Strict Compliance, Not ‘Close Enough’

One of the most distinctive features of Virginia lien law is how unforgiving it can be. Virginia courts strictly construe the statutes governing mechanic’s liens, which means the law is applied exactly as written, with little tolerance for good-faith mistakes. Virginia courts strictly construe the statutes governing mechanic’s liens, and even a minor error can compromise the entire lien. Some states apply a more forgiving “substantial compliance” standard, but Virginia does not. Due to the strict compliance standard, it is a good idea to run a title search and allow yourself extra time in the preparation process to do so. For a contractor who has already absorbed the cost of unpaid labor and materials, losing lien rights over a technicality can feel like a second financial blow. That is exactly why it is worth building extra time into the process to run a title search, confirm the correct property owner and legal description, and have someone familiar with the statute review the memorandum before it is recorded.

2 Separate, Overlapping Deadlines

Virginia doesn’t give claimants a single filing deadline.

Rather, it layers two different time rules on top of each other, and both must be satisfied at once.

For a contractor managing several jobs at different stages, that means keeping two separate clocks running simultaneously for every project where payment is even slightly in question.

The 90-Day Filing Deadline

A memorandum of lien must be filed no later than 90 days from the last day of the month in which the claimant last performed labor or furnished material, and in no event later than 90 days from the time the building, structure or railroad is completed or the work otherwise terminated. That “last day of the month” language is unusual, and it works in the claimant’s favor: It effectively rounds up to give claimants a small grace period beyond their actual last day of work. But that grace period disappears the moment the whole project wraps up, at which point the 90-day clock starts immediately, regardless of when any individual claimant last touched the job. For subcontractors and suppliers who may not always know when a general contractor considers a project “complete,” that distinction is worth asking about directly and early, rather than assuming there is more runway than there actually is.

The 150-Day Look-Back Rule

Virginia law also caps how far back a single memorandum can reach: No memorandum may include sums due for labor or materials furnished more than 150 days before the last day the claimant worked on the job, counting backward from the filing. This is where the strict-compliance problem becomes especially dangerous. Including amounts outside the 150-day window doesn’t just shrink the lien to what is still within bounds — it can invalidate the entire lien, not just the excess portion. For contractors on long jobs, that risk has a practical fix: The statute expressly allows a claimant to file any number of memoranda, so filing multiple sequential liens over the life of a lengthy project is often the safer path to staying inside the window, rather than waiting and hoping one filing at the end will cover everything.

There is a narrow exception for money that isn’t really “late” in the ordinary sense. Retainage — up to 10% of the contract price — and sums that aren’t yet due because payment hasn’t flowed down from the owner both fall outside the 150-day restriction. That distinction matters for contractors who negotiate retainage into their contracts specifically to protect cash flow on long projects, since it means those held-back funds aren’t penalized by the look-back clock the way ordinary overdue invoices are.