Already owed money?
You did the work. They haven't paid.
A formal demand letter citing your state's lien law, mailed USPS Certified with tracking and a Certificate of Mailing.
$79 · Preview free before anything mails
Washington Guide
You Did the Work.Get Paid for It — in Washington.
File your Notice of Right to Claim Lien in 2 minutes and lock in your lien rights. Already owed and getting stonewalled? Send an attorney-vetted demand letter — certified mail, same day.
•THE RULE: You must serve a Notice of Right to Claim Lien within 60 days of commencing work.
��THE RISK: File late, and you permanently forfeit your lien rights for any work performed more than 60 days prior to the mailing date.
Attorney-Reviewed TemplatesUSPS Certified MailFiled in Under 2 Minutes
Real Contractor. Real Loss. Real Fix.
J
Jim B.
General Contractor · Seattle, WA
★★★★★
"I was doing a remodel and assumed it was a 60-day window. It was 10 days. Lost $7,100. LienFlash catches those traps before they catch me."
Notice filed. $24.99. Your rights are protected.
LienFlash · Delivered via USPS Certified Mail
The clock started when you stepped on site. See exactly where you stand.
See exactly where you stand — in 10 seconds.
Want the full breakdown? Open the dedicated Washington deadline calculator →
Why DIY Filing Fails
Three mistakes that void your notice
The 10-Day Remodel Trap
Working on an existing, owner-occupied single-family home? Your deadline violently shrinks. You only have 10 days to file, not 60.
The 60-Day Lookback
A late notice is better than nothing, but it only protects the work you performed in the 60 days immediately preceding the mailing.
Strict Certified Mail Rules
Washington law strictly requires your notice to be sent via USPS Certified or Registered Mail with a return receipt requested.
The $280 billion mistake
This is not a small problem.
$280B
Lost by the construction industry annually — not to fraud, to missed deadlines
82%
Of contractors face payment delays exceeding 30 days (Rabbet 2024)
90 days
Average days sales outstanding in construction — double the healthy threshold
A plumbing contractor did a $40,000 job. Quality work. On time. The GC went quiet after the final invoice. By the time a lawyer looked at it, the contractor had missed his preliminary notice deadline by two weeks. No lien rights. No leverage. No recourse.
He did not lose that money because he did bad work. He lost it because nobody told him the clock was running from day one.
There are two ways that story ends better. The first is a piece of paper filed before the job even starts. The second — if you're already past that point — is a certified demand letter that puts the other side on notice: this contractor is documenting everything, and he's not going away. Either way, the contractors who get paid aren't the ones with better lawyers. They're the ones who put it in writing first.
Most contractors think a lien is what you use when a GC doesn't pay you. So they wait — for the invoice to go past due, for the ignored voicemail, until they're angry enough to do something.
But lien law doesn't work that way. The window to protect your rights opens the moment you step on site — and it closes on a hard deadline, whether you know it or not.
The contractors who never fight to get paid don't have better lawyers. They file a piece of paper before the job even starts.
"Storm season means we're running 10 jobs a week. I missed one notice on a tear-off and lost $8,500. LienFlash is my insurance policy. $24.99 is nothing compared to losing a paycheck."
MT
Mike T.
Roofing Contractor · Tampa, FL
★★★★★
Owed money right now?
Already owed and getting the runaround?
Ignored invoices. "Net 30" that turned into net 90. A GC who answered every call until the final bill came due. If that's where you are, a preliminary notice isn't the tool — a payment demand is.
LienFlash sends an attorney-vetted demand letter by USPS Certified Mail, same day. It states what you're owed, sets a deadline to pay, and creates the paper trail that changes the conversation — because a certified letter from a contractor who's documenting everything reads very differently than another unpaid invoice.
$79 flat. Preview free before anything mails. No lawyer's retainer, no waiting.
The two-minute fix
LienFlash files before you leave the job site.
1
Enter your job details
Property address, owner name, job amount, first day on site. We calculate your exact deadline automatically based on your state's law.
Takes 2 minutes2
Review your state-compliant notice
We generate the correct legal form for your state — including any verbatim statutory warning language required by law. Review it once and approve.
Takes 5 seconds3
We print, mail, and track it
We send your notice via USPS Certified Mail and save your tracking number and Certificate of Mailing to your dashboard. You never stand in a post office line.
We do it$24.99
Per notice · No subscription required
Already owed? Demand letters are $79 — same certified mail, same-day send.
✓USPS Certified Mail included
✓Real-time tracking to your dashboard
✓Certificate of Mailing PDF
✓State-compliant forms for every state we serve
✓Preview free before you pay
Worried About the Legal Stuff?
Every template is attorney-reviewed for your state. We're not lawyers — we just make the paperwork disappear so you get paid.
✓Attorney Reviewed
✓USPS Verified
✓8-State Coverage
You've been lucky so far.
Every job without a notice is a bet.
Eventually the bet loses.
$8,500
Average amount lost on a single missed notice job (contractor reported)
Day 1
When your legal window opens — not when you get stiffed
$0
What your lien rights are worth after the deadline passes
(Past the deadline? You still have a move — see the demand letter above.)
A GC who knows you filed a notice on day one pays differently than a GC who knows you didn't. Not because of the law. Because of what the notice signals: this contractor knows their rights. That signal, sent before the first invoice, changes how fast you get paid. The contractors who never fight to get paid don't have better lawyers. They file a piece of paper before the job starts.
Miss the notice. Lose the money.
Already finished the work?
Already finished the work and still not paid?
A preliminary notice protects jobs you're starting. If the work is done and the money hasn't come, the next step is a formal demand letter — statute-cited, mailed certified, with tracking and proof of delivery.
$79 · Preview free
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Which one is you right now?
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Starting a new job?
Protect it before there's a problem.
File your preliminary notice in the first days of the job and keep your lien rights alive for the whole thing.
$24.99 · $39.99 in Texas · Preview free
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