Preliminary Notice/Notice to Owner (NTO)

BICA saves you time and money by researching, verifying and sending out your job payment-securing notices nationwide. You may know these notices as a Preliminary Notice, Notice to Owner, Notice to Contractor, Notice of Right to Lien and other names on a state-by-state basis.  Often a different notice or different requirements exist in the same state depending on whether the job is Commercial, Residential or Public.

Please watch this short video that explains our lien and notice services:

Every one of these statutory notices to preserve your lien rights, or to trap funds (stop notices, etc.) is a verification service that BICA provides.

With the sometimes limited information you have access to, you can rely on BICA to verify the entities that need a notice in order to preserve your rights. Whether the notice is required to be sent to the landowner, the tenant, a construction lender, original contractor or bonding company, BICA will get the appropriate notice out to the appropriate entity.

If a state has certain requirements for securing your lien rights, such as relying on a Notice of Commencement or Mechanics Lien Agent filing, BICA will complete the necessary search and filings. If there is a state filing service, such as in Utah, BICA will search for the project on the state filing websites and file the appropriate document.

Specifically, depending on the laws of the state, BICA will:

• File the notice in a State Construction Registry
• Record the notice with the County Recorder
• Request the Notice of Commencement for the job and revise and resend any notice using that information
• Locate Mechanics’ Lien Agent information and send or file the required MLA notice
• Alert you when repeated monthly notices are required in states such as Texas, Tennessee and New Hampshire.
• Carefully follow the lien laws of each state, for example mechanics liens in California, Texas, or Illinois are different

Mechanics’ Lien and Stop Payment Notice (Notices to Trap Funds)

BICA’s Mechanics’ Lien and Stop Payment Notice preparation services make the most of our research abilities and expertise. We can also record your Mechanics’ Lien documents for you.

Once you determine that a Mechanics Lien or other Statutory notice is need to secure your job-related receivable, BICA can prepare the required document on your behalf in many states, or refer you to a construction attorney if necessary. BICA will also re-verify the owner and/or tenant to perfect the notice and then serve or record the appropriate documents.

Read our guide on how to file your lien.

Waivers & Releases

Once BICA has verified and sent out your up-front notice, you will have access to our web-based portal to create waiver and releases in every state. When a state has a statutory waiver or release, BICA follows those documents completely. When there is no statutory waiver or release, BICA provides generic releases for your use. All of the waivers and releases are available for your use at NO ADDED CHARGE to all clients that use BICA to prepare their notices.

Statutory Follow-up Notices

Most states require what BICA calls “Follow-up Notices”. Typically, these notices must be sent prior to recording a mechanics lien or making a claim on the bond.  This includes notices such as the “Notice of Intent”, “Balance Due Notice”, “Notice of Non-Payment”, “90-Day Notice”, and many others.  Most of these can be sent with a click on our web portal.  In rarer cases where special handlings are required, BICA can prepare these notices for our clients by working with BICA staff.

View all of our lien and notice services by state.