framing sub in Maryland
A framing subcontractor hired by the GC on a private apartment building in Maryland starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Maryland's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of intent to claim a lien | November 14, 2026 Weekend | Last furnishing |
| File the petition to establish the lien | January 13, 2027 | Last furnishing |
| Sue to enforce the lien | Verify with state statute | No single date |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Notice of intent to claim a lien” on November 14, 2026.
One date lands on a weekend (November 14, 2026). 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, and rows without a date have no single number in the statute. Check them against Md. Code, Real Prop. §9-101 to -114.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Maryland 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 (MD): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (MD): 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
- Md. Code, Real Prop. §9-101 to -114
- Md. Code, State Fin. & Proc. §17-101 to -111 (public bonds)
- Md. Code, State Fin. & Proc. §15-226 (public)
- Md. Code, Real Prop. §9-301 to -304 (private)
- Federal work in Maryland: 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.