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Are there situations where an NOC/MLNR # are not required on IA residential jobs?

We have an Iowa residential job for which we were the GC. We started it in fall 2019 and finished recently. Some of what we are hearing is that we need/needed to have a filed NOC(notice of commencement) on this project to be able to lien the job, and that the lien should list the MLNR number from the NOC. We also read that certain rules about NOCs were only recently updated or changed, and we might not have to do an NOC for this job because it started before the rules were changed. Can you please provide some insight? can we file the IA residential lien without having to do an NOC?

1 reply

Feb 26, 2020

For general contractors to be able to preserve their Iowa mechanics lien rights on residential projects, they must comply with the two requirements at the outset of the project. Before we jump into the notice requirements, to answer one of your questions; no. There is no statutory requirement for the MNLR number to be on a lien claim. However, since it is filed through the MNLR website and will reference the NOC, it will likely be tagged automatically.

Iowa Notice of Commencement requirements

If the project is residential, and the GC has or plans to hire any subcontractors, then a Iowa Notice of Commencement (NOC) is required to secure mechanics lien rights; under Iowa Code §572.13A. It should be filed with the IA MNLR website within 10 days of the start of the project. A GC's failure to post the NOC within that deadline is fatal to their mechanics lien rights.

Note: There haven't been any amendments to the Iowa Notice of Commencement statute that went into effect since 2017

Iowa Notice to Owner on residential projects

In addition to the NOC, Iowa Code §§572.13 also requires that certain mechanics lien information be provided to the residential property owner. This can be included in either the contract itself or in a separate document. The language can be found here. Here are some additional resources you may find helpful:

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