New Change to Subcontractor’s Notice of Lien

There has been a new change in Illinois mechanics lien law concerning service of Subcontractor’s Notice of Lien under Section 24 of the Illinois Mechanics Lien at, 770 ILCS 60/1 et seq. It was signed by Governor Pritzker and became law on August 9, 2024 (See HB 4660) This is a big boon for subcontractors working on construction projects in Illinois.

A subcontractor (a party that has a contract with the general contractor on a project) was required to send notice of its lien claim within 90 days of its last date of work.

The subcontractor’s notice of lien claim must:

1) Identify the contract;
2) Identify the general contractor and upper tier subcontractors the work was done for;
3) Describe the work done and when it was last performed;
4) Sufficiently describe the property;
5) State the total amount due and unpaid as of the date of the notice; and
6) Be served upon the owner of record or the owner of record’s agent or architect, or the superintendent having charge of the building or improvement, and, to the lending agency, if known

Furthermore, the Act required that notice had to either be served personally or served by certified mail, restricted delivery with return receipt requested by the United States Postal service. Service by the postal service is cumbersome and not always reliable. It was a common issue that the notices were delayed or not even served because of issues within the system

However, this service requirement has now been expanded which is great news for subcontractors. The new change in Section 24 allows a notice of claim by a Subcontractor to also be able to serve the notice via any nationally recognized carrier in addition to registered mail, certified mail, or personal service. This means that the notice can be served by services such as UPS, Fedex or DHL.

Hopefully this will mean more reliability in the service of lien notices and the necessary parties will receive them. After all, the whole purpose of sending a notice is for the subcontractor to get paid. If notices are not timely delivered or not delivered at all to the necessary parties, then the chance of getting paid diminishes.

This change in the law becomes effective January 1, 2025.

Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions regarding this change in Illinois construction law.