Alaska Notice of Right to Lien

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   Alaska's early notice is the AS 34.35.064 notice of right to lien, handed to the owner or the owner's agent before furnishing begins. In the ordinary case nothing goes on record in any Alaska recording district, and it asks the owner for nothing.

2. 2

   Alaska does not compel it. AS 34.35.064(a) says a person may give the notice and names no class that must, which leaves a prime contractor, a subcontractor, a materialman and an equipment supplier in the same position: free to give it, free not to.

3. 3

   What it buys is the burden of proof. Given in accordance with the section, the owner must show it did not know of or consent to your furnishing. Skipped, that showing is yours, and knowledge and consent are exactly what gets fought over on an absentee-owner job.

4. 4

   AS 34.35.120(9) controls delivery, and it is stricter than it looks: first-class mail AND a form of mail requiring a signed receipt, or delivery with a receipt signed by the recipient or an agent. An owner is reached at the owner's last known address. A plain letter with no receipt is not notice here.

5. 5

   Seven items are mandatory: a legal description sufficient for identification, the owner's name, your name and address, the name and address of the party you contracted with, a general description of what you supply, a statement that you may be entitled to record a claim of lien, and the statutory WARNING in type no smaller than the rest.

6. 6

   Giving it switches on an accounting duty. On request from an owner, lender or prime contractor, AS 34.35.064(b) gives you five days to produce the most recent accounting of the amount due and unpaid under your contract, plus a description of what you reasonably anticipate furnishing.

7. 7

   It also buys advance warning. AS 34.35.071(a)(2) makes an owner alert every claimant who gave one, five days ahead of recording a notice of completion, with a copy enclosed. Give nothing and you are told nothing, and AS 34.35.068(b)(1) then allows 15 days from that recording to get a notice of right to lien on record.

Alaska Requirements for Preliminary Notice

• Given Before Furnishing, With No Day Count

  AS 34.35.064(a) begins Before furnishing labor, material, service, or equipment for a project, a person may give a notice of right to lien. Alaska attaches no number of days, so the first hour on site or the first load out of the yard is the line. Send it at order entry.

• Optional in Alaska, and What It Buys Is the Burden of Proof

  The statute says a person may give it and names nobody who must. Given in accordance with the section, the owner carries the burden of showing it did not know of or consent to the claimant's furnishing; skipped, the claimant carries the burden of showing the owner knew and consented. Alaska's legislature site refuses automated access, so this text is corroborated from independent published copies of the code; attorney review is available as an option.

• Owner or Owner's Agent Only

  AS 34.35.064(a) names the owner or the owner's agent and nobody else. No statutory copy goes to the prime contractor and none to the construction lender. Reaching the lender is a separate instrument, the stop-lending notice in AS 34.35.062(a), used when payment is past due. AS 34.35.120(13) defines an owner as a person who owns the property or a possessory interest and who enters into a contract for a project on it.

• Seven Required Items Plus the Opening Declaration

  It must be in writing and state that it is a notice of a right to assert a lien against real property for labor, materials, services, or equipment furnished in connection with a project. Then: a legal description sufficient for identification, the owner's name, the claimant's name and address, the name and address of the party the claimant contracted with, a general description of what is supplied, a statement that the claimant may be entitled to record a claim of lien, and the statutory warning.

• The Prescribed WARNING and Its Type Size

  AS 34.35.064(a)(7) supplies the words and controls the type: WARNING: Unless provision is made for payment of sums that may be due to the undersigned, your above property may be subject to foreclosure to satisfy those sums even though you may pay a prime contractor or other person for the labor, material, service, or equipment furnished by the undersigned. It must be in type no smaller than that used for the other six items.

• First-Class Mail Plus a Signed-Receipt Service, or Delivery Against a Receipt

  AS 34.35.120(9) defines giving notice as mailing by first-class mail and by using a form of mail requiring a signed receipt, or delivering it and obtaining a receipt signed by the person it is directed to or an agent. It is effective when given or delivered to an owner at the owner's last known address. An ordinary letter with no receipt is not notice in Alaska.

• The Signed Receipt Is the Proof, and the Five-Day Accounting Duty

  Alaska builds the proof into the delivery rule rather than into a separate affidavit: the signed receipt from the mail service or the hand delivery is the evidence, and no certificate of service is filed. AS 34.35.064(b) adds a duty running the other way. On request from an owner, lender or prime contractor, a claimant who gave it has five days to produce the most recent accounting of the amount due and unpaid under the contract and a description of what it reasonably anticipates furnishing.

• Notice of Completion: Five Days Warning, or a 15-Day Clock

  AS 34.35.071(a)(2) makes an owner alert every claimant who had given the owner and the lender a notice of right to lien at least five days ahead of recording a notice of completion, enclosing a copy. A claimant who gave nothing is told nothing, and under AS 34.35.068(b)(1) a notice of right to lien then has to be on record not later than 15 days after the notice of completion is recorded. Getting one on record before or inside that period keeps the longer period AS 34.35.068(a) allows.