MISSOURI is one of a handful of states that require a warning notice be delivered to an Owner as a prerequisite to recording a construction lien. To make things more complicated, with an added cost, MISSOURI Revised Statutes § 429-100 states that “Every person except the original contractor, who may wish to avail himself of the benefit of the provisions of sections 429.010 to 429.340, shall give ten days’ notice before the filing of the lien, as herein required, to the owner, owners or agent, or either of them, that he holds a claim against such building or improvement, setting forth the amount and from whom the same is due. Such notice may be served by any officer authorized by law to serve process in civil actions, or by any person who would be a competent witness. When served by an officer, his official return endorsed thereon shall be proof thereof, and when served by any other person, the fact of such service shall be verified by affidavit of the person so serving.”

To translate this – draft up your MISSOURI Notice of Intent to File Mechanic’s Lien Statement using PreLien2Lien or contract with TRADITION NOTICE SERVICES. If your project was in or around St. Louis, and you are handling this yourself, contact a reputable Process Server company like PRO SERVE at (314) 961-2222. For $60, they will serve your notice on the Owner, and make sure that you are in compliance with the MISSOURI Revised Statutes § 429-100.

One other issue to remember for MISSOURI is that while you have 6 months to record a Mechanic’s Lien Statement with a required 10 day warning notice, it is NOT 6 months PLUS 10 days. The entire lien process is limited to 6 months from the LAST date equipment, labor, materials or services are furnished for a project. Our conservative opinion is always to be proactive and send the warning notice at some point after 90 days but before the fifth month. Negotiated settlements or business disputes can cause enough of a delay to put you right up against the 6 month deadline to record a Mechanic’s Lien Statement.

A new subcontractor’s notice for the state of MISSOURI was added to PreLien2Lien.

MISSOURI Revised Statutes § 429.016 mandates that on New Residential projects, if an Owner or Builder records a Notice Of Intended Sale at least forty-five (45) days before the closing date of the sale, Subcontractors providing equipment, labor, materials or service must record with the County Recorder’s Office a MISSOURI Notice Of Rights at least five (5) days before the closing date to preserve their right to record a future Mechanic’s Lien for the project.

The required 10 (ten) day warning notice prior to a lien being recorded, the MISSOURI Subcontractor’s Notice Of Claim, is not required if a MISSOURI Notice Of Rights is recorded.

Here is a link to a recent news story in the Columbia Tribune that appeared in the October 7, 2010 edition.

I think a lot about my my first professional job out of colllege.  I drove frequently to MISSOURI for business trips there from 1988-1990.  Myself and my sparsely annoited Pontiac 6000 company car drove once every other month from my office alongside O’Hare Airport to St. Louis for five (5) hours to see my largest customer, Sigma-Aldrich Co., as the Midwest District Sales Manager for a trade journal magazine that is known today as Bioscience Technology.

I just finished entirely writing for PreLien2Lien thirty-six (36) new notices for the state of MISSOURI.  They also have (CTT) Custom Template Technology, enabling each template notice to be customized for a one-time $50 fee. 

MISSOURI is not a traditional 1st notice state for Subcontractors, but General/Prime Contractors do have to provide Owners with a Notice To Owner. It forewarns Owners that Subcontractors have a future right to lien if payment is not made to them.  It also advises them to request payment waivers (Partial/Full Conditional/Unconditional waivers and releases for payments made to “persons” supplying labor or materials for a project.

General/Prime/Sub Contractors (Private Projects): MISSOURI Revised Statutes § 429-080 mandate that a General/Prime/Sub contractors on a commercial or residential project must record a Lien Statement with the Clerk of the District Court in the county where a project you provided construction related equipment, labor, materials or services is located. It must be recorded within six (6) months after the last day of supplying equipment, labor, materials, labor or services to a project.