4 deadlines NoticeGuard models for New Jersey: 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 Every deadline in this app comes from a statute read on the date shown next to its citation - that snapshot can go out of date.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.
Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service only when you do not tick "This is a residential construction contract (a one-, two-, or three-family dwelling)"
Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service only when you tick "This is a residential construction contract (a one-, two-, or three-family dwelling)"
Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service only when you tick "This is a residential construction contract (a one-, two-, or three-family dwelling)"
Lodged for record with the county clerk, counted from this claimant's own last work, services, material, or equipment provided.
What it counts from. 90 days after last furnishing (last day on site).
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service (when you do not tick "This is a residential construction contract (a one-, two-, or three-family dwelling)").
N.J.S.A. § 2A:44A-6 a.(2) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“In all cases except those involving a residential construction contract, the lien claim form shall then be lodged for record within 90 days following the date the last work, services, material or equipment was provided for which payment is claimed.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The lien claim form "shall" be lodged within this period - the statutory lien-claim form itself (§ 8) requires the claimant to swear that it was lodged "within 90 or, if residential construction, 120 days" of last furnishing.
Also stated next to this deadline.
Applies identically to a contractor (first tier), subcontractor (second tier), and supplier (second or third tier) - confirmed no role-based difference in this deadline anywhere in §§ 6, 8, 14, 20, or 21; the only claimant-tier difference is in lien-FUND dollar caps (§ 9), not this deadline.
Warranty/service calls or other work performed after completion or termination of the claimant's own contract do not extend this anchor date (§ 6(d)) - see `limitations`.
Lodge the lien claim (residential construction contract)
Lodged for record with the county clerk, counted from this claimant's own last work, services, material, or equipment provided - the outer bound; the residential track also requires lodging within 10 days of receiving an arbitrator's determination, a sequential step not computed here (see this rule's notes).
What it counts from. 120 days after last furnishing (last day on site).
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service (when you tick "This is a residential construction contract (a one-, two-, or three-family dwelling)").
N.J.S.A. § 2A:44A-6 a.(2) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“In the case of a residential construction contract, the lien claim form shall be lodged for record, as required by paragraph (8) of subsection b. of section 21 of P.L.1993, c.318 (C.2A:44A-21), not later than 10 days after receipt by the claimant of the arbitrator's determination, and within 120 days following the date the last work, services, material or equipment was provided for which payment is claimed.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). A residential lien claim not lodged within this outer bound, or within 10 days of the arbitrator's determination if earlier, is invalid - the statute states plainly that missing the arbitrator-determination sub-deadline "shall cause any lien claim to be invalid" (§ 21(b)(8)).
Also stated next to this deadline.
This is only the outer 120-day bound. The real residential pipeline is: Notice of Unpaid Balance within 60 days (the sibling `nj-notice-of-unpaid-balance-residential` rule) → arbitration demand within 10 days of that → arbitration completes within 30 (or 7) days → lien claim lodged within 10 days of the arbitrator's determination, AND always within this 120-day outer bound. This app computes only the two outer-bound deadlines; see `limitations` for the unmodeled sequential steps.
This is NOT an exemption from lien rights - New Jersey's residential track is a stricter, arbitration-gated procedure layered on top of the same underlying lien entitlement everyone gets under § 3, confirmed from § 21(a)'s own legislative findings.
Notice of Unpaid Balance and Right to File Lien (residential construction contract)
Lodged for record, counted from this claimant's own last work, services, material, or equipment provided - a mandatory condition precedent to filing a residential lien claim at all.
What it counts from. 60 days after last furnishing (last day on site).
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service (when you tick "This is a residential construction contract (a one-, two-, or three-family dwelling)").
N.J.S.A. § 2A:44A-21 (b)(1) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“As a condition precedent to the filing of any lien arising under a residential construction contract, a lien claimant shall first file a Notice of Unpaid Balance and Right to File Lien by lodging for record the Notice within 60 days following the last date that work, services, material or equipment were provided for which payment is claimed...”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute states this notice is "a condition precedent to the filing of any lien" on a residential construction contract - without it, no residential lien claim can be filed at all, regardless of the 120-day outer bound.
Also stated next to this deadline.
Unlike most other states' preliminary notices, this one is REQUIRED specifically because the project is residential - commercial (non-residential) private construction in New Jersey has no mandatory preliminary notice at all; see `limitations`.
Lodging this notice starts a 10-day clock to demand arbitration (§ 21(b)(3)) - not separately modeled; see the sibling rule's notes.
Commence an action to enforce the lien claim
Counted from this claimant's own last work, services, material, or equipment provided - NOT from the date the lien claim was filed. Can be accelerated to as little as 30 days if a written demand to sue is received; that acceleration is not computed here - read this rule's notes.
What it counts from. 365 days after last furnishing (last day on site).
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service.
N.J.S.A. § 2A:44A-14 (a) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“A claimant filing a lien claim shall forfeit all rights to enforce the lien, and shall immediately discharge the lien of record... if the claimant fails to commence an action... to enforce the lien claim: (1) Within one year of the date of the last provision of work, services, material or equipment, payment for which the lien claim was filed; or (2) Within 30 days following receipt of written notice, by personal service or certified mail, return receipt requested, from the owner, community association, contractor, or subcontractor against whose account a lien claim is filed, requiring the claimant to commence an action to enforce the lien claim.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute states the claimant "shall forfeit all rights to enforce the lien" and must immediately discharge it if suit is not timely commenced under either trigger.
Also stated next to this deadline.
Approximated as 365 calendar days (1 year × 365), the same approximation style used throughout this app. A calendar year is 365 or 366 days, so this date always lands on or before the statutory one - never after it.
The anchor is the SAME last-furnishing date that governs the filing deadline - confirmed from the statute's own text ("date of the last provision of work... payment for which the lien claim was filed" identifies which claim, not a new anchor date) - NOT the date the lien claim itself was filed.
A written demand from the owner, community association, contractor, or subcontractor can force a 30-day deadline from receipt - this can be much EARLIER than the 1-year date shown here. Unlike most simplifications in this app, this is a genuine risk of the shown date being too late, not too early - treat the 1-year date as the latest possible deadline, not a safe floor, and check for any demand letter received.
Weekend and holiday rollover
NoticeGuard does not model a weekend or holiday extension for New Jersey. 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 residential arbitration pipeline's intermediate steps are NOT modeled: the 10-day deadline to serve an arbitration demand after lodging the Notice of Unpaid Balance (§ 21(b)(3)), the arbitration's own 30-day (or 7-day, if no response) completion window (§ 21(b)(6)), and the 10-day deadline to lodge the lien claim after receiving the arbitrator's determination (§ 21(b)(8)) are all real, sequential deadlines this app does not compute - each depends on a prior step's own actual date (when the NUB was lodged, when arbitration concluded), not a raw job fact. This app shows only the two outer bounds: the NUB's own 60-day deadline and the 120-day outer filing bound.
The enforcement-suit deadline (§ 14(a)) can be accelerated well inside the 1-year window: an owner, community association, contractor, or subcontractor can serve a written demand requiring suit within 30 days of receipt. This app shows only the 1-year track - if such a demand has actually been received, the REAL deadline is 30 days from receipt, which can be much earlier than what this app shows. This is a genuine risk of overstating the deadline, not a safe simplification, unlike some other approximations in this app; the rule's own description says so.
Non-residential (commercial) private construction has NO mandatory preliminary notice at all - the Notice of Unpaid Balance is optional there (§ 20(g)), protecting only lien priority against an intervening conveyance/mortgage/lease, not a filing precondition. This app does not model that optional commercial NUB, since filing it is never required.
Warranty or other service calls, or other work/materials/equipment provided after completion or termination of a claimant's own contract, do not count toward the last-furnishing anchor date (§ 6(d)) - this app does not detect or exclude such after-the-fact work; the user must enter the true last date of substantive work.
Lien-fund dollar caps by claimant tier (§ 9) are not modeled - this app never collects dollar amounts.
Weekend/holiday rollover is NOT modeled - deliberately, not by oversight. No rollover provision was found anywhere in N.J.S.A. 2A:44A-1 through 2A:44A-38 itself, and no general Title 1 statute-of-construction equivalent was found either. New Jersey Court Rule 1:3-1 is the closest analog, but it is a Judiciary procedural rule (not a Legislature-enacted statute) governing court filings, with no confirmed application to the administrative act of lodging a lien claim or Notice of Unpaid Balance with a county clerk. The most honest gap of any state in this app: not merely "unconfirmed for this chapter," but no candidate rollover statute was even located within the chapter itself.
Only §§ 2, 3, 6, 8, 9 (referenced but not read in full), 14, 20, and 21 have been read. The rest of the Construction Lien Law - including §§ 15 and onward (bond substitution, discharge mechanics) - is not incorporated.
This app generates the Construction Lien Claim from § 2A:44A-8's own "CONSTRUCTION LIEN CLAIM" model form ("substantially the following form"). Note § 2A:44A-7, not the form section, governs SERVING the completed claim (within 10 days of lodging for record) - a separate, unmodeled deadline this app does not compute.
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.