On a private remodel with no notice of completion recorded, the owner moves in and all labor stops. The 90-day lien clock runs from:

Explanation

Civil Code §8180(a) lists the completion events: actual completion; occupation or use by the owner accompanied by cessation of labor; cessation of labor for a continuous period of 60 days; and recordation of a notice of cessation after labor has stopped for 30 days. Here the second applies, and because no notice of completion was recorded, §8412 gives the direct contractor 90 days from completion and §8414 gives every other claimant 90 days from it. (a), (b) and (c) are all real dates in the project record, and none of them starts a lien clock — which is why a claimant who counts from the last payment or from signing records too late.