Rhode Island Mechanic's Lien — R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4 Notice of Intention & the 40-Day Enforcement Guide (2026)
✓ Verified against Rhode Island statutes · Reviewed August 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Rhode Island mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
10 days — Notice of Intent
Mechanics Lien
200 days — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
40 days — From filing
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What Is the Rhode Island Lien Framework and How Does the Lien Workflow Operate?
Rhode Island's lien framework is R.I.G.L. chapter 34-28, built around a two-step, court-enforced sequence with an unusual rhythm: a long window to perfect the lien, then a very short window to sue on it. The workflow is: (1) within 200 days of last furnishing, perfect the lien by mailing a Notice of Intention to the owner (and any lessee or tenant) by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and recording a copy in the land evidence records of the city or town where the property lies, under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4; and (2) within 40 days of recording that notice of intention, commence the enforcement action by filing a complaint and recording a notice of lis pendens in the Superior Court, under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10, or the lien is void and wholly lost. On owner-contract and residential jobs, a general contractor also owes the owner a Notice of Possible Mechanic's Lien under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4.1 at the start of the work. Rhode Island is distinctive in three respects out-of-state contractors misjudge: the 40-day enforcement deadline (almost no other state requires the enforcement lawsuit within 40 days of perfecting); recording by municipality, not county (Rhode Island's 5 counties have no government and keep no records, so the notice of intention is filed with one of the state's 39 city or town clerks); and the 200-day coverage limit (the notice of intention reaches only work furnished in the 200 days before it is filed and thereafter).
Who Must File — and What the Notice of Intention Must Contain
Rhode Island extends lien rights to essentially everyone in the construction payment chain who improves real property with the owner's consent — general contractors, subcontractors at every tier, material suppliers, equipment lessors, and laborers — but each claimant must perfect and enforce its own claim. An original (general) contractor in a direct contract with the owner perfects by mailing and recording the R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4 notice of intention within 200 days and enforcing within 40 days, and on owner-contract and residential work also owes the owner the R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4.1 Notice of Possible Mechanic's Lien and (for most residential work) must be registered with the Rhode Island Contractors' Registration and Licensing Board under R.I.G.L. § 5-65-1 et seq. Every claimant not in privity with the owner perfects the same way — the notice of intention mailed to the owner by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and recorded in the city or town land evidence records within 200 days — and then must file the R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10 complaint and lis pendens within 40 days of recording. The notice of intention itself, under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4, states the claimant, the owner, a description of the property, and the amount claimed, in the statutory form, so it functions as both the perfecting notice and the account of what is owed.
The 200-Day Notice of Intention & the 40-Day Enforcement Action — Rhode Island's Perfection Path
Perfecting and keeping a Rhode Island mechanic's lien is a two-clock process, and the clocks run back to back. The first clock is the 200-day perfection window under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4: within 200 days of last furnishing, the claimant must both mail the notice of intention to the owner (and any lessee or tenant) by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and record a copy in the land evidence records of the city or town where the property lies. Both acts must occur inside the window, and the lien reaches only work furnished in the 200 days before filing and after. The second clock is the 40-day enforcement window under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10. Recording the notice of intention does not preserve the lien on its own. Within 40 days after recording, the claimant must commence a civil action to enforce the lien — filing a complaint and recording a notice of lis pendens in the Superior Court — or the lien becomes void and wholly lost. Because attaching real estate and recording a lis pendens implicate the owner's property, the current statute gives the owner a route to a prompt hearing and to discharge the lien by depositing cash or filing a bond, protections the Rhode Island Supreme Court effectively required in Gem Plumbing & Heating Co. v. Rossi, 867 A.2d 796 (R.I. 2004), when it struck down the prior statute for lacking a prompt post-attachment hearing.
The Notice of Intention, the 40-Day Deadline & What Rhode Island Requires
The Notice of Intention under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4 is both mailed to the owner and recorded in the city or town land evidence records within 200 days of last furnishing. The enforcement action under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10 — complaint plus lis pendens in the Superior Court — must follow within 40 days of recording, or the lien is void. Required items: a written notice of intention in the statutory form identifying the claimant, the owner, a description of the property, and the amount claimed; mailing to the owner (and any lessee or tenant) by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested; recording a copy in the land evidence records of the city or town where the property is located (Rhode Island keeps land records by municipality, not county); both the mailing and the recording within 200 days of last furnishing; the coverage limit that reaches only work in the 200 days before filing and after; the § 34-28-10 complaint and lis pendens in the Superior Court within 40 days of recording; and, on owner-contract or residential work, the § 34-28-4.1 Notice of Possible Mechanic's Lien to the owner. Both clocks are keyed to last furnishing — not the invoice date, a warranty call-back, or overall project completion. A notice of intention mailed but not recorded, a notice recorded in the wrong municipality, or a missed 40-day enforcement filing exposes the claimant to an unperfected lien, a lien on the wrong records, or a void lien.
The Owner's Right to a Prompt Hearing, Cash-or-Bond Discharge & Lien Waivers
Rhode Island gives owners stronger and faster relief than most states, and the reason is constitutional. In Gem Plumbing & Heating Co. v. Rossi, 867 A.2d 796 (R.I. 2004), the Rhode Island Supreme Court held the prior mechanic's lien statute violated due process because it let a lien encumber an owner's property without a prompt hearing. The legislature rebuilt the statute around a notice-and-hearing structure: the current chapter 34-28 gives the owner (or any party in interest) a route to force the claimant into court promptly and to obtain a hearing on whether the lien should stand, and it lets the owner deposit cash or file a bond with the Superior Court to discharge the lien from the real estate — the lien then attaches to the deposit or bond, freeing the land so a sale or refinance can close while the claim is litigated. For the owner, Rhode Island's own 40-day enforcement deadline is often the best defense: if the claimant does not file the R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10 complaint and lis pendens within 40 days of recording the notice of intention, the lien is void and title clears. On the waiver side, a Rhode Island contractor or subcontractor may give conditional and unconditional lien waivers in exchange for progress and final payments and should never sign an unconditional waiver before the corresponding payment has cleared.
Filing Fees and Where to Bring the Enforcement Action
A Rhode Island mechanic's lien has two cost centers. The first is recording the notice of intention in the city or town land evidence records, which carries a modest per-document recording fee that varies by municipality, plus the cost of registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the owner. The second and larger cost is the enforcement action: because R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10 requires a complaint and lis pendens in the Superior Court within 40 days, the litigation cost arrives almost immediately after perfecting, unlike states where a recorded claim sits for months before any suit. The enforcement complaint is filed in the Rhode Island Superior Court, which sits in Providence and in the Kent County (Warwick), Washington County (South Kingstown/Wakefield), and Newport County (Newport) divisions; Providence and Bristol County matters are heard at the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence. That means a civil filing fee, service costs, the cost of recording the lis pendens, and attorney time to prepare and file the complaint within the 40-day window. A contested lien — where the owner moves for a prompt hearing or to discharge the lien by cash or bond — or a priority fight with a construction lender can run several thousand dollars. Confirming the correct city or town land evidence office before recording, and the correct Superior Court division before filing, and that the 40-day enforcement deadline is calendared from the recording date, are the most important intake steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you file a mechanic's lien in Rhode Island?
Rhode Island uses a two-step, court-enforced process under R.I.G.L. chapter 34-28. Step one is the Notice of Intention under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4: within 200 days after you last performed work or last furnished materials, you both mail the notice of intention to the owner (and any lessee or tenant) by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and file a copy in the land evidence records of the city or town where the property is located. Because Rhode Island has no functioning county governments, the land evidence records are kept by each of the state's 39 cities and towns, not by a county recorder, so you record where the property physically sits. Step two — and this is the deadline most claimants miss — is enforcement under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10: you must file a complaint to enforce the lien and record a notice of lis pendens in the Superior Court within 40 days after you record the notice of intention, or the lien is void and wholly lost. There is no long ripening period; the 40-day enforcement clock starts the moment you perfect. The notice of intention also perfects the lien only as to work or materials furnished within the 200 days before filing and thereafter, so a claimant on a long project must file to capture its work.
What is the deadline for a Rhode Island Notice of Intention?
The Notice of Intention deadline under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4 is 200 days, measured from the claimant's last day of work or last furnishing of materials — not the invoice date, a warranty call-back, or overall project completion. Within those 200 days the claimant must do two things: mail the notice of intention to the owner (and any lessee or tenant) by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and file a copy of that notice in the land evidence records of the city or town where the land is located. Both the mailing and the recording must happen inside the 200-day window; doing only one is not enough. Rhode Island's 200-day window is one of the longer perfection windows in the country, which lulls some claimants into treating the lien as leisurely — but it is followed immediately by a very short enforcement deadline under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10, so the real time pressure comes after the notice of intention is recorded, not before. The notice of intention perfects the lien only as to work done or materials furnished during the 200 days before filing and thereafter, not earlier, so on a long-running project the claimant should not wait until the very end to file if older work would otherwise fall outside the window.
What is the 40-day rule in Rhode Island mechanic's lien law?
The 40-day rule is Rhode Island's signature trap and the deadline that kills more Rhode Island liens than any other. Under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10, after a claimant records its notice of intention it must commence the enforcement action — by filing a complaint to enforce the lien and recording a notice of lis pendens in the Superior Court — within 40 days after recording the notice of intention. Miss that 40-day window and the lien is void and wholly lost, no matter how valid the underlying debt or how carefully the notice of intention was prepared. This is what makes Rhode Island so different from states where a recorded claim of lien sits on the land records for six months or a year before a separate foreclosure suit is even required: in Rhode Island the enforcement lawsuit is not a distant follow-up step, it is due almost immediately after perfecting. A claimant that records a picture-perfect notice of intention and then waits, expecting a long enforcement runway, will find the lien gone at day 41. Because the 40 days run from recording the notice of intention, the claimant should have counsel and the complaint essentially ready before it records, not after.
Where do you record a Rhode Island mechanic's lien notice of intention?
You record the notice of intention in the land evidence records of the city or town where the property is located — with the local city or town clerk or recorder of deeds — not with a county office. This surprises out-of-state contractors, because Rhode Island is one of the few states with no functioning county governments: it is divided into 5 counties (Providence, Kent, Washington, Bristol, and Newport) for judicial and geographic purposes, but those counties have no administrative offices and keep no land records. Instead, each of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns maintains its own land evidence records, and that is where the notice of intention under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4 is filed. So a claimant on a Providence project records with the City of Providence, one in Warwick records with the City of Warwick, and one in a small town records with that town's clerk. Recording in the wrong municipality — or assuming a county recorder exists — wastes days a Rhode Island claimant cannot spare, given the 200-day perfection window and the 40-day enforcement window that follows. The enforcement action itself, by contrast, is filed in the Superior Court, which sits in Providence and in the Kent, Washington, and Newport County divisions.
Does a Rhode Island contractor have to give the owner a pre-lien notice?
Yes, on owner-contract and residential work there are pre-work notice obligations separate from the notice of intention. Under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4.1, a general contractor must give the owner a Notice of Possible Mechanic's Lien — a statutory notice, in the form the statute prescribes, that tells the owner people who furnish labor or materials may claim a lien — either incorporated into the written contract or sent to the owner by certified mail, return receipt requested. This is a warning notice to the owner about the lien system, given at or near the start of the job, and it is distinct from the notice of intention a claimant later records to perfect its own lien. Separately, most residential contractors must be registered with the Rhode Island Contractors' Registration and Licensing Board under R.I.G.L. § 5-65-1 et seq., and the contractors' registration law (R.I.G.L. § 5-65-3 and § 5-65-18) requires that owners receive certain notices and lien-rights information in connection with residential work. A subcontractor or supplier perfects its own lien through the R.I.G.L. § 34-28-4 notice of intention; the § 34-28-4.1 notice is the general contractor's obligation to the owner.
Can a Rhode Island owner remove a mechanic's lien from the property?
Yes, and Rhode Island gives owners more tools than most states, largely because the current statute was rebuilt after the Rhode Island Supreme Court held the old lien law unconstitutional in Gem Plumbing & Heating Co. v. Rossi, 867 A.2d 796 (R.I. 2004), for failing to give owners a prompt hearing. Two paths matter. First, an owner (or any party in interest) can deposit cash or file a bond with the Superior Court to discharge the lien from the real estate — the lien then attaches to the deposit or bond instead of the land, which lets a sale or refinance close while the claim is litigated. Second, the current statute provides a mechanism for the owner to force the claimant into court promptly and for the court to hold a hearing on whether the lien should stand. In practice, the owner's strongest ally is Rhode Island's own 40-day enforcement deadline under R.I.G.L. § 34-28-10: if the claimant does not file the enforcement complaint and lis pendens within 40 days of recording the notice of intention, the lien is void and the owner can clear title. An owner facing a Rhode Island lien should calendar that 40-day date and consider a cash or bond discharge if a closing cannot wait.
How does Rhode Island handle public projects and federal projects?
No mechanic's lien attaches to public property in Rhode Island. On state and municipal public construction, Rhode Island's Little Miller Act at R.I.G.L. § 37-12-1 et seq. requires the prime contractor to furnish a payment bond, so an unpaid subcontractor or supplier pursues a claim against that public-works payment bond — on its own notice and suit deadlines — rather than recording a notice of intention against public land, which would be void. On federal projects — and Rhode Island's federal footprint includes Naval Station Newport, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport (NUWC) in Newport, and the Providence VA Medical Center — the federal Miller Act at 40 U.S.C. § 3131 et seq. governs, requiring payment bonds on federal construction contracts over $100,000 and giving unpaid subcontractors and suppliers a bond claim on their own 90-day notice and one-year suit timing. A claimant on a public or federal job should pursue the applicable payment bond, not a void lien against public land, and should calendar the bond-claim deadlines, which differ from the private-project 200-day notice-of-intention and 40-day enforcement timeline under R.I.G.L. chapter 34-28.