Preliminary notices in Missouri
Missouri 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.
Before recording, subcontractors and suppliers send a notice of intent to lien at least 10 days before the last day to record the lien. Because it counts back from the deadline, waiting until the last week can leave you too late to record at all.
General contractors have their own step: residential notice to owner in the contract before you start work, required only in some cases. Residential work: statutory notice before or with the contract.
Lien filing deadline in Missouri
If the GC hired you, you have 6 months after your last day furnishing labor or materials to record a mechanics lien in Missouri, about 93 days longer than the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 45 of the 51 jurisdictions we track have a shorter lien deadline and 2 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.
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 365 days after your last day on the job, about the same as the national median of 365 days. 23 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 22 have a longer one.
Because the clock counts from recording, recording early also moves the lawsuit deadline earlier.
How Missouri 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)
- Missouri: 183 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Missouri: 365 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 Missouri claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Missouri's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Mo. Rev. Stat. §107.170. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Missouri 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 Missouri
On public work the cap is 5%, the most common cap among states that set one. Up to 5% of each payment.
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.
Late payments carry interest of 1.5% 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 after completion. | 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 | 1.5% per month (18% 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 roofing sub in Missouri
A roofing subcontractor hired by the GC on a private restaurant fit-out in Missouri starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Missouri's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of intent to lien (10 days before recording) | January 7, 2027 | The lien deadline |
| Record the lien | January 17, 2027 Weekend | Last furnishing |
| Sue to enforce the lien | July 17, 2027 Weekend | Lien recording |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Notice of intent to lien (10 days before recording)” on January 7, 2027.
2 dates land on a weekend (January 17, 2027, July 17, 2027). Not every state rolls a deadline to Monday, so the safe move is to record or serve by the Friday before.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Missouri 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 (MO): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (MO): 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
- Mo. Rev. Stat. §429.010 to .360
- Mo. Rev. Stat. §107.170 (public bonds)
- Mo. Rev. Stat. §34.057 (public)
- Mo. Rev. Stat. §431.180 (private)
- Federal work in Missouri: 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.