Preliminary notices in Nevada
Subcontractors and suppliers on a private job in Nevada serve a notice of right to lien within 31 days after your first day furnishing labor or materials. It is required. That is longer than most states that set a fixed window (the middle is about 26 days), but a late notice can still cost you.
Before recording, subcontractors and suppliers send a notice of intent to lien at least 15 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.
Lien filing deadline in Nevada
If the GC hired you, you have 90 days after your last day furnishing labor or materials to record a mechanics lien in Nevada, 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.
Counted from the later of project completion and your last work; 40 days after a recorded notice of completion, if earlier.
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 271 days after your last day on the job, about 94 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 14 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 32 have a longer one.
Because the clock counts from recording, recording early also moves the lawsuit deadline earlier.
How Nevada 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.
- Preliminary notice (from first day)
- Nevada: 31 daysNational median: 25.5 days
- Record the lien (from last day)
- Nevada: 90 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Nevada: 271 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 Nevada claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Nevada's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Nev. Rev. Stat. §339.015 to .065. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Nevada 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 Nevada
On public work the cap is 5%, the most common cap among states that set one. Up to 5% of each progress 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.
Once the GC is paid, it has 10 days on private work to pay its subs. Owner pays within 21 days of a pay request; GC pays subs within 10 days of receipt.
Late payments carry interest of prime rate plus 2% per year, a floating rate, so the calculator asks you for the current figure. 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 | After completion and acceptance. | Verify with state statute | Released with final payment, or earlier once progress is satisfactory. |
| GC pays subs within | Verify | 10 days | 7 days |
| Late-payment interest | Verify | Prime rate plus 2% per 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 painting sub in Nevada
A painting subcontractor hired by the GC on a private medical office building in Nevada starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Nevada's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of right to lien | April 2, 2026 | First furnishing |
| Residential notice of intent to lien (15 days before recording) | September 30, 2026 | The lien deadline |
| Record the lien | October 15, 2026 | Last furnishing |
| Sue to enforce the lien | April 15, 2027 | Lien recording |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Notice of right to lien” on April 2, 2026, counted from the day the crew started, long before any payment is late.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Nevada 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 (NV): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (NV): 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
- Nev. Rev. Stat. §108.221 to .246
- Nev. Rev. Stat. §339.015 to .065 (public bonds)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. §338.515 to .560 (public)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. §624.606 to .630 (private)
- Federal work in Nevada: 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.