Arkansas Lien Laws: Mechanic’s Liens, Notices, and Judgment Liens

Arkansas lien laws cover two very different tools for securing a debt against real property: mechanic’s liens, available to contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers who improve the property, and judgment liens, which arise automatically when a creditor wins a money judgment in court. Each has its own notice requirements, filing deadlines, and expiration rules, and a single missed step can wipe out the claim.

The Two Main Real Property Liens

Mechanic’s liens are governed by Arkansas Code Title 18, Chapter 44, and are available only to people who furnished labor, services, or materials that improved the property. Judgment liens come from a separate set of rules under Title 16 and apply to any debtor’s non-exempt real estate in a county where the judgment is properly recorded. The procedures do not overlap, and confusing the two is a common source of lost claims.

Who Can Claim a Mechanic’s Lien

Arkansas grants mechanic’s lien rights to contractors who deal directly with the owner, subcontractors who work under a contract with a contractor, and material suppliers who furnish goods to a contractor or subcontractor.¹² The lien attaches to the improvement and up to one acre of surrounding land, or more if the work extended across a larger area.

Design professionals such as architects and engineers are not explicitly named in the statute’s definitions. They may qualify as subcontractors if they provide services under contract with the general contractor, but anyone in that position should confirm eligibility before spending time on a lien claim.

Notices You Must Send Before Filing

Notice failures kill more Arkansas mechanic’s liens than any other defect. Two separate notices can come into play, depending on the project.

Residential Pre-Construction Notice

On residential projects of four or fewer units, the general contractor must deliver a pre-construction notice to the owner before any work begins, by personal delivery or certified mail. No lien can attach to residential property unless the owner received this notice.³ The contractor delivers it on behalf of everyone who might later claim a lien on the job. If the general contractor skips it, no subcontractor or supplier downstream can file either.

Ten-Day Notice of Intent

Every lien claimant, on every project, must serve a written notice on the owner at least ten days before filing the lien affidavit. The notice states the amount claimed and identifies who owes the debt.⁴

Service can be made by a process server, a competent witness, or any mail with a return receipt requested. If the owner refuses the mail or leaves it unclaimed, the claimant must immediately send a copy by first-class mail and can then proceed to file. Keep the mailing receipts. An unopened envelope marked “unclaimed” or “refused” by the postal service counts as proof of service.⁴

Filing Deadline and Contents of the Affidavit

Once every required notice has been served, the claimant perfects the lien by filing a sworn affidavit with the circuit clerk in the county where the property sits. The filing must happen within 120 days after the claimant last furnished labor, services, or materials.⁵ Miss that window and the lien right is gone.

The affidavit must include a true account of what is owed after applying all credits, confirm that proper notice was given, and describe the property specifically enough that anyone reading it can identify the parcel affected.⁵ Courts scrutinize these affidavits closely. Formal defects can render the lien unenforceable even when the debt itself is clear.

How Priority Works Among Mechanic’s Liens

Arkansas treats mechanic’s lien priority differently than most people expect. All mechanic’s liens on a single project share equal priority with each other, no matter when each one was filed or when the underlying work was performed. Every lien relates back to the date construction first commenced on the project.⁶

Construction is considered to have commenced when there is visible activity on the property that would lead a reasonable person to think work has started or will start soon. The statute lists delivery of significant building materials, grading or excavation, laying out survey stakes, and demolition of an existing structure as examples.⁶ That commencement date is what determines whether the mechanic’s liens outrank a mortgage or other encumbrance recorded later.

Enforcing the Lien: The Fifteen-Month Deadline

Filing the affidavit secures the claim, but it does not collect anything. To actually get paid, the claimant must file a lawsuit to foreclose the lien within fifteen months of the date it was recorded. If that deadline passes, the lien expires and cannot be revived.

If the court validates the lien, it can order the property sold to satisfy the debt. Because all mechanic’s liens on the same project share equal priority and relate back to the same commencement date, sale proceeds are distributed proportionally among lien claimants rather than paid out on a first-filed basis.⁶

Clearing a Mechanic’s Lien With a Bond

A property owner does not have to wait out the litigation to clear the title. The owner, a mortgagee, or anyone else with an interest in the property can discharge a mechanic’s lien by posting a surety bond with the circuit clerk in the amount of the lien claimed.⁷ The bond guarantees payment of whatever a court eventually finds is owed, along with interest and costs.

Once the bond is filed and three days pass without a successful challenge to its sufficiency, the clerk notes the bond on the lien record and the lien on the property is discharged. The claimant then looks to the bond rather than the real estate for payment.⁷ This is especially useful when a lien is blocking a sale or refinance.

Judgment Liens: Creation, Duration, and Renewal

A judgment lien is created automatically when a court enters a money judgment. The lien attaches to the debtor’s real property in the county where the judgment was rendered. To reach property in other counties, the creditor files a certified copy of the judgment with the circuit clerk in each additional county where the debtor owns land, and the clerk dockets and indexes it there.⁸

The lien lasts ten years from the date the judgment was rendered.⁸ To keep it alive past that period, the creditor must file a proceeding called a scire facias before it expires. The scire facias is served on the debtor, or, if the debtor cannot be found, the court posts a public notice at the courthouse for four weeks requiring interested parties to appear and show cause why the judgment should not be revived.⁹

If no one contests it, the judgment is revived and the lien continues for another ten years. The process can be repeated indefinitely so long as each revival is filed before the current period runs out.⁹ One detail creditors regularly miss: reviving the judgment in the county where it originated does not automatically extend the lien in other counties. The creditor has to record a notice in the real property records of each additional county, identifying the scire facias case number, the county where it was filed, and the filing date.

The Homestead Exemption Limit on Judgment Liens

Arkansas protects part of a debtor’s primary residence from forced sale on a judgment. The exemption covers property owned and occupied as a residence: up to one acre in a city or town and up to 160 acres in rural areas. The protected value is capped at $2,500, but the property cannot be reduced below a minimum size regardless of value, which is one-quarter acre in town or 80 acres in rural areas.¹⁰

The $2,500 value cap has not been updated to reflect modern property values, so in practice the acreage minimums do most of the protective work. A rural debtor’s 80 acres cannot be seized regardless of what it is worth, while an urban homeowner with property worth well above $2,500 may find only the minimum quarter-acre protected. Mechanic’s liens are not subject to the homestead exemption, since they arise from work performed directly on the property itself.

1
Justia. Arkansas Code 18-44-101 – Liens on Buildings, Land, or Boats
2
Justia. Arkansas Code 18-44-107 – Subcontractors
3
Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing. Arkansas Code 18-44-115 – Notice to Owner by Contractor
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 18-44-114 – Notice and Service Generally
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Justia. Arkansas Code 18-44-117 – Filing of Lien
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Justia. Arkansas Code 18-44-110 – Preference Over Prior Liens
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Justia. Arkansas Code 18-44-118
8
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-65-117 – Judgment as Lien on Land
9
FindLaw. Arkansas Code 16-65-501
10
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-66-210 – Homestead Exemption Act