Georgia subcontractors can file a mechanic's lien within 90 days of their last day of labor or materials and must file suit to enforce it within 365 days. Parisi Law Firm helps Northeast Georgia subs protect their lien rights, review subcontracts before signing, and collect on unpaid work. Call (404) 594-5130 for a consultation.
You show up, you do the work, and you do it right. That's the easy part. The hard part is what happens after — chasing a general contractor for a draw that's three weeks late, getting told the owner hasn't paid yet so you won't either, or discovering a clause buried in your subcontract that shifts all the risk of nonpayment onto you. Subcontractors carry the labor, materials, and overhead of a job long before they ever see the money for it, which means a slow-paying or bad-faith GC can put your business in a real cash crunch fast.
Jerry Parisi has spent his career representing Northeast Georgia trade businesses — the framers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, painters, and specialty subs who make up the backbone of the region's construction industry. He knows the subcontract language GCs use to avoid paying, the lien deadlines that protect you when they try it, and the leverage points that get unpaid subs paid. Whether you need a contract reviewed before you sign, a lien filed, or a GC held to account, Parisi Law Firm is a one-stop legal partner for Jefferson and Northeast Georgia subcontractors.
The subcontractor's #1 problem: getting paid
Subcontractors sit in the middle of the payment chain — below the owner, below the general contractor, and often below other tiers of subs and suppliers on larger jobs. That position means you're usually the last to get paid and the first to be blamed when money runs short. A GC who overcommitted on a bid, an owner who's slow to fund draws, or a project that runs into disputes upstream can all leave you holding unpaid invoices for work you already completed and already paid your crew and suppliers for.
The good news is that Georgia law doesn't leave subcontractors without recourse. Between mechanic's lien rights, bond claims on public work, and straightforward breach-of-contract remedies, subs have real tools to force payment — but every one of those tools runs on a deadline. Waiting to see if the check eventually shows up is the single most common way subcontractors lose their leverage.
Lien rights for subcontractors in Georgia
Georgia's mechanic's lien statute isn't limited to the contractor who signed directly with the property owner. Subcontractors, materialmen, laborers, and design professionals who furnish labor or materials that improve a property can claim lien rights of their own — even though your contract is with the general contractor, not the owner.
To preserve that right, you have to move on the statutory clock. In Georgia, a claim of lien must be filed within 90 days of the last day you furnished labor or materials to the project, in the superior court clerk's office of the county where the property sits. A copy of the filed lien must then be sent to the property owner within 2 business days of filing. Filing the lien is only step one — to actually enforce it, you must file suit within 365 days of the date it was filed, or the lien expires and becomes worthless no matter how clearly the money is owed.
Depending on your position on the job and whether a Notice of Commencement was filed at the start of the project, preliminary-notice steps may also apply to preserve your full lien rights. We review the project paperwork early — ideally before you're already chasing a late payment — so nothing gets missed when it's time to file.
Pay-if-paid vs. pay-when-paid clauses and flow-down provisions
Two of the most consequential clauses in any subcontract are ones many subs never read closely before signing: the payment-contingency clause and the flow-down provision. Both are designed to shift risk from the general contractor onto you.
A pay-if-paid clause says the GC only owes you money if and when the owner pays the GC — meaning if the owner never pays, the GC can argue it never has to pay you either, even though you completed your work. A pay-when-paid clause is different: it may delay when payment is due, but it generally doesn't erase the GC's underlying obligation to pay you eventually. Georgia courts scrutinize this kind of language closely, and whether a particular clause functions as a true condition (pay-if-paid) or merely a timing mechanism (pay-when-paid) often comes down to precise wording. Flow-down clauses compound the risk by binding you to obligations, deadlines, and dispute procedures from the prime contract — a document you may never have even seen before signing your sub-tier agreement.
None of this means you're stuck. We review this language before you sign and, when a dispute arises under a contract you've already signed, we fight for interpretations that don't let a GC dodge payment simply because a step above it in the chain hasn't paid.
Review your subcontract before you sign — not after
The best time to deal with an unfair subcontract is before you sign it, when you can still negotiate or walk away. Once you're mid-project, the leverage shifts entirely to the GC. We review subcontracts for the terms that matter most to your bottom line and your ability to get paid.
- Payment terms — timing, retainage, and whether pay-if-paid or pay-when-paid language is buried in the fine print
- Scope of work — precise enough to prevent scope creep and unpaid extra work
- Change-order procedures — how changes must be requested, documented, and priced
- Indemnification and insurance requirements that could expose your business beyond the job itself
- Flow-down provisions incorporating terms from a prime contract you haven't seen
- Termination and dispute-resolution clauses, including any arbitration or venue requirements
Bond claims on public projects
Mechanic's liens attach to real property — which is a problem when the property is owned by a government entity, because you generally can't lien government-owned land. Public construction projects in Georgia instead rely on payment bonds, which the prime contractor is typically required to post before work begins. If you're a subcontractor on a public job and you're not getting paid, your remedy usually runs through a claim against that payment bond rather than a mechanic's lien.
Bond claims come with their own notice requirements and deadlines set by the terms of the bond and the underlying project, so it's important to identify early whether you're working on public or private property and to confirm what bond is in place before payment problems start.
Scope and change-order disputes
One of the most common ways subs end up unpaid isn't an outright refusal to pay — it's a dispute over what was actually owed. A GC or owner directs extra work verbally, then disputes it wasn't authorized once the invoice comes in. Or the original scope was vague enough that both sides genuinely disagree about what was included in the base price.
Documentation is your best protection here: written change orders, signed field directives, photos, and daily logs all matter enormously when a scope dispute turns into a payment dispute. When those disputes can't be resolved with documentation alone, we help subs pursue the amounts they're actually owed for work performed, whether through negotiation, a lien, or litigation.
Collecting when the GC blames the owner
"The owner hasn't paid us yet" is one of the most common excuses subcontractors hear — and sometimes it's true, and sometimes it's a stall tactic. Either way, it's rarely a complete answer to why you haven't been paid for work you already finished. Depending on your contract language, lien rights, and the facts of the project, you may have real options even while a dispute plays out upstream between the GC and the owner.
We evaluate your subcontract, your lien deadlines, and the payment chain above you to identify the fastest realistic path to payment — whether that's a demand letter, a mechanic's lien, a bond claim, or a lawsuit for breach of contract.
Pay-if-paid vs. Pay-when-paid
| Clause | What it means | Risk to you |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-if-paid | GC's duty to pay you is conditioned on the owner first paying the GC | If the owner never pays, the GC may argue it owes you nothing, even for completed work |
| Pay-when-paid | Payment to you may be delayed until the GC is paid, but the underlying obligation to pay generally still exists | Payment can be significantly delayed, but the debt itself is not necessarily eliminated |
| Ambiguous / poorly drafted | Contract language doesn't clearly establish which type of clause applies | Creates a dispute over interpretation that can be litigated — precise wording controls the outcome |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a subcontractor file a mechanic's lien in Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's lien statute extends to subcontractors, materialmen, laborers, and design professionals, not just the contractor who signed directly with the property owner. If you furnished labor or materials that improved the property, you likely have lien rights even without a direct contract with the owner.
What is a pay-if-paid clause and is it enforceable?
A pay-if-paid clause conditions the GC's obligation to pay you on the owner first paying the GC. Whether such a clause is enforceable as written depends on precise contract language, and Georgia courts scrutinize this kind of language closely. We review your subcontract to determine how a specific clause is likely to be interpreted.
What deadlines apply to a subcontractor's lien?
You must file the claim of lien within 90 days of your last day of labor or materials, in the superior court clerk's office of the county where the property sits, and then file suit to enforce it within 365 days of the filing date. Miss either deadline and you generally lose your lien rights.
Should I sign a subcontract without a lawyer reviewing it?
It's risky. Subcontracts routinely contain payment-contingency clauses, flow-down provisions, and change-order procedures that shift significant risk onto you, and those terms are far easier to negotiate before you sign than to fight over after a payment dispute arises.
How do I get paid when the GC says the owner hasn't paid them?
That excuse isn't automatically a complete defense to what you're owed. Depending on your contract language, lien rights, and the payment chain above you, options can include a demand letter, a mechanic's lien, a bond claim on public work, or a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the GC directly.