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The procedure in four parts

Oregon's construction-lien procedure under ORS Chapter 87 has four working parts that operate together:

1. A 75-day filing window measured from the last day labor or materials were furnished, or from completion of construction, whichever is earlier (ORS 87.035(1)).
2. The Information Notice to Owner (ORS 87.093) — delivered by your prime GC at signing on residential contracts over $2,000.
3. The Notice of Right to a Lien (ORS 87.021) — delivered by subs and suppliers during their work to preserve their lien rights.
4. A contractual release schedule — Oregon doesn't prescribe statutory waiver forms, so releases get drafted by your attorney or imported from your title company.

Anyone who furnishes labor, materials, equipment, or services to an improvement on real property — GC, sub, supplier, equipment renter, laborer — has lien rights under the chapter. Liens are recorded with the Multnomah County recorder and stay on title until released. The notices and the release schedule are the mechanism that surfaces who has lien rights and releases them as payments flow through.

The 75-day clock — ORS 87.035(1)

A claimant has 75 days to perfect (record) the lien, measured from the earlier of:

• the date the claimant last performed labor or supplied materials, or
• the date of completion of construction.

After 75 days with no recording, the lien right expires.

What this means for you: substantial completion isn't the all-clear. Title is fully clear 75 days after the last sub leaves the site — typically the landscape, paving, or punch-list crew, not the GC.

Two CCB-mandated notices, two purposes

Two notices that homeowners often confuse:

1. Information Notice to Owner — ORS 87.093

Your original (direct-contract) contractor has to deliver this written notice at the time of signing any residential construction or improvement contract over $2,000. It's a one-page CCB-template disclosure explaining that subs and suppliers can lien the property if the GC doesn't pay them.

Ask for the signed Information Notice at signing — it's routine for any CCB-licensed residential GC. If the GC doesn't deliver it, they forfeit their own lien rights against you under ORS 87.093(6) and are exposed to a CCB civil penalty of up to $5,000 under ORS 87.093(7). A GC who can't produce a signed copy on request is a CCB-compliance signal worth noting.

2. Notice of Right to a Lien — ORS 87.021

This is the notice that subs and suppliers (anyone furnishing under ORS 87.010(1)–(3),(5),(6) other than the original contractor in privity with the owner) deliver to you during construction. The form is prescribed at ORS 87.023.

One key detail in how it operates: it only protects the claimant's lien rights for materials or labor delivered after a date 8 business days before the notice was delivered or mailed (ORS 87.021(1)). A sub who starts on day 1 and serves the notice on day 60 only has lien rights for what they delivered after day 52.

Getting a Notice of Right to a Lien during construction is routine — it's a procedural protection, not a dispute. Treat it as a signal that the sender is on the property and add them to the release list for upcoming draws.

Lien releases — contractual, not statutory

Unlike Washington, which prescribes statutory waiver-and-release forms in RCW 60.04.071, Oregon doesn't prescribe statutory conditional/unconditional waiver forms. Lien releases here are a matter of contract.

The workable procedure mirrors WA's, just with custom forms drafted by your attorney or imported from your title company:

Release type	When	Who signs	What it does
Conditional partial release upon progress payment	At each progress payment	GC + every sub/supplier on that draw	Releases lien rights conditional on the check clearing.
Unconditional final release upon final payment	At final payment	GC + every sub/supplier who worked the project	Releases lien rights absolutely. Get this from everyone before final disbursement.

Use forms drafted (or reviewed) by an attorney licensed in Oregon, since the language isn't statutory.

How to operate the procedure

1. In the GC contract, require a current sub/supplier list with each progress draw.
2. At each draw, the GC delivers (a) signed conditional partial releases from every sub/supplier on that draw plus (b) a signed conditional release from the GC for the GC's own scope. Lender disbursement is conditioned on receipt.
3. At final payment, switch to unconditional final releases from everyone who appeared on any draw, plus unconditional final from the GC. Hold final retainage until all are in.
4. Then run the 75-day clock anyway. Even with full releases, watch the Multnomah County recorder for liens for 75 days from the last on-site work. Recording a lien against a fully-released project is rare but it happens.

When this matters most

• Cost-plus contracts without a tight release procedure. You pay the GC, the GC pays subs late, subs record liens. You've paid in full and still have clouded title.
• Refinancing or selling within a year of completion. Title companies will ask about pending or recently-released liens. A clean release file at handoff makes this a 10-minute conversation.
• Bankruptcy of the GC during the project. Subs paid through the GC may not have been paid; their lien rights are against your property, not the GC's bankruptcy estate.

Informational framing

This is general information about Oregon lien procedure. It isn't legal advice and doesn't establish an attorney-client relationship. For release language specific to your contract, or if you receive a recorded lien, consult an attorney licensed in Oregon — search the Oregon State Bar referral service or use the CCB consumer-protection resources for next steps.

What this is

A Portland DADU is almost always built single-prime: one GC, every trade flows through them, one chain of accountability. The alternative — sometimes called "Separate Contractors" or "multi-prime" — is when you keep the GC for the main build but contract directly with one or two trades yourself.

Oregon has a structural rule that limits this practice on residential projects more than most states do — see "What ORS 701.010(6) actually says" below. For a DADU, the practical carve-outs that pass that test are narrow:

• Appliances — buy direct (often via a builder-supply account or end-of-season sale) and have the GC install. This is the "Owner-Furnished, Contractor-Installed" pattern; the install is still the GC's, so no CCB problem.
• Finish hardware — cabinet pulls, lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures procured directly and handed to the GC.
• Post-CofO landscaping — non-permit work, done after the Certificate of Occupancy clears, with your usual landscape contractor.

What you do not carve out on a DADU in Oregon: anything that needs a building, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical permit. Those have to flow through the GC under the rule below — even if you have a direct contract with the licensed trade.

How the standard contracts handle it

AIA A201-2017 Article 6 (overview) calls them "Separate Contractors" — the owner has the right to award separate contracts, the GC and the Separate Contractors must coordinate, and the GC can claim added cost or time if a Separate Contractor's work damages or delays theirs. ConsensusDocs 200 §3.12 (product page) has equivalent language. The framework exists; that's why the practice is possible.

The canonical trade-press write-up of how this goes wrong on residential remodels is Markup & Profit's Owners Supplying Their Own Materials. The dominant failure mode the article documents — warranty seams, dispute over who owns the defect — is the most common dispute on multi-prime residential projects.

What ORS 701.010(6) actually says

This is the OR-specific rule and it changes the math significantly compared to other states.

Under ORS 701.010(6), a property owner is exempt from CCB licensing as a contractor when they contract with one or more licensed contractors to perform work on up to three of their own existing residential structures per calendar year — but the statute adds:

"This subsection does not apply to an owner contracting for work that requires a building permit unless the work that requires a permit is performed by, or under the direction of, a residential general contractor."

Translation: in Oregon, if you direct-hire a trade for permit-bearing work on your own residence, a CCB-licensed residential general contractor still has to be performing or directing that permit-bearing work. You can't simply hand the electrical permit-bearing scope to a licensed electrician and bypass the GC.

What this means in practice:

• OFCI is fine. You buy the appliance / fixture / cabinet hardware directly; the GC installs it. The install is the GC's, the permit (if any) is the GC's. No CCB conflict.
• Non-permit work is fine. Cosmetic finish swaps, paint, landscape after CofO, low-voltage you don't need a permit for. Direct-hire freely.
• Permit-bearing direct-hire requires a GC overseer. The licensed plumber, electrician, or HVAC sub you direct-contract on permit-bearing work has to be performing under the direction of your residential general contractor — which usually means it's not a true carve-out at all; it's something the GC has to coordinate (and probably charge for).

This is materially stricter than Washington and is the single most important constraint to design around when planning carve-outs in Portland.

The four real costs (when you do carve out)

1. Warranty seams. When the owner-sourced dishwasher leaks 18 months in and warps the GC's flooring, the GC will say "not my fixture" and the appliance vendor will say "not my install" — you pay twice.
2. Coordination duty shifts to you. A201 places the coordination duty on whoever is contracting with both parties — which is you. Schedule the appliance delivery wrong and the cabinet install slips a week.
3. Insurance gap. The owner-sourced trade's commercial general liability policy doesn't automatically name you as additional insured, and the GC's policy almost certainly excludes work it didn't control.
4. Multiple original-contractor lien claims. This is the OR lien-law version — see the next section.

What Oregon lien law adds

Every trade you contract with directly becomes an "original contractor" under ORS 87.005(7) (defined as "a contractor that has a contractual relationship with the owner") — not a sub-tier claim that flows up through the GC. Each one has lien rights under ORS 87.010 for the labor or materials furnished at the owner's instance.

Two procedural consequences:

• Each direct-hire trade needs its own CCB-compliant written contract. Under ORS 701.305, any residential contractor on a project of $2,000 or more must use a written contract with CCB-prescribed standard terms. That's not just the GC — it's every direct trade you sign.
• Each direct-hire trade owes you the Information Notice to Owner under ORS 87.093 if their contract is over $2,000. The GC delivers one for the main contract; each owner-direct trade delivers its own. If they don't, their lien rights against your property are forfeited under ORS 87.093(6).

The lien waiver schedule from the previous expansion still works — you run it per-direct-trade, not just through the GC.

What to address in the GC contract before you sign

Most homeowners ask a construction-savvy attorney to review these areas with them — most are in A201 §6 or ConsensusDocs 200 §3.12 if you're using those templates, and have to be added as a custom rider if you're using AIA A105 (which doesn't incorporate A201's Separate Contractors framework at all):

• Carve-out list. Name the specific scopes you reserve the right to contract separately. Limit to non-permit work + OFCI items. What's not on the list flows through the GC.
• ORS 701.010(6) compliance. If any direct-hire trade touches permit-bearing work, make explicit how the GC will direct that work and how the GC is compensated for the direction.
• Coordination duties. Who schedules, who notifies whom, what happens if an owner-sourced delivery misses its window.
• Damage attribution. A201 §6.2.3 gives the GC cost/time relief for Separate Contractor damage; mirror that for owner-direct trade damage to GC work.
• Insurance. Owner-sourced trades' CGL must name the homeowner as additional insured before they show up.
• Lien-waiver flow. Each owner-direct trade signs into the same conditional/unconditional waiver schedule the GC uses (see the previous expansion).
• Information Notice to Owner. Each owner-direct trade over $2,000 delivers one; collect them with the signed contracts.
• No-markup acknowledgement. GC isn't responsible for warranty on owner-sourced equipment or installs.

Verify any attorney via the Oregon State Bar member directory. Two to four hours of focused review on this section is typical.

When this is worth doing

On a Portland DADU at $350K–$575K, the realistic carve-out limit is one or two narrow items, all non-permit or OFCI — appliances, finish hardware, post-CofO landscape. The OR rule on permit-bearing work means more elaborate carve-outs effectively can't happen without a GC overseer, which collapses the savings.

Most owners are better served by negotiating allowances inside the GC contract for the line items they care about, rather than trying to carve them out.

Informational framing

This is general information about how the standard contract frameworks and Oregon law treat owner-direct-contracted trades. It is not legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. For language specific to your contract, consult an attorney licensed in Oregon — verify via the Oregon State Bar member directory.