How to send an Arizona preliminary 20-day notice yourself
Arizona ties your lien rights to a notice most people first hear about when it's too late. Every would-be lien claimant — including general contractors — must serve a preliminary twenty-day notice on up to four different parties, with the statutory contents, by an approved delivery method, within 20 days of first furnishing. Done right, it's routine paperwork that offends nobody. Done late, wrong, or not at all, it caps or erases everything Arizona's lien statutes would otherwise let you collect. Below is the whole process, unabridged.
Within 20 days of first furnishing labor or materials. Serving late preserves rights only for the 20 days before service.
Before you start.
None of the steps below matter if one of these applies to you. Check every one.
Yes, this means you
Arizona requires the preliminary notice from every claimant who wants lien rights — subcontractors, suppliers, and general contractors with a direct owner contract alike. There is no position on the job that exempts you.
ARS 33-992.01Licensed, if your work requires a license
If the work you performed requires an ROC license and you didn't hold one, Arizona's lien remedy is generally not available to you — and no notice fixes that. Verify your license standing before you spend the time.
Registrar of ContractorsOwner-occupied homes play by different rules
On an owner-occupied dwelling, lien rights generally require a written contract directly with the owner-occupant. If you're a sub on a residential remodel, read ARS 33-1002 before you count on a lien at all.
ARS 33-1002The clock is probably already running
The 20 days run from your FIRST furnishing of labor or materials — not from your contract, your invoice, or the day you got worried. A late notice still works, but it only reaches back 20 days before service; anything furnished earlier falls out of your protected claim.
The 7 steps, in order.
Every one is load-bearing. Skim at your own risk.
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1
Pin down your first-furnishing date
Everything is measured from the day you first put labor or materials into the project. Establish it from delivery tickets, daily logs, or timecards — not memory.
- Material deliveries to the site count, even before your crews show up
- A remobilization doesn't restart the clock — the first furnishing controls
- If you're already past day 20, keep going: serve today and preserve the trailing 20 days
Where this goes wrongEvery day past day 20 permanently strips a day of work from the front of your claim. There is no cure once it's gone.
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2
Identify the parties you must serve — all of them, correctly
The notice goes to the owner or reputed owner, the original contractor, the construction lender if one exists, and — if different — the person you contracted with. Getting a legal name wrong here is the classic way an otherwise valid notice dies.
- Owner: pull the vesting deed or the county assessor's record, not the name on the jobsite sign
- Construction lender: search the county recorder for a construction deed of trust before you decide there isn't one
- LLCs, trusts, and DBAs: use the entity name of record, exactly
Where this goes wrong"Riverside Medical" and "Riverside Medical Partners, LLC" are different parties. Courts have little patience for close-enough on the owner line.
On Lienlink, owner, GC, and lender come from verified job data — this step is automatic.
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3
Build the notice with the statutory contents
ARS 33-992.01 prescribes what the notice must contain, including the statutory warning language and an estimate of the total price of your labor and materials. A generic template that's missing an element isn't a notice — it's paper.
- Your name and address, and who you contracted with
- A description of the labor or materials being furnished
- An estimate of the total price — this number matters later (see step 7)
- The legal-notice language the statute requires, verbatim
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4
Describe the property so a stranger could find it
A street address is often not enough on its own. Pull the legal description from the deed or the assessor's parcel record and include it. For condos, units, and new subdivisions, be exact about the parcel.
Where this goes wrongA notice that describes the wrong parcel protects the wrong parcel.
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5
Serve it by a method the statute recognizes
Arizona spells out acceptable delivery: first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, or certified or registered mail. Dropping copies at the jobsite trailer is not service.
- Mail to each party's address of record, separately
- Certified mail with return receipt gives you the cleanest proof trail
Where this goes wrongPlain first-class mail with no certificate leaves you with no proof of service — in a dispute, that can be the same as never sending it.
On Lienlink, notices mail certified automatically and the proof archives itself.
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6
Capture the proof and keep it forever
Certificates of mailing, green cards, tracking records, and a copy of exactly what was sent. If you ever record a lien, you'll need to attach a copy of this notice and prove it was served — years of leverage rest on this folder.
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7
Watch your estimate as the job grows
If the total price of what you actually furnish ends up materially above the estimate in your notice — Arizona's benchmark is roughly a 30 percent overrun — you're expected to serve an amended notice covering the difference. Change orders are how this sneaks up on people.
Where this goes wrongThe original notice keeps protecting the original estimate. The overage is only as protected as your amended notice.
After you file.
Filing doesn't end the job — it changes what you're responsible for.
Calendar the lien window anyway
The notice preserves rights; it collects nothing. If payment fails, the mechanics lien deadline runs from project completion — 60 or 120 days — whether or not you're watching.
Re-serve as the job changes
New lender, new owner entity, scope growth past your estimate: each can mean another notice. The 20-day rule doesn't care that you already did this once.
File the paperwork like it's evidence
Because it is. The notice and its proof of service ride along into any future lien, bond claim, or lawsuit on this job.
The edge cases.
The questions that usually get asked after it's too late to change the answer.
- “I started five weeks ago. Is it over?”
- No — but it's smaller. A late notice reaches back only 20 days from service, so everything furnished before that window is out. Serve today; stop the bleeding at today's line.
- “There's no construction lender. Do I skip that copy?”
- Only if there's actually no lender. Search the county recorder for construction financing before deciding — a recorded construction deed of trust means a lender copy was required.
- “The owner and the GC are the same company.”
- Serve every role the statute names even when they overlap. Duplicate envelopes cost dollars; a missed party can cost the claim.
- “I sell to another supplier, not to a contractor.”
- Arizona generally does not extend lien rights to suppliers of suppliers. If that's your position, the notice may not help you — price the credit risk accordingly.
General information, not legal advice — and Arizona law changes. For advice on your specific situation, consult a construction attorney licensed in Arizona. Preliminary notices, in plain English
Free PDF Form
Download the Arizona 20-day notice form (PDF)
Or skip all 7 steps with
Everything on this page is what Lienlink runs automatically on your Arizona jobs: the clocks start from your job data, the current statutory forms prepare and mail certified with proof, the recorder searches happen on their own — and if our error ever costs you a lien right, we pay the full job value.
