A completed renovation may still leave a title question if a contractor, subcontractor or supplier records a claim. Gathering the contract, notices, payment records and lien waivers before listing gives the title company more time to review them.

How an unpaid claim affects a sale

An unpaid bill does not stop a closing. A recorded mechanic's lien stops a closing, because it is a claim against the title, and title is what a buyer's lender and the closing agent are clearing.

In Indiana a contractor working on a one or two family house has 60 days after performing the labor or furnishing the materials to record a notice of intention to hold a lien. Once it is recorded the lien is created, and it relates back to the first day that person started work. The owner then has two ways to force the issue, both in the same chapter.

Who can file one, and against what

IC 32-28-3-1 reaches further than the general contractor. Contractors, subcontractors, mechanics, lessors of equipment, journeymen, laborers and "any other person performing labor or furnishing materials or machinery" for a building or structure can hold a lien, and it attaches to the owner's interest in the parcel "to the extent of the value of any labor done or the material furnished." That is why a paid invoice to your general contractor is not by itself an answer. The subcontractor and the supplier have their own claims.

The notice they had to give you first

Indiana makes notice a condition of having the lien at all on an owner occupied one or two family dwelling, and the deadline depends on which kind of job it was.

  • Altering or repairing an owner occupied one or two family dwelling: written notice of the work and of the lien rights has to reach the occupying owner within 30 days after the first delivery or the first labor. IC 32-28-3-1(h) makes that notice "a condition precedent to acquiring a lien."
  • Original construction of a one or two family dwelling for the owner's occupancy: the notice has to reach the owner and a copy has to be filed with the county recorder within 60 days after the first delivery or labor. Both steps are a condition precedent under IC 32-28-3-1(i).

So the first question about a lien on a house like this is not whether the money is owed. It is whether that notice was given on time, and that is a question for an attorney with the file in front of them, not for me.

The 60 day clock, and why it outlives the job

IC 32-28-3-3 sets the filing window by the kind of structure. For a Class 2 structure, or an improvement on the same real estate auxiliary to one, the notice of intention to hold a lien is filed "not later than sixty (60) days after performing labor or furnishing materials or machinery." For other structures it is 90 days. A Class 2 structure, defined at IC 22-12-1-5, is a townhouse or a building intended to contain only one or two dwelling units, plus the outbuildings that serve it, "such as a garage, barn, or family swimming pool."

The notice goes in duplicate to the recorder's office of the county, and it has to state the amount claimed, the claimant's name and address, the owner's name and latest address as shown on the county's property tax records, and the legal description and street address of the land. The recorder mails one duplicate to the owner by first class mail "not later than three (3) business days after recordation," records the mailing date, and collects a two dollar fee from the claimant for each statement mailed.

Read that calendar against a listing calendar and the practical point falls out. A job that wrapped in March can still produce a recorded claim in May, which is after the photographs, after the sign, and possibly after the inspection. The 60 days runs from the work, not from the invoice and not from the argument about the invoice.

Two clocks that run in your favor

The chapter also sets out procedures by which an owner can require action on a recorded lien.

  • The 30 day demand. Under IC 32-28-3-10 the owner, or another party with an interest such as a mortgagee, can give the lienholder written notice to "file an action to foreclose the lien." The lienholder then has 30 days from receiving it. Miss that, and the lien is void. The statute is explicit that this does not wipe out the underlying debt, which can still be collected by ordinary means. It kills the claim against the title, which is the part that was holding up the closing.
  • The one year limit. Under IC 32-28-3-6 the complaint to enforce the lien has to be filed no later than one year after the statement and notice was recorded, or after the expiration of a credit if one was given in writing and recorded. If it is not enforced in that period, "the lien is void."

There is also a release route inside a foreclosure. IC 32-28-3-11 lets the owner, or any person with an interest in the property including a mortgagee, file a written undertaking with surety approved by the court, agreeing to pay a judgment including costs and the attorney's fees the court allows. Once the court approves it, the court "shall" enter an order releasing the property from the lien.

That is the mechanism behind the sentence a closing agent sometimes uses, that the claim can be bonded around so the sale can close.

The no lien contract, and the buyer who had no notice

Two more provisions matter to a seller. First, IC 32-28-3-1(e) through (g) lets an owner and a principal contractor agree in writing that a lien may not attach to the real estate for work on a Class 2 structure. To hold up against subcontractors and suppliers the agreement has to be in writing, carry a legal description, be acknowledged the way deeds are, and be recorded with the county recorder "not more than five (5) days after the date of execution." Work supplied before that contract is filed is not affected by it.

If you signed something like that for a renovation, whether it was recorded inside five days is a title question worth answering before you list.

Second, IC 32-28-3-1(j) says a lien for original construction does not attach to property bought by an innocent purchaser for value without notice, unless the notice of intention to hold the lien was recorded before the purchaser's deed was recorded. That is a buyer protection, and it is one reason the title search is the moment this surfaces.

What this means if you are listing after a remodel

Where substantial work has been done in the last year, discuss early title work with the closing professionals. A recorded claim found in April leaves a different timetable from one found eight days before closing.

Whether a particular lien is valid, whether the notice you received was timely, how to get one released, and whether to bond around it are questions for an Indiana real estate attorney. What is on your title and what the closing agent will require to clear it belong to the title company. What you owe a contractor is between you and the contractor, and I am not going to referee that from the listing side.

The sellers page covers what the rest of a listing calendar looks like, how you prove the old mortgage is gone is the same kind of title question from a different direction, and stay, change or move is where the renovation question goes before the invoices exist.

Source: Indiana Code IC 32-28-3-1, 32-28-3-3, 32-28-3-5, 32-28-3-6, 32-28-3-10 and 32-28-3-11, and the Class 2 structure definition at IC 22-12-1-5, read at law.justia.com on October 14, 2026. Justia states its codes may not be the most recent version, so the official Indiana Code controls.

This note is general information about a statute, not legal advice, and it is not a statement about any lien on any particular house. Lien questions go to an Indiana real estate attorney and to your title company.