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Tennessee · State-Specific

Tennessee Mechanic's Lien Template

Built for Tennessee statute. File before your state's filing deadline expires.

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Tennessee Mechanic's Lien Rules

Filing Deadline

Prime contractors: lien arises by operation of law at commencement of work and continues for 1 year after project completion/abandonment, but to preserve priority against subsequent purchasers/encumbrancers a Notice of Lien should be recorded within 90 days of completion or abandonment. Remote contractors (subs/suppliers): MUST record a Notice of Lien within 90 days after the project is completed or abandoned, AND must commence suit within 90 days after recording (Tenn. Code Ann. 66-11-112, 66-11-115, 66-11-126).

Clock starts: Date the entire project (improvement) is completed or abandoned — NOT the claimant's last day on the job. If owner records a Notice of Completion under 66-11-143, the deadline shortens dramatically.

Where to Record

County Register of Deeds in the county where the real property (improvement) is physically located. For the state's largest county that is the Davidson County Register of Deeds, 300 Deaderick St, Nashville, TN 37201. Recording fees are set by Tenn. Code Ann. 8-21-1001 (typically $12 first page + $5 each additional page, plus a small data processing fee; use the county's online fee calculator).

Notarization

Required — document must be sworn before a notary.

Tennessee requires the Notice of Lien to be sworn to (executed under oath before a notary public). The Register of Deeds will reject any lien not properly notarized. The notary block must include venu

Service Requirement

After recording, the claimant must serve a copy of the recorded Notice of Lien on the property owner by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested (or by personal service), within the same 90-day post-completion window (or shorter if Notice of Completion was filed). Service on the owner is a prerequisite to enforceability against the owner. Best practice: also serve the prime contractor (required earlier in the monthly Notice of Nonpayment chain) and any construction lender of record. Keep the green return-receipt card / tracking proof for the enforcement lawsuit.

Tennessee Warning

The single biggest mistake is missing the monthly Notice of Nonpayment under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-11-145. Subcontractors and suppliers must send a written, certified-mail Notice of Nonpayment to BOTH the owner and the prime contractor within 90 days of the last day of EACH MONTH they furnished unpaid labor/materials — a separate notice every single month. Skipping even one month forfeits lien rights for that month's work, regardless of whether the 90-day Notice of Lien is timely recorded. The second-biggest trap: on residential 1-4 unit owner-occupied property, ONLY the prime contractor has lien rights — subs and suppliers cannot file at all.

What's built into the Tennessee template

  • Statutory deadline calculator: enters last-work date, returns exact filing-deadline date for the user's state with countdown (e.g., 'File by Aug 14, 2026 — 47 days remaining')
  • County-specific recording cover sheet auto-generated for all 3,000+ US counties (margins, return-address box, doc-type code matched to that recorder's office)
  • State-specific statutory recital language injected automatically — CA Civil Code §8416, TX §53.054, FL §713.08, NY Lien Law §9, etc. — so the lien isn't void for missing a magic-words requirement
  • Notary acknowledgment block formatted for the state of recording (jurat vs acknowledgment, seal placement, commission expiry line)
  • Pre-filled Proof of Service / Certificate of Mailing with certified-mail return-receipt language and tracking-number lines
  • Inflated-lien protection: warns if claimed amount exceeds unpaid balance (TX, CA, FL impose $10k+ penalties for inflated liens)
  • License-check integration: prompts the contractor to verify their state license was active on the work dates (a void license = void lien in CA/NV/AZ)
  • Plain-English glossary tooltips on every legal term ('legal description', 'lienable amount', 'last furnishing') so non-lawyers don't fill it out wrong
  • Editable until filed: regenerate the PDF unlimited times for 30 days after purchase if you find a typo or the GC pays partial
  • Bundled foreclosure-deadline reminder email: 60/90 days before the statutory deadline to file suit to enforce the lien (most states 90 days to 1 year), so the lien doesn't expire worthless

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