San Benito County Recorder Mechanics Lien Filing

You can file your mechanic liens in person at the San Benito County Recorder’s office located at:

40 Fifth Street
Second Floor Room 206
Hollister, CA 95023

Recordings from 9:00am – 4:00pm. 9:00 – 9:15 reserved for Title Co.

Phone: 831.636.4046
Fax: 831.636.2939
eMail: CClerk@cosb.us

The San Benito County Recorder does not publicly disclose information on recording backlog but you can give them a call at 831.636.4046 for an estimated time to process your lien.

If the project is located in San Benito county, then yes, you will want to record your lien with the San Benito County Recorder’s office.

Generally, to file a mechanics lien in San Benito County you should 1) Meet all California Mechanics Lien requirements including having sent a 20-day Preliminary Notice. 2) Meet all county document filing requirements, which include printing your lien on 8.5 x 11 inch paper using .5 inch margins, except at the top of the first page where you should use a 2.5inch margin. 3) Pay all appropriate and required filing fees for the county to record your document. Not paying the filing fees in full could mean delayed processing or a rejected lien.

The page size requirements to file a lien require all pages be the standard 8-1/2″x11″ page size. A fee will be charged for each page that is not 8-1/2″x 11″. The top margin of the first page of your lien filing should be 2.5 inches with all other margins being .5 inches. All other pages of your lien filing should have .5 inch margins on every side.

To make payment to the San Benito County Recorder, make checks payable to: SBC CLERK/RECORDER . 

The San Benito County Recorder’s regular recording fee is $15.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page.

Additional Recording Fees

Non-conforming page size: $3.00 for each page other than 8-1/2″x11″

Penalty print: $1.00 per page

Indexing fee: $1.00 for each additional group of 10 names indexed (ea group of 10 names after 1st 10 names

Release of lien by a local government entity (other than
Federal): $15.00

Copy Fees

Official Copy: $5.00 for the first page and $2.00 for each additional page
Certified Copy: $20.00 for the for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page

Conformed Copy: $2.00 each copy (if copy provided for conforming (2 max.)

You can obtain a recorded copy of your lien in person at the San Benito County Recorder’s office.

You can search and request copies of official recording using the San Benito County Clerk Recorder’s Office Self Service Web.

To obtain a property’s legal description, you can visit the County Recorder offices to search through the public records or you can search for the description online in the San Benito County self-service portal. 

Determining whether you do or do not have a mechanics lien right can be tricky. Generally speaking, every state gives those who have furnished labor and/or materials to a construction project the right to file a mechanics lien if unpaid for the furnishing. The same is true in California. However, there are some state-specific limitations as to who is qualified to file a mechanics lien that is important when considering whether you have the right to file a mechanics lien in San Benito County, California.

Great and detailed information about this is available on our California Mechanics Lien Resources Page.

The fee to file a California Preliminary Notice in San Benito County is $50.00.