Georgia Notice to Contractor & Materialman's Lien — Clerk of Superior Court Filing Guide (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-14-361.5 / 44-14-361.1 / 44-14-368, 2026)
✓ Verified against Georgia statutes · Reviewed August 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Georgia mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
30 days after NOC — Notice to Contractor
Mechanics Lien
90 days — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
1 year — From filing
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What Is the Georgia Notice to Contractor and When Is It Actually Required?
The Georgia Notice to Contractor is the preliminary notice a claimant sends to preserve lien rights on a project where the owner has put a Notice of Commencement on record. It is easy to confuse with the Notice of Commencement itself, and the two documents move in opposite directions. The Georgia Notice of Commencement is filed by the OWNER or the owner's agent, goes into the real property records, and announces the project to the world. The Notice to Contractor is sent by the CLAIMANT, is never recorded, and announces the claimant to the owner and the contractor. The structural feature that separates Georgia from most preliminary-notice states is that the obligation is conditional. O.C.G.A. § 44-14-361.5 reaches a claimant only on a project 'on which there has been filed with the clerk of the superior court a notice of commencement.' In California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, a preliminary notice is owed on effectively every private job, and the claimant's calendar is the only thing that matters. In Georgia, the owner's filing decision creates the claimant's burden. If the owner never filed a Notice of Commencement, a claimant without privity owes no preliminary notice at all and preserves its lien simply by filing the claim of lien within 90 days of last furnishing. That conditionality is a gift and a trap in equal measure. The gift is that a substantial share of Georgia projects carry no Notice of Commencement. The trap is that the claimant cannot know which situation it is in without checking the clerk of superior court records in the county where the property is located and the jobsite itself, since the Notice of Commencement must also be posted at the site.
Who Must Send the Notice to Contractor and Who Holds Georgia Lien Rights?
The statute reaches 'any person having a right to a lien who does not have privity of contract with the contractor.' Privity with the contractor is the dividing line, and it is not the same line other states draw. Most preliminary-notice states ask whether the claimant is in privity with the OWNER. Georgia asks whether the claimant is in privity with the CONTRACTOR. A first-tier subcontractor that signed its subcontract directly with the general contractor named in the Notice of Commencement is in privity with the contractor and generally falls outside the notice requirement. A sub-subcontractor, or a supplier selling to a subcontractor rather than to the GC, is not in privity with the contractor and owes the notice. That distinction produces a specific edge case. On projects delivered through a construction manager, a multi-prime structure, or a developer affiliate that holds the trade contracts, the entity a claimant contracted with may not be the 'contractor' identified in the recorded Notice of Commencement. A claimant that assumes it is a first-tier sub in privity with the contractor, when the recorded document names a different entity as contractor, can find itself outside the privity safe harbor and inside the notice requirement. Reading the recorded Notice of Commencement, rather than reasoning from the subcontract alone, is what resolves it.
When the Notice to Contractor and Claim of Lien Are Due
The notice is due within 30 days from the filing of the Notice of Commencement, or 30 days following the first delivery of labor, services, or materials to the property, whichever is LATER. Both triggers must be calendared on every project, because either one can be the operative date depending on sequence. A supplier whose first delivery was in March, on a job where the owner filed the Notice of Commencement in May, has until roughly mid-June — the March delivery did not start a clock that expired in April. A subcontractor mobilizing in September onto a job where the Notice of Commencement was filed the prior January has 30 days from its September first delivery. Georgia forfeiture is total rather than partial. Unlike Texas, where the monthly notice structure means a missed month costs only that month, a Georgia claimant that misses the 30-day Notice to Contractor on a project with a filed Notice of Commencement cannot make good the lien at all. The claim of lien then runs on its own track under § 44-14-361.1(a)(2): filed with the clerk of the superior court in the county where the property is located within 90 days after completion of the work or the furnishing of the materials. Georgia measures from LAST furnishing, and warranty callbacks, punch-list corrections, and remedial visits generally do not restart the 90 days. No later than two business days after the claim of lien is filed of record, the claimant must send a true and accurate copy to the owner or the contractor by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery — one of the shortest post-filing service windows in the country.
Required Information on the Georgia Notice to Contractor
O.C.G.A. § 44-14-361.5(c) prescribes what the notice must say and how it must travel. Four content elements are mandatory: the name, address, and telephone number of the person providing the labor, services, or materials; the name and address of each person at whose instance the labor, services, or materials are being furnished; the name of the project and location of the project as set forth in the Notice of Commencement; and a description of the labor, services, or materials being provided, with the contract price or anticipated value if known. The third element creates a hard dependency: the notice must state the name and location of the project as set forth in the Notice of Commencement, which means the claimant cannot draft a compliant notice without first obtaining the recorded Notice of Commencement from the clerk of the superior court. A notice that identifies the job by street address or internal project code, when the recorded instrument names it differently, hands the owner a defect argument. The same recorded document also supplies the owner and contractor addresses the notice must be sent to.
How to Send the Notice and Where to File the Claim of Lien
The Notice to Contractor is sent, not recorded. Transmission must be by registered or certified mail or by statutory overnight delivery — a defined Georgia term for a commercial overnight carrier providing a receipt or delivery confirmation. Email, ordinary first-class mail, fax, and unreceipted hand delivery are not compliant. Because nothing about this notice enters the public record, the certified mail receipt or carrier confirmation is the claimant's entire proof of compliance, and it must reach both the owner or owner's agent and the contractor. A notice that reaches only one of the two does not satisfy the statute. The claim of lien, by contrast, is filed with the clerk of the superior court in the county where the property is located and enters the real property records. Georgia has 159 counties — more than any state except Texas — and there is no statewide construction lien registry, so both the Notice of Commencement search and the lien filing happen county by county. The highest-volume Georgia superior court clerk offices for construction lien filings are Fulton County (Atlanta), Gwinnett County (Lawrenceville), Cobb County (Marietta), DeKalb County (Decatur), Chatham County (Savannah), Clayton County (Jonesboro), Cherokee County (Canton), Forsyth County (Cumming), Henry County (McDonough), Richmond County (Augusta), Muscogee County (Columbus), Bibb County (Macon), Hall County (Gainesville), Houston County (Perry), Paulding County (Dallas), Douglas County (Douglasville), Coweta County (Newnan), Fayette County (Fayetteville), Newton County (Covington), and Bartow County (Cartersville).
Enforcement, the Notice of Contest, and Releasing the Lien
Georgia's enforcement sequence has two steps where most states have one. Under § 44-14-361.1(a)(3), the claimant must commence a lien action within 365 days from the date the claim of lien was filed for record. Then, under § 44-14-361.1(a)(4), the claimant must file a notice of commencement of lien action with the clerk of the superior court in the county where the lien was filed within 30 days after commencing that action. This second step has no analogue in most jurisdictions and it is the quietest way to lose a Georgia lien: the claimant sued on time, did everything substantively right, and then never filed the follow-up notice. The 365-day window is also not reliably available. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-368, an owner, contractor, or other interested party may file a Notice of Contest of Lien with the clerk of the superior court where the lien was filed, and must send a copy to the claimant at the address shown on the claim of lien within seven days of recording. Where registered or certified mail is used, service is complete upon deposit in the mail — not upon receipt. From service, the claimant has 60 days to commence the lien action, and the lien expires and becomes void if it does not. Owners have a second counter-move: discharging the lien by bond under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-364, which substitutes a surety bond for the property as the security and clears title while the payment dispute proceeds.
How to Find a Recorded Georgia Notice of Commencement or Claim of Lien
Subcontractors, suppliers, title companies, lenders, and prospective buyers locate Georgia construction records by searching the real property records of the clerk of the superior court in the county where the property sits. Georgia is unusual in offering a genuinely useful statewide entry point: the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority operates a consolidated real estate index at gsccca.org that covers deed and lien records across the counties, which substantially reduces the county-by-county burden that claimants face in Texas or Ohio. Individual clerk offices — Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, DeKalb, and Chatham among the highest volume — also publish their own search interfaces. For a claimant without privity, running this search at the start of the job is not housekeeping — it is the step that determines whether a preliminary notice is owed at all. The search answers the threshold question, supplies the filing date that may control the 30-day deadline, and produces the project name, project location, owner address, and contractor address that the notice must use and be sent to. It also reveals whether a payment bond has been recorded against the project. Check the jobsite as well, since the Notice of Commencement must be posted there, but do not treat the absence of a posting as proof that nothing was filed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who must send a Georgia Notice to Contractor and when is it due?
Under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-361.5, any person with a right to a lien who does not have privity of contract with the contractor — lower-tier subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and material suppliers furnishing to a subcontractor — must send the notice on any project where a Notice of Commencement has been filed with the clerk of superior court. The deadline is 30 days from the filing of the Notice of Commencement or 30 days following first delivery of labor, services, or materials, whichever is later. It goes to the owner or owner's agent AND the contractor, at the addresses in the Notice of Commencement, by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery.
Is a Notice to Contractor required if no Notice of Commencement was filed?
No. The obligation attaches only to a project 'on which there has been filed with the clerk of the superior court a notice of commencement.' If the owner never filed one, a claimant without privity owes no preliminary notice and preserves lien rights by filing the claim of lien within 90 days. This is the reverse of California, Arizona, and Florida, where a preliminary notice is owed on nearly every private job. The risk is that the claimant cannot know which situation it is in without checking — search the clerk of superior court records in the county where the property sits, and check the jobsite, since the Notice of Commencement must be posted there.
What information must a Georgia Notice to Contractor contain?
Section 44-14-361.5(c) requires four elements: the name, address, and telephone number of the person providing the labor, services, or materials; the name and address of each person at whose instance they are being furnished; the name and location of the project as set forth in the Notice of Commencement; and a description of the labor, services, or materials with the contract price or anticipated value if known. The third element creates a hard dependency — the claimant must obtain the recorded Notice of Commencement before drafting, because the project must be identified the way that document identifies it, and the same document supplies the addresses for service.
How must the Georgia Notice to Contractor be delivered?
By registered or certified mail or by statutory overnight delivery, addressed to the owner or the owner's agent and to the contractor at the addresses set forth in the Notice of Commencement. Ordinary first-class mail, email, fax, and unreceipted hand delivery are not compliant methods. Because the notice is sent rather than recorded, nothing about it enters the public record — the certified mail receipt or carrier delivery confirmation is the claimant's entire proof of compliance. Sending to only one of the two required recipients is a common and fatal defect.
When must a Georgia claim of lien be filed?
Under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-361.1(a)(2), within 90 days after completion of the work or the furnishing of the materials, with the clerk of the superior court in the county where the property is located. Georgia measures from last furnishing, and warranty work, punch-list corrections, and remedial visits generally do not restart the clock. No later than two business days after the claim of lien is filed of record, the claimant must send a true and accurate copy to the owner or the contractor by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery — one of the shortest post-filing service windows in the country.
How long does a Georgia claimant have to sue on the lien?
Under § 44-14-361.1(a)(3), the lien action must be commenced within 365 days from the date the claim of lien was filed for record. Section 44-14-361.1(a)(4) then requires the claimant to file a notice of commencement of lien action with the clerk of the superior court within 30 days after commencing that action. That second step has no analogue in most states and is the quietest way to lose a Georgia lien — the claimant sued on time and then never filed the follow-up notice. Both steps are mandatory.
Can a Georgia owner shorten the time to enforce a lien?
Yes. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-368, an owner, contractor, or other interested party may file a Notice of Contest of Lien with the clerk of superior court where the lien was filed and send a copy to the claimant at the address on the claim of lien within seven days of recording. Where registered or certified mail is used, service is complete on deposit in the mail rather than on receipt. From service the claimant has only 60 days to commence the lien action, or the lien expires and becomes void. The address a claimant writes on its own claim of lien therefore becomes an address it must actively monitor.