Preliminary notices in Oregon
Subcontractors in Oregon have no general preliminary notice in our summary, but material and equipment suppliers do: a notice of right to lien within 8 business days after your first day furnishing labor or materials. Material and equipment suppliers: 8 business days after first delivery.
Lien filing deadline in Oregon
If the GC hired you, you have 75 days after your last day furnishing labor or materials to record a mechanics lien in Oregon, about 15 days shorter than the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 3 of the 51 jurisdictions we track have a shorter lien deadline and 46 have a longer one.
Or 75 days after construction is complete, whichever is 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.
Recording isn't the last step. GCs, subcontractors and suppliers then send notice of the lien to the owner within 20 days after recording the lien.
Deadline to sue on the lien
To keep the lien alive you must sue to enforce it within 120 days after recording the lien. If you record on the last possible day, that is about 195 days after your last day on the job, about 170 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 9 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 38 have a longer one.
Because the clock counts from recording, recording early also moves the lawsuit deadline earlier.
How Oregon 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)
- Oregon: 75 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Oregon: 195 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 Oregon claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Oregon's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Or. Rev. Stat. §279C.600 to .625. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Oregon 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 Oregon
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.
| 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 | 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 HVAC sub in Oregon
A HVAC subcontractor hired by the GC on a private bank branch in Oregon starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Oregon's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Record the lien | September 30, 2026 | Last furnishing |
| Send notice of the lien to the owner | October 20, 2026 | Lien recording |
| Sue to enforce the lien | January 28, 2027 | Lien recording |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Record the lien” on September 30, 2026.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Oregon 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 (OR): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (OR): 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
- Or. Rev. Stat. §87.001 to .093
- Or. Rev. Stat. §279C.600 to .625 (public bonds)
- Or. Rev. Stat. §279C.555 to .570 (public)
- Or. Rev. Stat. §701.620 to .640 (private)
- Federal work in Oregon: 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.