THE JOB IS BONDED. NOW MAKE THE BOND PAY.
You cannot lien public property, and on a bonded private job the bond is usually the better target anyway. But a bond claim runs on two sworn notices and a one-year fuse. We make bond claims for contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers on private, state, and local projects across Florida.
Two Notices and a Year.
All Three Are Conditions.
A bond claim is not a lawsuit you file whenever you give up on getting paid. Both notices are conditions precedent, which means a surety that never disputed the work can still walk away because a notice was late by a day.
The Front-End Notice
If you are not in privity with the contractor, notify it before beginning or within 45 days after beginning to furnish. Laborers are excepted from this notice, not the next one. On a private bonded job, a Notice to Owner timely served on the contractor satisfies this step.
Sworn, and to Both
Served on the contractor with a copy to the surety, under oath, no later than 90 days after your final furnishing. Measured from your last day of furnishing, not from the certificate of occupancy and not from substantial completion.
Or Sixty Days, If Contested
Suit within one year after your last furnishing of labor, services, or materials. A notice of contest of claim against the bond, once served on you, cuts that to 60 days, and on public work that tool is available only after you have stopped furnishing. A claim not sued on in that window is extinguished.
Sureties do not send reminders. If you are inside 90 days of your last day on the job, that is the call to make.
Talk to an AttorneyThree Bond Regimes,
Three Sets of Rules.
"It is bonded" is not one answer. Private bonded work, Florida public work, and federal work run under three different statutes with different notices, different floors, and different fee rules. Getting the regime wrong is the same as missing the deadline.
Private Bonded Projects
A payment bond attached to the notice of commencement when it is recorded. Work furnished after the bond is in place moves from the property to the surety, but only for claimants who served the notices the statute requires of them.- No earliest-service floor on the notice of nonpayment
- Failure to receive retainage not over 10 percent is not nonpayment
- Bonds since 2012 cannot add terms narrower than the statute
State & Local Public Work
Florida's Little Miller Act. Schools, counties, cities, agencies. No lien attaches to the public property, so the bond is the entire remedy and the statute is stricter than the private one.- Nonpayment notice cannot be served before day 45
- Retainage claims are separately gated before suit
- Prevailing party recovers attorney's fees
Federal Projects
Federal construction over $150,000 carries a Miller Act payment bond, with alternative payment protection required from $35,000 up. Simpler on paper than Florida, with one notice instead of two, and no oath requirement.- Second-tier claimants: 90-day written notice to the prime
- Suit within one year of last labor or material
- Filed in the federal district where the work was performed
Two bonds that are not payment bonds. A conditional payment bond limits the surety's duty to what the owner actually paid, and the property stays lienable, so you may need a Notice to Owner too. A transfer bond is the one an owner files to get your recorded lien off the property, and its clock runs one year from the date you recorded the lien, not from your last day on the job. Both get mistaken for ordinary payment bonds constantly. Send us the bond and we will tell you which one you have.
What a Payment
Bond Actually
Does for You.
A payment bond is a three-party promise. The contractor is the principal, a surety company backs it, and the people who furnish labor and materials are the beneficiaries. When the contractor does not pay, you make a claim on the bond and the surety pays, then chases its principal. In practice that means your collection risk moves from a contractor's cash flow to an insurance company's balance sheet, which is usually a large upgrade.
The trade is procedure. Florida law does not permit a construction lien against public property, so on public work the bond is not a backup, it is the whole remedy. And the statutes make the notices conditions precedent, so a surety with no answer on the merits can still win on your calendar.
"A surety that cannot fault the work can still fault the notice."
The Notice of Nonpayment Is Sworn
It has to be under oath, with a declaration that the facts stated are true and a notary jurat. Florida permits either physical presence or online notarization. An unsworn notice is a defect in a document the statute calls a condition precedent.
Exaggerate It and You Forfeit
A lienor who serves a fraudulent notice of nonpayment forfeits its rights under the bond, and service of one is a complete defense. Willful exaggeration, claiming work never performed, or gross negligence amounting to willful exaggeration all qualify. A minor mistake or error, or a good faith dispute about the amount unpaid, does not.
Retainage Has to Be Broken Out
If your notice includes retainage, it must specify the portion of the amount claimed that is retainage. On private jobs, not having received retainage of 10 percent or less is not itself the nonpayment that starts the notice requirement.
Get the Bond, and the Sworn Account
You are entitled to a copy of the bond. And if the contractor serves a written demand for a sworn statement of account, you have 30 days to answer. A late answer or a false one can defeat the bond claim; an honest mistake costs you only what the contractor can prove it lost by it.
The Anatomy of a Notice of Nonpayment
and the Six Ways It Fails.
Below is what the sworn notice contains. We are showing it rather than handing out a blank form, because the form is not what defeats these claims. Sureties defeat them on who was served, when the clock actually started, and whether the number in the notice can be defended line by line. This is illustrative only, not legal advice.
Serving the Contractor and Stopping
The notice goes to the contractor with a copy to the surety. Claimants send it to the party who owes them money, get no response, and find out a year later that the surety was never told anything.
Counting 90 Days From the Wrong Event
The clock is your final furnishing, not the certificate of occupancy and not substantial completion of the project. For rental equipment it runs from when the equipment was last on site and available for use.
Sending It Unsworn
A letter on your letterhead demanding payment is not a notice of nonpayment. The statute requires the declaration and the notarization, and a surety's coverage counsel reads that line first.
Rounding the Number Up
Padding the amount, or including work never performed, can forfeit the claim entirely and hand the surety a complete defense. Honest math protects you: a minor mistake or error, or a good faith dispute about the amount unpaid, is not willful exaggeration.
Folding Retainage Into One Total
If retainage is part of what you are claiming, break it out. On public jobs a retainage suit has its own gates: the public body paying, 70 days after the contractor’s final request, 160 days after substantial completion, or a written request the contractor ignored for 10 days.
Treating Public and Private Alike
The public statute forbids serving the nonpayment notice before day 45. The private one has no such floor. Serve a public-job notice too early and you have not complied with the statute, and no reported Florida appellate decision says a second notice inside the 90 days fixes it.
Two notices, both technical, both fatal. There is no reason to be the one who finds out in year two. Have us make the claim →
How We Make a Florida
Payment Bond Claim.
The order matters, and so does the first step, because half the mistakes we see come from a claimant who assumed which kind of bond was on the job.
Get the Bond and Read It
We pull the recorded bond and the notice of commencement, or make written demand for a copy. That tells us the statute that governs, the surety, the bond number, and whether it is an ordinary payment bond, a conditional payment bond, or a transfer bond.
Confirm the Front-End Notice
If you are not in privity with the contractor, the notice to contractor had to go out within 45 days of beginning. On a private bonded job a timely Notice to Owner served on the contractor covers it. We confirm what actually went out rather than what was intended.
Build and Swear the Notice of Nonpayment
We separate the defensible balance from the aspirational one, break out retainage, get it sworn and notarized, and serve the contractor and the surety by a method that can be proven, inside the 90 days.
Negotiate, Then Sue Inside the Year
Most bond claims resolve once a surety has a well-documented sworn claim in front of it. If it does not, we file inside the one-year window, or inside 60 days if the contractor serves a notice of contest to force the issue.
Call before you serve if:
- You cannot tell whether the job is public, private-bonded, or federal
- The bond is titled a conditional payment bond, or the front page carries a limiting legend
- Your claim is mostly or entirely retainage
- You have been served with a notice of contest of claim against a payment bond
- Your last day on the job was more than 60 days ago
- The contractor has demanded a sworn statement of account
- You already sent a demand letter and are not sure whether it counted as anything
Not a
Generalist.
We Read
Bonds All Day.
Florida construction law. Nothing else. We make bond claims on private, county, municipal, and state projects, and we have been on the other side of them too. That means when we draft your notice of nonpayment, we already know which line the surety's counsel will attack.
This firm was founded by someone who worked construction and ran construction companies before practicing law. We speak the language of the job site. From our office in Ocala we represent clients in all 67 Florida counties.
Meet the Team →Read Before You Claim.
Florida Notice to Owner (NTO): The Complete Guide
The front-end notice that doubles as your notice to the contractor on a bonded private job, if served on the contractor in time.
Read More → Lien LawHow to File a Construction Lien in Florida: Step-by-Step
What the process looks like when the job is not bonded and the property is the security.
Read More → Lien LawFlorida Lien Releases and Satisfactions
What you are signing when a check arrives, and how a partial release can waive bond rights in the same amount.
Read More →Florida Payment Bond FAQ
No. Florida does not allow a construction lien to attach to public property, which is exactly why the Little Miller Act requires the public body to obtain a payment bond on qualifying contracts. The bond is the substitute for the lien, and it is your entire remedy against the project. That makes the notice deadlines under section 255.05 unforgiving in a way that surprises contractors who are used to private work.
Serve the notice of nonpayment no later than 90 days after your final furnishing, and file suit within one year after your performance of the labor or completion of delivery. If you are not in privity with the contractor there is also a front-end notice to contractor due within 45 days of beginning. Both notices are conditions precedent, so an action cannot be prosecuted without them.
Yes. Both the private and public statutes require the notice of nonpayment to be under oath, using a declaration that the facts stated are true, followed by a notary jurat. Florida permits either physical presence or online notarization. A demand letter, an email, or an unsworn statement of account does not satisfy the requirement.
The 45-day and 90-day notices and the one-year suit deadline look the same, but three things differ. Public claims cannot serve the notice of nonpayment earlier than 45 days after first furnishing, while private claims have no such floor. Public retainage claims are gated by additional conditions before suit. And the public statute awards attorney’s fees to the prevailing party. The private bond statute has no fee clause of its own, but a claimant who wins against a surety insurer recovers fees under Florida’s insurance code.
A claimant who serves a fraudulent notice of nonpayment forfeits its rights under the bond, and service of one is a complete defense for the contractor and surety. Willful exaggeration, claiming labor or materials never furnished, or preparing the notice with gross negligence amounting to willful exaggeration all count. A minor mistake, or a good faith dispute about how much is unpaid, does not.
A bond where the contractor's payment obligation, and therefore the surety's, is expressly limited to what the owner actually pays. It only works if it is recorded with the notice of commencement before the job starts, identified there as a conditional payment bond, titled that way at the top of the front page, and printed with the statutory 10-point warning. The trade-off is that the property stays lienable, so a claimant may need to serve a Notice to Owner and preserve lien rights as well.
No, and this one catches people. A transfer bond under section 713.24 moves your recorded lien from the property to the security, and the time to sue runs from the date you recorded the claim of lien, not from your last day on the job. A notice of contest can shorten it to 60 days from service, and if the lien is transferred after you have already sued, you still need a separate action against the security. If you receive a clerk’s certificate of transfer, treat it as urgent and pin the deadline that day.
Ninety Days Goes Fast.
Send us the project, your last day on the job, and the bond if you have it. That is usually enough to tell you what is still available.
Send your name, your number, and a few details about the project. We will follow up to talk through your options.
P.O. Box 536
Ocala, FL 34478
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The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Visiting this site or submitting a contact form does not create an attorney-client relationship. The attorneys of Martin Law, PLLC are licensed to practice law in the State of Florida. Each legal matter is unique, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.