Preliminary notices in Massachusetts
Massachusetts 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.
If you were hired by another subcontractor or supplier rather than the GC, add a notice of identification within 30 days after your first day furnishing labor or materials, required only in some cases. Lower-tier claimants, when the owner recorded a notice of contract.
There is one more step: GCs, subcontractors and suppliers must record the statement of account within 120 days after your last day furnishing labor or materials. It is required. Verify the details with the statute.
Lien filing deadline in Massachusetts
If the GC hired you, you have 90 days after your last day furnishing labor or materials to record the notice of contract in Massachusetts, 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.
Record a notice of contract no later than the earliest of 90 days after a notice of substantial completion, 120 days after a notice of termination, or 90 days after last furnishing.
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
To keep the lien alive you must sue to enforce it within 90 days after recording the lien. If you record on the last possible day, that is about 180 days after your last day on the job, about 185 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 2 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 42 have a longer one.
Because the clock counts from recording, recording early also moves the lawsuit deadline earlier.
Counted from the statement of account; record a copy of the complaint within 30 days of filing it.
How Massachusetts 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)
- Massachusetts: 90 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Massachusetts: 180 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 Massachusetts claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Massachusetts's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149 §29. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts
On public work the cap is 5%, the most common cap among states that set one. Up to 5% of each progress payment.
Private work has a cap too: 5%. Up to 5% on private projects of $3 million or more.
| Public work | Private work | Federal work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retainage cap | 5% | 5% | 10% |
| Release | After substantial completion, with a punch list holdback. | Per the contract after substantial completion. | 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 steel sub in Massachusetts
A steel subcontractor hired by the GC on a private medical office building in Massachusetts starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Massachusetts's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Record the notice of contract | October 15, 2026 | Last furnishing |
| Record the statement of account | November 14, 2026 WeekendVerify | Last furnishing |
| Sue to enforce the lien | January 13, 2027 | Lien recording |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Record the notice of contract” on October 15, 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. Check them against Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 254.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Massachusetts 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 (MA): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (MA): 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
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 254
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149 §29 (public bonds)
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 30 §39G and ch. 149 §44J (public)
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149 §29E (private)
- Federal work in Massachusetts: 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.