California stop payment notice generator

A California stop payment notice tells whoever is holding the construction money (the owner, the construction lender or the public agency) to hold back enough of it to pay you. It is the remedy that works on a public job, where you cannot lien, and on a private job it runs beside your lien rights. This drafts the notice, verification included, and works out your deadline to serve it and the window to sue on it.

Pre-filled with a worked example. Change any field; the notice and the dates update as you type.

Type of job

Notice goes to

Bond with the notice

Your position on the job

Relationship to the parties

Claimant (you)

Claimant address

Owner or reputed owner

Owner address

Construction lender

Lender branch holding the funds

Direct contractor

Direct contractor address

Hiring party (work provided to)

Property (address or legal description)

General description of your work

Estimated total value of your work

Amount due through the notice date

Net of credits and offsets. Only work already provided.

Completion of the whole job

Use your best estimate if the job is still running.

Recorded notice

Notice date

Signed by

Signer's title

Place signed (city)

Ask the lender to tell you if it won't withhold

Claim figures
Estimated total value	148,000.00
Paid or not yet earned	99,550.00
Amount claimed	48,450.00
Lender bond, 125%	60,562.50

Bonded stop payment notice to construction lender

SPN · 2026-10-16

ToManager or responsible officer, Meridian Construction Finance, Construction Loan Administration, 500 Capitol Mall (office administering the construction funds)

Property1400 Kestrel Avenue, Unit A-3

OwnerHarbor Point Holdings LLC, 88 Wharf Street

Direct contractorVantage Construction Group, 1900 Commerce Way

Construction lenderMeridian Construction Finance

ClaimantIronline Mechanical LLC, 220 Foundry Row, Suite 4

RelationshipMechanical subcontractor to the direct contractor

Work provided toVantage Construction Group

WorkHVAC rough-in, rooftop units and ductwork for the mixed-use building

Estimated total value$148,000.00

Amount due$48,450.00

The claimant named below has provided the work described in this notice and has not been paid in full. The amount due to the claimant for work provided through the date of this notice, after deducting all just credits and offsets, is $48,450.00. You are required to withhold from the borrower, or any other person to whom you or the owner are obligated to make payments or advances out of the construction fund, sufficient funds to pay this claim (Civil Code section 8536).

This notice is accompanied by a bond in the amount of $60,562.50, 125 percent of the claim (Civil Code section 8532).

The claimant requests notice of any election by the lender not to withhold funds under section 8536. A preaddressed, stamped envelope is enclosed (Civil Code section 8538).

Verification

I, Dana Okafor, am the Chief Financial Officer of Ironline Mechanical LLC, the claimant named in this notice, and am authorized to make this verification for it. I have read this stop payment notice and know its contents, and the facts stated in it are true of my own knowledge. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on 2026-10-16 at Sacramento, California.

Signature ____________________ Date ____________

How to use the generator

01Pick private or public work. On a private job, choose who gets the notice: the owner, or the construction lender (the only place a direct contractor can send one).
02Fill in the parties as they appear on your preliminary notice, and describe the work in a sentence. The estimated total value is the whole subcontract, not the unpaid part.
03Enter only what is due for work already provided, net of credits. A willfully false claim forfeits your share of the withheld money and your lien right (§ 8504).
04Enter the completion date and any recorded notice of completion or cessation. Read the window, then print, sign the verification, and serve it.

What a stop payment notice freezes

A stop payment notice (the code's name for the old California stop notice) does not touch the land. It goes after the construction funds (§ 8500), and what freezes depends on who is holding the cash when your notice lands.

Who must withhold, and how much
You serve	They must hold back	Statute
Owner (private job)	Enough of what is due, or will come due, to the direct contractor to cover your claim. An owner that already recorded a payment bond may decline, but must send you a copy of the bond within 30 days.	§ 8522
Construction lender (private job)	Enough of the construction loan fund to cover your claim. On an unbonded notice the lender may elect not to withhold.	§ 8536
Public entity	Enough of what is due to the direct contractor to cover your claim, plus its own reasonable cost of any litigation.	§ 9358

Nothing is recorded against title. You get a hold on cash the people above you need to keep the job moving, which is why a stop notice often gets paid before a lien does. The general's way out is a release bond for 125% of your claim (§ 8510; on public work, at the agency's discretion under § 9364).

Stop payment notice vs mechanics lien

California stop payment notice compared with a mechanics lien
Point	Stop payment notice	Mechanics lien
Attaches to	Construction money held by the owner, lender or agency	The property itself
Public work	Available, alongside the payment bond	Not available
Direct contractor	To the lender only; never on public work	Available
Give or record by	Before your lien recording time runs out (private); 30 or 90 days (public)	90 days after completion, or 30 after a recorded notice (60 for the prime)
Suit due	90 days after the period to give the notice closes	90 days after recording
Bond	Optional on a lender notice, 125% of the claim	None

On a private job you can use both, and most subs should. The lien protects you if the loan money is gone; the stop notice catches it while it is still in the account. The recording rules sit in our California mechanics lien guide, and you can work your own dates in the mechanics lien deadline calculator. On a public job there is no lien at all: the stop notice and the payment bond are the whole toolkit, and the mechanics lien vs payment bond claim comparison shows how the bond side works.

Preliminary notice comes first

A stop payment notice is not valid unless you gave preliminary notice wherever the law required one (§ 8508(a); § 9500 on public work). On a private job that means the owner, the direct contractor and the construction lender (§ 8200). On a public job it means the public entity and the direct contractor (§ 9300). Laborers are exempt on both, and on public work so is a sub that contracts directly with the prime. Serve it late and the notice still counts, but only for work in the 20 days before you served it and after (§ 8204; § 9304). If you have not sent one yet, the preliminary notice generator drafts it in a minute.

Bonded or unbonded

Only a notice to a construction lender carries a bond, and it is 125% of the claim (§ 8532). On the worked example above, a 48,450.00 claim needs a bond of 60,562.50. Here is what the premium buys:

The lender has to withhold. It may ignore an unbonded notice (§ 8536(b)(1)).
Bonded claims are paid first, pro rata among themselves, whoever served first (§ 8540).
The winner of the suit recovers a reasonable attorney's fee, and your award carries interest at the legal rate from the day you gave the notice (§§ 8558, 8560).

The risk runs the other way too: if you lose, the bond pays the owner's, general's and lender's costs and damages. A lender that objects to your sureties has 20 days to say so, and you then have 10 days to substitute a bond from an admitted surety insurer (§ 8534).

Serving it, and the suit that follows

Serve by personal delivery, or by registered, certified, express or overnight mail, and keep the receipt (§§ 8106, 8110). An owner's notice can go to the owner or the owner's architect. A lender's notice counts only if it reaches the manager or a responsible officer at the office or branch administering the construction loan, so a notice left at the nearest retail branch may count for nothing (§ 8506). On public work it goes to the disbursing officer or the body that awarded the contract (§ 9354), and money already paid out before your notice arrives is gone (§ 9360).

Lien deadline

A stop payment notice that is not followed by a lawsuit dies. You can file no sooner than 10 days after serving it and no later than 90 days after the period for giving it closes, and you must tell everyone you served within five days of filing (§ 8550; § 9502 on public work). Miss the date and the money is released.

Most claims never get that far. On the not-getting-paid escalation ladder, a stop notice sits with the notice of intent to lien: late enough to be serious, early enough that everyone above you would rather pay than explain a frozen draw to the lender.

Sources

Cal. Civ. Code § 8200
Before recording a lien, giving a stop payment notice or claiming against a payment bond, a California claimant must give preliminary notice to the owner, the direct contractor and the construction lender. A laborer is exempt.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 8204
The California preliminary notice is due no later than 20 days after the claimant first furnishes work. A late notice still works, but it reaches back only 20 days before service.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 8412
A California direct contractor must record its claim of lien before the earlier of 90 days after completion of the work of improvement, or 60 days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8414
A California claimant who is NOT the direct contractor must record before the earlier of 90 days after completion, or 30 days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8460
A California claimant must file suit to enforce the lien within 90 days of recording it, or the lien expires and is unenforceable.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8044
A stop payment notice may be bonded or unbonded; a bonded notice is one given with a bond under § 8532. Any statutory reference to a "stop notice" means a stop payment notice.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8102
A notice under the mechanics lien law names the owner, the direct contractor, the construction lender, the site, and the claimant and its relationship to the parties, with a general statement of the work, who it was provided for, and the demand after all just credits and offsets.
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Cal. Civ. Code §§ 8106, 8110
Notice by mail is given by registered or certified mail, express mail, or overnight delivery by an express service carrier (personal delivery is the other common method under § 8106).
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8500
Rights of anyone furnishing work against a fund for payment of construction costs are governed exclusively by the stop payment notice chapter, apart from rights under a written contract with the fund holder.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8502
The notice is signed and verified by the claimant, gives a general description of the work and an estimate of its total value, and may claim only the amount due for work provided through the date of the notice.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8504
A claimant that willfully gives a false stop payment notice, or demands withholding for work not provided, forfeits its share of the withheld funds and its lien right.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8506
A notice to an owner goes to the owner or the owner's architect. A notice to a construction lender is effective only when given to the manager or other responsible officer at the office or branch administering the construction funds.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8508
A private-works stop payment notice is valid only if the claimant gave any required preliminary notice and gave the stop payment notice before the time to record a claim of lien expired.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8510
Withheld funds are released when a release bond from an admitted surety insurer, equal to 125 percent of the amount claimed, is given to the person withholding them.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8520
Anyone with a lien right other than a direct contractor may give the owner a stop payment notice. An owner may demand one; a claimant that then gives none forfeits its lien right.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8522
On receipt, the owner withholds from the direct contractor enough to pay the claim, unless it previously recorded a payment bond, in which case it must send the claimant a copy of the bond within 30 days.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8530
Anyone with a lien right, including a direct contractor, may give a construction lender a stop payment notice.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8532
A notice to a construction lender may be accompanied by a bond equal to 125 percent of the claim, covering costs and damages if the claimant loses.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8534
A lender objecting to the sureties must say so within 20 days; the claimant then has 10 days to substitute a bond from an admitted surety insurer.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8536
A construction lender withholds enough to pay the claim, but may elect not to withhold if the notice is unbonded, or if a payment bond was recorded before any notice reached it (for claimants other than a direct contractor).
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8538
A claimant may request notice of a lender's election not to withhold, with a preaddressed stamped envelope; the lender must then give notice within 30 days of electing.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8540
Withheld funds go first to bonded stop payment notices, then to unbonded ones, pro rata within each group regardless of who served first.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 8550
Suit to enforce a stop payment notice may be filed any time after 10 days from giving it, and no later than 90 days after the period for giving it expires; notice of the suit goes to the recipients within five days.
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Cal. Civ. Code §§ 8558, 8560
In an action on a bonded stop payment notice the prevailing party recovers a reasonable attorney's fee, and a winning claimant's award carries interest at the legal rate from the date the notice was given (§ 8560).
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 8190
An owner recording a notice of completion or cessation must send a copy within 10 days to the direct contractor and to claimants that gave it preliminary notice; otherwise the notice does not shorten their lien time.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code §§ 8160, 9000
The private-works title, which holds the mechanics lien, applies only to a work of improvement not governed by Title 3. Title 3 (public works, § 9000) gives the stop payment notice and the payment bond, and no lien.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9100
On public works, a person furnishing authorized work, or a laborer, may give the public entity a stop payment notice. A direct contractor may not.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9300
On public works, preliminary notice goes to the public entity and the direct contractor before a stop payment notice. Laborers, and claimants in a direct contract with the direct contractor, are exempt.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9304
On public works, a stop payment notice reaches only work provided within 20 days before the preliminary notice and after it.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9354
A public-works notice goes to the director of the awarding department (state contracts) or to the controller, auditor or other disbursing officer, or the board that awarded the contract.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 9356
A public-works stop payment notice is effective only if given within 30 days after a recorded notice of completion, acceptance or cessation, or, if none is recorded, within 90 days after cessation or completion.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 9358
The public entity withholds from the direct contractor enough to pay the claim and its reasonable cost of litigation.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9360
Nothing stops a public entity paying the direct contractor if the stop payment notice is not received before the disbursing officer surrenders the funds, or paying anything above the total of the claims it holds.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9362
If the claimant paid $10 with the notice, the public entity must tell it, within 10 days of completion or of a recorded notice, when its enforcement suit is due.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9364
A public entity may accept a release bond from the direct contractor equal to 125 percent of the claim, and then stops withholding.
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Cal. Civ. Code § 9500
A public-works claimant cannot enforce a stop payment notice unless it gave any required preliminary notice and gave the stop payment notice within the § 9356 period.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 9502
Suit against the public entity and the direct contractor may be filed any time after 10 days from giving the notice, and no later than 90 days after the period for giving it expires.
Read 2026-10-18
Cal. Civ. Code § 9558
Suit on a public-works payment bond is due no later than six months after the period in which a stop payment notice may be given.
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Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 2015.5
A verification may be an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, signed and dated; outside California it states it is made under the laws of the State of California.
Read 2026-10-18