Your Payment Rights
Have a Deadline.
We Enforce Them.

Under the Ontario Construction Act, you generally have 60 days from the last day you supplied services or materials to preserve a lien by registering it on title. This clock starts from the last day of supply — not from the date the invoice was submitted or when payment was refused.

Missing the 60-day deadline permanently extinguishes your lien rights. There is no application you can bring. No equitable relief. No curative discretion. The right is gone. If you are unsure where you are in this window, call us immediately.

Ontario's prompt payment regime requires owners to pay a proper invoice within 28 days. If the owner disputes the invoice, they must issue a notice of non-payment within 14 days. If the contractor or subcontractor disagrees, they can refer the dispute to adjudication.

Adjudication is a fast-track binding process: the adjudicator must render a decision within approximately 30 days of referral. That decision is immediately enforceable as a court order, even if the underlying dispute continues in litigation. It is one of the most powerful payment enforcement tools available in Ontario construction law.

The Construction Act requires every owner to retain 10% of the price of each contract as a statutory holdback. This holdback exists as a fund from which lien claimants can be paid. It is not the owner's money to deploy freely — it is a statutory trust.

The holdback cannot generally be released until the lien period for the contract expires without a lien being registered, or until all liens have been vacated. Early release of holdback can expose the owner to direct personal liability to lien claimants who were not paid from it. This is a common — and costly — mistake on large and fast-moving projects.

The Construction Act imposes statutory trust obligations on every party who receives funds on a construction project. Owners hold money received from mortgagees or other sources in trust for contractors. Contractors hold amounts received from owners in trust for subcontractors and suppliers.

When those funds are diverted — used for corporate overheads, other projects, or personal expenses instead of paying down the construction pyramid — it constitutes a breach of trust and, under the Act, fraud. Directors and officers of corporations can be personally liable for these breaches. Trust claims can be asserted even in the insolvency of the contractor or owner, making them a powerful recovery tool in distressed projects.

Missing the 60-day lien window does not necessarily mean all remedies are gone. The lien right is extinguished — but your underlying contractual claim for payment survives and is governed by Ontario's general two-year limitation period under the Limitations Act, 2002.

Depending on the circumstances, you may also have trust claims, claims in unjust enrichment, breach of contract actions, or adjudication rights that remain available. You should consult a construction lawyer immediately to assess what remedies remain — do not assume nothing can be done.

Yes, but the rules for liens on condominium and multi-unit developments can be complex, particularly around which parcel(s) the lien attaches to and the interaction with the Condominium Act, 1998.

Where a project involves a leasehold interest, a municipal improvement, or a Crown land project, the lien mechanisms differ significantly from standard freehold construction. These fact-specific issues require careful legal analysis before a lien is registered. An improperly described or wrongly placed lien can be vacated — so getting it right on first registration matters.

These are two distinct and sequential legal steps:

Preservation means registering the lien on title to the property within the 60-day window. This is the urgent step that stops the clock and puts all parties — including mortgagees — on notice.

Perfection means commencing a court action (issuing a Statement of Claim) and registering a Certificate of Action on title. This must be done within 45 days of the earlier of: (a) the date the lien was preserved; or (b) the date an order was made for vacating the lien. A preserved but unperfected lien will expire and cannot be enforced. Both steps are required to create an enforceable lien that can ultimately result in a court order against the property.

A lien can be vacated from title in two main ways:

Payment into court or bond: The owner (or their lender) can post the amount of the lien plus a prescribed percentage into court, or obtain a lien bond from a surety. The lien then comes off title and the dispute proceeds over the posted security — this is the most common path when the owner wants to proceed with financing or a sale.

Court order vacating for defect: If the lien was improperly registered — wrong property, expired deadline, technical deficiency — the owner can bring a motion to vacate based on those grounds. We act for owners on both types of vacating applications, and advise on the fastest and most cost-effective path in each situation.