Bond Claim

A bond claim is how an unpaid subcontractor or supplier converts a payment bond from paper into money: a formal, statutorily compliant demand on the surety (and usually the general contractor as principal) for amounts unpaid on a bonded project. Because public projects cannot be liened, the bond claim is the primary remedy on federal and most state public work, and it also applies on private projects where a payment bond exists or where a recorded lien has been bonded off.

The claim process runs on deadlines that mirror lien law in strictness. Under the federal Miller Act, a claimant with no direct contract with the GC must give the GC written notice within 90 days of last furnishing labor or materials, stating the amount and the party to whom the materials were supplied; suit must follow within one year of last furnishing. State little Miller Acts impose their own notice and suit windows, frequently different from both the federal rule and each other, and some require preliminary-notice-style early notices to preserve claim rights at all. As with liens, the last-furnishing date starts most clocks — track it per job, and be careful about trivial later deliveries that do not restart the period in many jurisdictions.

A well-documented bond claim against a solvent surety is one of the strongest positions in construction credit — sureties are rated insurers that investigate and pay valid claims, and the GC's desire to preserve its bonding capacity pressures settlement even earlier. The practical failure modes are all self-inflicted: missed notice windows, notices sent to the wrong party, claims that cannot tie invoices to the bonded project, and last-furnishing dates reconstructed after the fact. The remedy rewards the same operational discipline as lien rights: job-level records, calendared deadlines, and clean project documentation. Educational content, not legal advice.