• New Hampshire is an UNPAID BALANCE lien state.
• Effective January 1, 2013, labor for professional design, engineering, or surveying services used in the prosecution of such work is similarly a basis for a lien on the real property improved by those services (assuming that the improvements have actually been made). In addition, lessors of equipment used to improve real property are not mentioned in the statute, but are likely to be deemed entitled to a mechanic's lien providing they are within two tiers below the prime contractor.

Notice Speed Bumps

• The notice in NH is not a pre-requisite to fling a lien, but failure of a subcontractor or supplier to give the owner Notice of Intent to Lien will limit the amount of the lien to whatever remains due from the owner to the prime contractor at the time of instituting a lien action.
• The 1^st or original notice (Notice of Intent to Lien) may be given either before starting their work or furnishing their materials (in which case the amount of their lien will be fully protected), or after commencement or completion of their performance (in which case the amount of their lien will be capped by the amount due or thereafter to become due) under the prime contract as of the date the Owner receives the Notice of Intent to Lien. The original notice retains your lien rights for the entire project.
• In addition, subcontractors and suppliers who furnish a Notice of Intent to Lien to an Owner may thereafter, at least as often as once every 30 days, provide the Owner with an updated account of the amount currently owed to them. (The first such statement of account can be included in the original Notice of Intent if it is served after work has commenced.) Failure to do so will cap a mechanic's lien at the amount recited in the last such accounting.

Mechanic’s Lien Speed Bumps

• A mechanic’s lien attachment is not subject to New Hampshire’s $100,000 homestead exemption in favor of a residential owner ($200,000 total if the residence is jointly owned).
• The subcontractor/materialman’s lien attaches to any money due or to become due from the state or any political subdivision if filed within 90 days after completion and acceptance of the project by the contracting party.
  Foreclosure Speed Bumps
• Unlike most states in which a Lien may be recorded and then a legal action started thereafter, New Hampshire combines these two steps into one.

• The Bond Claim Filing is required with the secretary of state on state jobs, or with the department of public works and highways if that agency is a party, or, in all other cases, with the clerk of the superior court for the county where the contract is primarily to be performed, with copy mailed to principal and to surety, or the claim is void. [§§ 447:15, 447:17].