Corridor Notes · Title & Closing Diligence
A mechanic’s lien on a Lexington commercial property does not have to exist on closing day to reach the building you just bought. Kentucky gives a contractor six months after its last day of work to file the lien statement, and the lien it files relates back to the day the work began. The title search you paid for shows what is recorded. It cannot show you what is still filable.
How long after closing can a mechanic’s lien still show up on a commercial property?
Six months. Under KRS 376.080, the lien is dissolved unless the claimant files a sworn statement with the county clerk within six months after it ceases to labor or furnish materials.
That clock runs from the contractor’s last day on the job, not from your closing. If a roofing crew finished a section of parapet flashing in March and the general contractor never paid them, the subcontractor can still walk into the Fayette County Clerk’s office in September and file. The statute adds a second requirement that is easy to miss and fatal to the claimant: a copy of that statement must be mailed to the property owner at their last known address within seven days of filing, and the lien is dissolved if it is not. The owner it gets mailed to may well be you.
Why would a lien filed after closing reach a buyer at all?
Because of relation back. KRS 376.010(1)(c) makes the lien superior to any mortgage or encumbrance created after the labor or materials began, and states that the lien relates back to the commencement of the work.
Read only that subsection and every commercial purchase in Kentucky looks uninsurable. The next subsection is the one that restores the balance. KRS 376.010(2)(a) provides that the lien does not take precedence over a mortgage, other contract lien, or bona fide conveyance for value without notice that is duly recorded, unless the claimant filed a pre-notice statement with the county clerk before that recording.
Put the two together and the real question stops being “is anything recorded?” and becomes “am I a purchaser without notice?” A buyer who closes on a building with scaffolding still standing, an open invoice disclosed in the estoppel, or a half-finished tenant fit-out visible on the walk-through is in a materially different position from one who does not. Notice is not only what the clerk’s index shows. It is also what the property itself told you on the day you toured it.
The title search tells you what is recorded today. It cannot tell you what a contractor who finished last month is still entitled to file tomorrow.
What does a tenant build-out change about lien risk?
It moves the question into the lease. Kentucky does not treat a tenant as the landlord’s agent by default, so whether a tenant’s unpaid contractor can reach the ownership interest depends on what the lease says.
Three provisions of KRS 376.010 do the work here, and they point in different directions:
- (1)(b) — a lessee is not deemed the authorized agent of the owner unless the owner has designated the lessee, in writing, as its agent for entering the contract.
- (3)(a) — but where improvements are made by a lessee in accordance with an agreement between the lessee and the lessor, the lien also extends to the interest of the lessor.
- (3)(b) — where the lease expressly provides that the lessor’s interest is not subject to liens for the tenant’s improvements, the tenant must tell the contractor so, and a knowing or willing failure to give that notice makes the contract voidable at the contractor’s option.
That is why the tenant-improvement clause and the lien clause are worth reading before price. A lease that funds the build-out through a landlord allowance, or that recites an agreement about the work, reads very differently under (3)(a) than a lease in which the tenant did its own fit-out under a clause disclaiming the landlord’s interest. If the only document you have seen is a recorded short-form, you have not seen this. That distinction is the practical reason a memorandum of lease is a starting point for diligence rather than the end of it.
What notice must a subcontractor give before it can lien a commercial building?
Written notice to the owner, agent, or lessee: within 75 days on claims under $1,000, and within 120 days on claims over $1,000, counted from the last item of labor or materials.
That is KRS 376.010(4)(a), and it applies to anyone who did not contract directly with the owner, the owner’s agent, or the lessee. Note that a different rule sits one subsection below it: (5)(a) sets a flat 75 days for an owner-occupied single or double family dwelling. Commercial buildings are governed by the two-tier rule in (4)(a), and a great deal of general-purpose writing about Kentucky liens quietly applies the residential number to everything. The statute proves the mailing element is satisfied by mailing to the owner’s last known address, or to the owner’s authorized agent within the county where the property sits — which is another reason the identity of the record owner and its agent matters at closing.
Once a lien is filed, how long does the claimant have to enforce it?
Twelve months from the day the statement was filed with the clerk. KRS 376.090(1) dissolves the lien unless an action to enforce it is brought inside that window.
There is one extension in the statute: if the debtor whose property is liened dies before the period runs, the claimant gets a further six months from the date the personal representative qualifies. A filed lien that is thirteen months old with no enforcement action is a different problem from a fresh one, and it is worth knowing which you are looking at before it is priced into a closing.
The timeline, in one place
| Step | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Subcontractor notice to owner, claim under $1,000 | 75 days after last labor or materials | KRS 376.010(4)(a) |
| Subcontractor notice to owner, claim over $1,000 | 120 days after last labor or materials | KRS 376.010(4)(a) |
| Lien statement filed with county clerk | 6 months after ceasing labor or materials | KRS 376.080(1) |
| Copy of statement mailed to owner | 7 days after filing | KRS 376.080(1) |
| Action brought to enforce the lien | 12 months after filing the statement | KRS 376.090(1) |
What I actually ask on a commercial contract
The useful question at this stage is unglamorous: what work has been done on this building in the last six months, and who did it? Not “is the title clean” — the title report answers that one and answers it as of a date already in the past. A seller who can name the contractors, produce the invoices, and sign a lien affidavit has given you something the clerk’s index cannot. A seller who cannot remember is telling you where to spend the rest of your diligence budget. The same instinct applies to the physical side of the file: the reason a Phase I environmental site assessment asks about historical uses is that recent activity, not recorded status, is what produces the surprise.
None of this is legal advice and I am not your attorney. Lien priority in Kentucky turns on facts — who contracted with whom, what the lease says, what you knew and when — and those are questions for the closing attorney handling your file. What an agent can do is make sure the question gets asked while you still have a contingency period in which to act on the answer.
Questions buyers ask
Does a mechanic’s lien have to be recorded before closing to affect me?
No. KRS 376.080 allows the statement to be filed up to six months after the claimant’s last labor or materials, so a lien for work completed before your closing can first appear in the record after it. Whether it reaches your interest is a separate question governed by KRS 376.010(2)(a) and by whether you took without notice.
Is a filed lien statement the same thing as a lawsuit?
No. The statement filed with the county clerk under KRS 376.080 perfects the lien. Enforcing it requires a separate action, which KRS 376.090(1) requires to be brought within twelve months of that filing.
Where are these liens filed in Lexington?
With the county clerk of the county in which the building or improvement is situated, per KRS 376.080(1) — for a Lexington property, the Fayette County Clerk. The clerk endorses the filing date and indexes the statement, and collects a fee set under KRS 64.012.
Statutory text quoted above is from the Kentucky Revised Statutes as published by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission; the KRS database was last updated 09/22/2026. Last updated 23 September 2026.
By Marcos Gil, REALTOR® — Keller Williams Commonwealth · KY Real Estate License No. 296259 · Call or text (859) 310-1209.
Leave a Reply