Ontario, Canada

Ontario lien deadline calculator

Enter your dates. Preservation, perfection and the annual holdback cycle are counted with the periods in the Construction Act, and each date shows what it was counted from.

Your dates

Your last supply, or the job being certified, completed, abandoned or terminated. The earliest one starts the lien clocks, and if you hold the head contract your own last day is not one of them.

Holdback is released annually on the contract anniversary, so the anniversaries are counted from this date.

The owner publishes a notice of annual release of holdback. Publication opens the payment window.

Nothing has been counted yet

Enter a date and its deadlines appear here. A date you have not given produces no deadline rather than a guess.

Worked example

A job that ended a month ago, counted

Last supply Aug 29, 2026, on a contract signed Aug 24, 2025. Same engine and the same sections of the Construction Act the answer above uses, dated from today.

Last day to preserve a lien

In 30 days

Oct 28, 2026

A lien has to be preserved by registering it, or it is gone. This date cannot be extended.

Counted as 60 days from the date you entered (2026-08-29).

Construction Act s.31

Last day to perfect that lien

In 120 days

Jan 26, 2027

A preserved lien has to be perfected by starting an action, or it expires.

Counted as 90 days from the last day for preservation (2026-10-28).

Construction Act s.36

Form 6 notice due

In 344 days

Sep 7, 2027

Holdback is released once a year now. The owner has to publish a Form 6 notice of annual release of holdback within 14 days after the contract anniversary. Until it is published, nothing starts running.

Counted as 14 days from the 2nd anniversary of your contract (2027-08-24, counted from 2025-08-24); this contract was signed before 2026-01-01, so under the s.87.4 transition its first annual release is the second anniversary falling on or after that date (2027-08-24), and it sweeps all the holdback accrued until then.

Construction Act s.26(3) and s.87.4, Form 6 (O. Reg. 303/18 s.2(6))

Open this example and put your own dates in

Questions this page answers

How long do I have to preserve a construction lien in Ontario?
Sixty days. For a subcontractor or supplier they run from the earliest of your last supply to the job, the certification or declaration of substantial performance, and the contract being completed, abandoned or terminated. If you hold the head contract your own last day on site is not one of the triggers at all: your sixty days run from publication of substantial performance or from the contract ending.
How long do I have to perfect a lien after preserving it?
Ninety days, and they are counted from the last day you could have preserved, not from the day you actually registered. Perfecting means starting an action and registering a certificate of action against the title. Registering on day 60 does not buy you extra time at the other end.
Can a construction lien deadline be extended?
No. There is no extension, no discretion and no grace period. It is the one date in a contracting business that cannot be recovered once it has gone, which is why it is worth counting the day the job ends rather than the week the money goes quiet.
What happens to the money if I miss the lien deadline?
The lien is gone. The debt is not: you can still sue on the contract, and while the contract is live the dispute can go to adjudication under the Construction Act. What you lose is the security over the property, which is usually the only reason a slow payer moves at all.
When does holdback actually get released in Ontario?
Annually, on the contract anniversary. The owner publishes a Form 6 notice of annual release of holdback within fourteen days after the anniversary, and the holdback is then payable no earlier than sixty days and no later than seventy-four days after publication. Publication of substantial performance does not release holdback by itself, so a job certified in March with an August anniversary waits for August.
Does the lien clock depend on when I invoiced?
No. Lien clocks run on supply and on the contract ending, not on your paperwork, so an unbilled month of work can still be lienable and a paid invoice restarts nothing. The clock that runs on the invoice is prompt payment, and that is a different calculator.

Or have the clock run on the job instead of in your head

Set the job up once and preservation, perfection and the holdback cycle count themselves. They turn amber inside a week and red once they have gone, so the date that cannot be recovered is a red row on your screen rather than something you remember late.

The holdback comes off every Ontario invoice automatically, HST is calculated on the full value of the work, and every held dollar sits on a countdown until the day it becomes claimable. No monthly charge for any of it.

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