Preliminary Notice

A preliminary notice (called a pre-lien notice, notice to owner, or 20-day notice depending on the state) is the document that announces your presence on a project to the parties above your customer: the owner, the general contractor, and often the construction lender. In many states, sending it within a statutory window — California's 20 days from first furnishing is the archetype — is a precondition to mechanics lien rights. Send it late and some states protect only recent furnishings; skip it and, in strict states, lien rights never attach no matter how valid the debt.

The notice is not a claim and not hostile — a point worth internalizing and training sales teams on. It says, in effect, "we are supplying this project through your subcontractor; if payment problems ever arise, we hold rights." Owners and GCs on well-run projects expect preliminary notices and use them to build their lien-waiver checklists. The commercial reality is the opposite of adversarial: parties who notice consistently get tracked in the payment chain, while invisible suppliers are the ones forgotten when money is disbursed.

Because deadlines run from first furnishing per project, notice management must live at order entry, not in collections. Best practice for suppliers: collect job-site details on every construction order (project address, owner, GC, lender if known), send notices on every qualifying job rather than judging case by case, and document delivery. Selective noticing — only on customers you distrust — fails in both directions: it offends the customers you notice and leaves you unprotected on the surprise failures. Requirements differ sharply by state and project type; this is educational content, not legal advice.