The general builders lien deadline in Alberta is 60 days, with 90 days applying to concrete work and to work on oil and gas wells and well sites. Each runs from the last day you provided services or furnished materials, not from the date you invoiced. Registering inside that window is only the first requirement, because a registered lien also has to be backed by a court action within a further deadline or it ceases to exist.
Key Takeaways
- Most construction work carries a 60-day lien registration deadline in Alberta.
- Concrete work and oil and gas well work carry 90 days.
- The clock runs from the last day of work or materials, not from your invoice date.
- A registered lien expires unless an action is commenced within 180 days.
- Owners hold back 10 percent of the contract price as a lien fund.
- Missing the lien deadline removes a remedy, not the debt.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Lien eligibility and deadlines depend on the facts of each contract, and registration should be handled with legal input.
The Three Registration Deadlines
Alberta’s Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act sets different registration periods depending on the type of work performed.
| Type of work | Registration deadline |
| General construction work and materials | 60 days |
| Work relating to concrete | 90 days |
| Oil or gas well or well site | 90 days |
Why the Distinction Catches People Out
A contractor working across several project types can easily apply the wrong deadline to the wrong file. The 90-day periods are exceptions tied to specific work, not a general allowance for anyone in construction.
The safest operating assumption is 60 days unless you have confirmed your work falls into one of the longer categories. Registering early is never a problem. Discovering on day 75 that you were on the shorter clock is unfixable.
When the Clock Starts
The period runs from the last day that services were performed or materials were furnished under the contract, or from the date the work was abandoned.
That is a different date from the one most businesses track. It is not the invoice date, not the date payment became due, and not the date the customer stopped answering. A supplier who delivered final materials in June and invoiced in July is working from the June date, and treating the invoice as the trigger costs several weeks of a short window.
Where work has trailed off rather than finished cleanly, establishing the last day of substantive work is a judgment call worth getting legal input on before assuming you still have time. Firms handling builder’s liens regularly can assess that quickly.
Registering the Lien Is Only the First Deadline
This is where claimants who did everything right at the start still lose the lien.
The 180-Day Requirement
A registered lien does not sit on title indefinitely while you negotiate. An action must be commenced to enforce the lien, and a certificate of lis pendens registered at Land Titles, within 180 days. Service Alberta’s Land Titles procedures manual sets out the registration mechanics, including that the certificate is granted by the clerk of the Court of King’s Bench.
Treat this deadline as applying even where the lien has been discharged from title and replaced with security paid into court. Where a consent order sets its own timeline, confirm both dates and work to the earlier one. Missing the requirement means the lien ceases to exist, leaving the claimant with an ordinary debt claim and none of the leverage the lien was registered to create.
Diarize the 180-day date on the day you register, and treat a negotiation that is dragging toward that date as a decision point rather than a reason to keep waiting.
The Holdback and Why It Matters to You
Owners are required to hold back 10 percent of the contract price, and that fund is what liens are ultimately paid from.
Understanding this changes how you think about timing. The holdback is finite, and it is shared among lien claimants. A claimant who registers late, or who fails to preserve the lien through the 180-day step, is competing for a fund they may no longer have access to while others do.
For larger projects the picture is more involved, since contracts above $10 million with completion schedules longer than a year require holdback to be released progressively rather than held to the end. If you are working on a project of that size, ask how holdback release is structured before payment problems arise.
Is Your Contract Governed by the Current Act?
This question mattered a great deal in 2022 and 2023, and it is now largely settled.
All new construction contracts in Alberta have been subject to the Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act since August 29, 2022. Existing contracts scheduled to end before August 29, 2024 continued under the former Builders’ Lien Act, and those extending beyond that date had to become compliant by August 29, 2024.
The practical result is that almost every live contract now falls under the current Act. If you are dealing with a genuinely long-running legacy arrangement, confirm which regime applies rather than assuming.
What Happens If You Miss the Lien Deadline
An expired lien window does not extinguish what you are owed. The debt remains fully owing and fully collectable.
What you lose is leverage. A registered lien attaches to the property interest and creates pressure that a demand letter cannot replicate, because it complicates sale, refinancing, and the owner’s own payment obligations. Without it you are an unsecured creditor competing with everyone else the customer owes.
That changes the recovery route rather than ending it. Accounts past the lien window move to ordinary collection, and commercial debt collection on a construction receivable works the same way it does on any other unpaid invoice, with the two-year limitation period under Alberta’s Limitations Act as the outer constraint.
Suppliers of fabricated or specialty materials sit in a similar position. Where a manufacturing supplier missed the window on materials furnished to a project, the receivable is still pursuable against the party that ordered it.
What to Do Before the Clock Runs Out
Six steps, on a schedule rather than a hope:
- Record the last day of work or materials on every project, separately from the invoice date. This is the only date the deadline runs from.
- Calculate the deadline immediately and put it in the same system you use for payment terms.
- Confirm which period applies to the specific work before relying on anything longer than 60 days.
- Escalate at the halfway point. An account unpaid at day 30 on a 60-day clock needs a decision, not another reminder.
- Get lien eligibility assessed before the deadline, since whether particular work qualifies is a legal question and finding out afterward leaves nothing to do.
- Register, then diarize 180 days. The second deadline is the one people forget.
Common Questions About Alberta Builders Liens
The questions below account for most of the confusion.
How long do I have to file a lien in Alberta?
Sixty days for most work, and 90 days for concrete work and for work on oil or gas wells and well sites, running from the last day services were provided or materials furnished rather than from your invoice date.
Is there a minimum amount I can lien for?
Yes. The Act sets a minimum lien amount, so confirm the current figure before registering on a small balance. Amounts below it are pursued as ordinary debts.
I registered a lien and the owner paid money into court. Am I safe?
Not automatically. Treat the requirement to commence an action within 180 days as continuing to apply, and confirm the deadline in any consent order rather than assuming the security replaced it.
Can I lien if I contracted with the general contractor rather than the owner?
Subcontractors and suppliers generally have lien rights even without a direct contract with the owner, since the lien attaches to the improvement and the land. The analysis depends on your position in the chain and is worth confirming before the deadline.
The deadline passed. What are my options now?
Ordinary recovery, including placement through third-party collections and, where the balance justifies it, legal action. Acting quickly still matters, which is another version of the pattern described in the cost of delaying debt collection.
Does the prompt payment regime change any of this?
The same Act introduced payment timelines and an adjudication process that operate alongside lien rights. Those are a separate set of deadlines and remedies worth understanding on their own terms.
Track the Deadline, Then Decide
Lien rights are unforgiving in a way most commercial remedies are not. The window is short, it runs from a date most accounting systems do not record, and it closes whether or not anyone was watching.
If you are holding unpaid construction receivables, the first question is which ones still support registration and which have moved past it. Bison Credit Solutions recovers construction and supply receivables on a contingency basis, with no charge where nothing is collected, and maintains an in-house legal services team for accounts that require court action.
Contact Bison Credit Solutions to review unpaid project accounts and determine the right route for each one.
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