4 deadlines NoticeGuard models for California: what each one counts from, the statute it was read from, and the statute text.
Information, not legal advice. This app reports what the statute says and cites the section it read. It is not legal advice, it does not file anything for you, and it does not tell you what to do.
Verify with the statute or an attorney. Statutes change, and courts reinterpret them. Every deadline in this app comes from a statute read on the date shown next to its citation - that snapshot can go out of date. Missing a mechanics lien deadline can extinguish your claim permanently, so confirm any deadline you are relying on with an attorney licensed in that state before you act on it.
Data verified: statute text retrieved 2026-09-21 (each citation below carries its own date). Rule data from the NoticeGuard app, source commit 22f9300.
Given to the owner, the direct contractor, and the construction lender (if any), counted from the day this claimant first furnished work on the work of improvement.
What it counts from. 20 days after first furnishing (commenced work).
Applies to. Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service.
California Civil Code § 8204 (a) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“A preliminary notice shall be given not later than 20 days after the claimant has first furnished work on the work of improvement. If work has been provided by a claimant who did not give a preliminary notice, that claimant shall not be precluded from giving a preliminary notice at any time thereafter. The claimant shall, however, be entitled to record a lien, give a stop payment notice, and assert a claim against a payment bond only for work performed within 20 days prior to the service of the preliminary notice, and at any time thereafter.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). § 8200(c): compliance with the preliminary notice requirement "is a necessary prerequisite to the validity of a lien claim or stop payment notice." A late notice is not fatal outright, but limits recoverable work to the 20 days before the late notice plus everything after - see this rule's notes.
Also stated next to this deadline.
A late preliminary notice does not bar lien rights entirely - it narrows them to work performed within 20 days before the (late) notice, plus everything furnished afterward. This app shows the 20-day date as an ordinary deadline; see `limitations`.
Exempt (§ 8200(e)): a direct contractor with a direct contract with the owner (owes notice only to a construction lender, if any - modeled here as full exemption), and pure laborers (no role in this app is a pure laborer).
Record the mechanics lien (direct contractor)
Recorded with the county recorder, counted from completion of the work of improvement - but no later than 60 days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation, if one is recorded and properly served on the direct contractor.
What it counts from. 90 days after final completion of the original contract, but no later than 60 days after notice of completion filed (whichever is earlier).
Applies to. Original contractor.
California Civil Code § 8412 (a)-(b) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“A direct contractor may not enforce a lien unless the contractor records a claim of lien after the contractor completes the direct contract, and before the earlier of the following times: (a) Ninety days after completion of the work of improvement. (b) Sixty days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute states a direct contractor "may not enforce a lien unless" the claim is recorded before this date - a lien recorded late is unenforceable.
Also stated next to this deadline.
The 60-day figure is specific to the direct contractor - every other claimant type gets only 30 days after the same notice (see the sibling rule below). This is the first state in this app where a completion-notice cap's own length, not just whether one applies, differs by role.
A genuine minimum-of-two-dates cap, the same shape Utah's § 38-1a-502(1)(a) already uses - not an either/or replacement the way Arizona's and Nevada's completion-notice forks work.
The cap applies only if the owner also served a copy of the notice on the direct contractor within 10 days, per § 8190 - not verified by this app; see `limitations`.
Record the mechanics lien (subcontractor, supplier, or preconstruction service)
Recorded with the county recorder, counted from completion of the work of improvement - but no later than 30 days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation, if one is recorded and properly served on this claimant.
What it counts from. 90 days after final completion of the original contract, but no later than 30 days after notice of completion filed (whichever is earlier).
Applies to. Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service.
California Civil Code § 8414 (b) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“A claimant other than a direct contractor may not enforce a lien unless the claimant records a claim of lien within the following times: (a) After the claimant ceases to provide work. (b) Before the earlier of the following times: (1) Ninety days after completion of the work of improvement. (2) Thirty days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute states a claimant "may not enforce a lien unless" the claim is recorded within this window - a lien recorded late is unenforceable.
Also stated next to this deadline.
The 30-day figure applies to every role in this app except the original contractor, who gets 60 days instead (see the sibling rule above) - confirmed from the statute's own text, a genuine role-based split.
A genuine minimum-of-two-dates cap, the same shape Utah's § 38-1a-502(1)(a) already uses - not an either/or replacement the way Arizona's and Nevada's completion-notice forks work.
The cap applies only if the owner also served a copy of the notice on this claimant within 10 days, per § 8190 - not verified by this app; see `limitations`.
Commence an action to enforce the lien
Counted from the date the claim of lien was recorded.
What it counts from. 90 days after notice of construction lien recorded.
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service.
California Civil Code § 8460 (a) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“The claimant shall commence an action to enforce a lien within 90 days after recordation of the claim of lien. If the claimant does not commence an action to enforce the lien within that time, the claim of lien expires and is unenforceable.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute states plainly: a lien not enforced by a timely-commenced action "expires and is unenforceable."
Also stated next to this deadline.
Applies identically to every role in this app - no role-based difference in this specific deadline, unlike the recording deadline above.
Easy to confuse with the 90-day recording baseline (§§ 8412/8414) - that 90 days runs from completion, to the lien recording; this 90 days runs from the lien recording, to filing suit. Different anchors, same number.
A credit-extension agreement, recorded within the original 90 days (or later but before a good-faith purchaser/encumbrancer acquires rights), can push this deadline out - capped at one year after completion. Not modeled; this app shows only the flat 90-day baseline.
Weekend and holiday rollover
NoticeGuard does not model a weekend or holiday extension for California. The dates above are the plain count from the date you enter. Check whether a Saturday, Sunday or holiday changes your date.
What this rule set does not cover
The short fork (30 or 60 days after a recorded notice of completion/cessation) is conditioned on the owner actually notifying that specific claimant within 10 days, per § 8190(a)-(c) - if the owner fails to do so, the notice is "ineffective to shorten the time" for that claimant, who keeps the full 90-day-after-completion baseline. This app does not verify that the § 8190 copy was actually sent; entering a notice-of-completion date always applies the shorter cap.
"Completion of the work of improvement" (§ 8180) is a defined term with FOUR possible triggers - actual completion, owner occupation/use with cessation of labor, 60 continuous days of cessation, or a recorded notice of cessation after 30 continuous days of cessation - not always the date a layperson would call "done." This app asks for a single completion date and does not distinguish which trigger applies.
The preliminary notice deadline (20 days after first furnishing, § 8204(a)) is not fatal if missed - a late notice only limits lien/stop-notice/bond-claim rights to work performed within the 20 days before the late notice, plus everything after. This app shows the 20-day date as a deadline without separately modeling that partial-coverage fallback.
The preliminary-notice exemption is modeled only for the clearest case: a direct contractor with a contract directly with the owner owes preliminary notice only to the construction lender, if any (§ 8200(e)(2)) - modeled here as full exemption, since this app does not track whether a construction lender exists. A pure laborer (also exempt, § 8200(e)(1)) has no role in this app.
Design professionals' alternate preliminary-notice trigger (§ 8204(b): 20 days after the work of improvement has commenced, rather than 20 days after their own first furnishing) is not modeled - this app uses `firstFurnishing` for every non-exempt role, including `preconstructionServiceProvider`.
Weekend/holiday rollover is NOT modeled, despite California's general computation statute (Code of Civil Procedure § 12a(b)) being textually broader than several other states' - it applies on its face to "all other provisions of law providing or requiring an act to be performed... within a specified period of time, whether expressed in this or any other code or statute." Even so, no case squarely confirming its application to a mechanics-lien-recording deadline (as opposed to a court-filing deadline) was found, and the statute's own text names Saturdays and the § 135 holiday list but never uses the word "Sunday" - the same honest-gap treatment this app gives Idaho's, Arizona's, New York's, Washington's, Nevada's, Colorado's, and North Carolina's unconfirmed rollover statutes, even though California's textual case is the strongest of the group.
The credit-extension carve-out to the enforcement deadline (§ 8460(b) - recording an agreement to extend credit can push the 90-day enforcement clock out, capped at one year after completion) is not modeled; this app shows only the flat 90-day-after-recording baseline.
Only §§ 8102, 8180, 8182, 8186, 8188, 8190, 8200, 8202, 8204, 8400, 8412, 8414, 8416, 8460, and 9000 have been read. The rest of Title 2 - including stop payment notice and payment bond provisions (a separate remedy from the lien itself) - is not incorporated.
This app generates no document for California yet. § 8416(a) lists required content plus a mandatory boldface "NOTICE OF MECHANICS LIEN" warning for the lien claim (not a fill-in-the-blank form) that a future session could template the same way Idaho's and Utah's content-list documents are.
NoticeGuard is an app that turns a job's dates into a countdown for each statutory step, shows the statute text each date was read from, exports a calendar file (.ics) and sends reminders 14, 7 and 1 day before each deadline. It tracks and reminds; it does not file anything for you.