The Little Miller Act Map: Bond Claim Deadlines on Public Projects in All 50 States
✓ Verified against state statutes · Reviewed October 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
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The Specific Way Contractors Lose Money on Public Work
There is a recognizable pattern to how experienced contractors lose money on public projects. They are good at mechanics liens. They have a process, they know their state's recording deadline, and they have used it successfully for years. Then they win a school district contract or a municipal water plant job, the payments stop the way payments sometimes do, and they reach for the process that has always worked. There is nothing to record. Public property generally cannot be liened, and by the time that fact registers, the deadline that actually governed the claim has usually passed. The substitute is the payment bond. Every state has enacted some version of the federal Miller Act, 40 U.S.C. sections 3131 through 3134 — a Little Miller Act — requiring the prime contractor on a public project to furnish a bond that protects downstream subcontractors and suppliers. The unpaid claimant's remedy is a claim against that bond rather than a lien against the property. That much is widely understood. What is not widely understood is that the bond claim runs on entirely different clocks, and that those clocks are frequently shorter than the lien clocks in the very same state. This analysis maps two deadlines for all 50 states — the bond notice window and the window to file suit on the bond — and then sets each state's public bond notice deadline directly against that state's private lien recording deadline for the same claimant, so the difference is visible rather than implied.
Why the Bond Exists and Why That Makes the Deadline Harsher
A mechanics lien works because the property can ultimately be sold to satisfy the debt. That threat is what brings an owner to the table. Public assets are not available for that purpose — a county cannot have its courthouse sold at a sheriff's auction because a drywall subcontractor went unpaid — so the lien remedy is unavailable as a matter of policy, not paperwork. Congress solved the problem for federal work in 1935 with the Miller Act, and the states copied the structure over the following decades. The prime contractor posts a payment bond, the surety stands behind it, and downstream claimants sue the bond instead of the property. That substitution has a consequence most contractors never think through. On private work, missing the lien deadline is painful but not total, because the claimant still has a breach of contract claim against whoever hired them. It is unsecured, and it is only as good as that party's solvency, but it exists. On public work, the bond was the security. It is the entire substitute for the collateral the claimant would otherwise have. Miss the bond deadline and what remains is an unsecured contract claim against a general contractor that has, by definition, already stopped paying, which is usually the same as having nothing. That asymmetry is the reason these deadlines matter more than their raw numbers suggest. A 30-day window on a claim with a fallback is an inconvenience. A 30-day window on a claim where the bond is the only collateral is the whole case.
Two Clocks, Not One: Notice and Suit
Every Little Miller Act claim runs on two independent deadlines, and both must be met. The first is the bond notice — written notice of the unpaid claim, delivered to the parties the statute names, within a fixed number of days of last furnishing. The second is the suit deadline, the outside date for filing an action on the bond. Satisfying the first and missing the second is as fatal as never giving notice at all. On the notice clock, 26 states set the window at 90 days. Five states allow 120 days — Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, and Vermont. Four allow 180 days — Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, and Rhode Island. The compressed end of the range is the danger zone: California, Iowa, and Washington allow only 30 days, Louisiana allows 45 days from the public owner's recorded acceptance of the work, Indiana and Wisconsin allow 60 — Wisconsin's counted from first furnishing, as a start-of-work notice — and Massachusetts allows 65. Eight states break the pattern entirely. Michigan requires two notices under MCL 129.207 — a notice of furnishing served on the principal contractor within 30 days after furnishing the first of the material or performing the first of the labor, then a notice of claim to the principal contractor and the governmental unit involved within 90 days after last furnishing — and the surety is a statutory recipient of neither. Nevada likewise requires a remote claimant to serve the bonded contractor within 30 days after first furnishing and again within 90 days after last furnishing, under NRS 339.035(2). Utah requires no bond notice at all under Utah Code § 63G-6a-1103(4); the gate is a 20-day preliminary notice on the State Construction Registry under § 38-1b-202. Colorado uses no day count at all: under C.R.S. § 38-26-107(1) an unpaid claimant files a verified statement of the amount due and unpaid with the board, officer, person, or other contracting body by whom the contract was awarded, at any time up to and including the time of final settlement, and on contracts exceeding $150,000 the contracting body must publish notice of that final settlement at least twice, no later than ten days before it is made. Alabama counts nothing from furnishing: under Ala. Code § 39-1-1(b) the claimant gives written notice to the surety and may not sue until 45 days later, and suit is due within one year of final settlement of the contract. Kentucky's bond statutes, KRS 45A.190 and 45A.435, contain no claimant notice at all; the statutory deadline on Kentucky public work belongs to the lien on public funds, filed within 60 days after the last day of the month of furnishing or by substantial completion, whichever is later, under KRS 376.230(1). Kansas's K.S.A. 60-1111 sets no claimant notice either; the only statutory clock is the bar on suit six months after completion of the public improvement. Delaware's 29 Del. C. § 6962(d)(9) sets no claimant notice either; a claimant sues on the bond within one year after the contractor ceased work if the bond so provides, and otherwise within three years after the last work on the contract. Most states measure from last furnishing; California and Tennessee measure from completion of the work, and Ohio and Washington from completion of the contract and acceptance of the work by the public body. On the suit clock, 42 states allow one year; Alabama's runs from final settlement of the contract. Two allow six months — California and Tennessee. Wisconsin runs one year from completion of the work under the contract, and Missouri sets no bond-specific suit deadline at all. Indiana's local-work suit window closes 60 days after final completion and acceptance under Ind. Code § 36-1-12-13.1(d). Oregon is the outlier at the generous end with two years, and Colorado is the shortest outside Indiana at 90 days following the date fixed for final settlement as published under C.R.S. § 38-26-107(3), after which funds not the subject of suit and lis pendens notices are released to the contractor. Michigan runs its one year from the date final payment was made to the principal contractor under MCL 129.209, an event in the governmental unit's records rather than the claimant's. Washington and Kentucky are the outliers in kind rather than length: neither chapter 39.08 RCW nor KRS chapter 45A sets a suit deadline on the bond, so the limitation comes from the bond form itself, and in Washington the four-month figure often attributed to it is really RCW 60.28.030, which runs from the filing of a claim against the retainage reserve fund. The federal baseline is worth carrying in mind as a reference point. Under the federal Miller Act, a second-tier claimant must give written notice to the prime contractor within 90 days of last furnishing under 40 U.S.C. section 3133(b)(2), and suit must be filed no sooner than 90 days and no later than one year after last furnishing, in the U.S. District Court for the district where the contract was performed. A first-tier subcontractor with a direct contract with the prime need not give the 90-day notice at all. State Little Miller Acts borrow that shape but not, reliably, those numbers.
The States Where Public Work Costs You Time
The most useful finding in this data is not any single deadline. It is the relationship between the two systems inside a single state, because that is the number a contractor's instinct is built on and the number nobody publishes. In 21 states the public bond notice window closes before the private lien window would have. Mississippi used to be the extreme case. Before its 2014 construction lien rewrite it gave private-work claimants twelve months; today Miss. Code Ann. section 85-7-405 allows 90 days from last furnishing, the same window a remote claimant has to give bond notice under section 31-5-51(3). New York loses 120 days, from eight months on private work down to 120 days under State Finance Law section 137, and compounds it by routing notice to the public entity and the prime contractor rather than to a surety, a recipient list that matches neither the private pattern nor the majority public pattern. Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania each cut 90 days, generally moving a claimant from a six-month private window to a 90-day public one. Wisconsin cuts deeper: six months on private work becomes a 60-day notice counted from first furnishing. In California, Iowa, Washington, Vermont, and Wyoming the loss is 60 days, and in California's case the 30-day window is also measured from a different trigger — completion rather than last furnishing — so both the length and the starting point shift at once. The reverse pattern exists but is rare. In six states public work is more forgiving than private: Ohio by 15 days, Hawaii by 45, Illinois by 60, Connecticut by 90, Oregon by 105, and New Jersey by about 185. Oregon is the clearest example, with 75 days to record a private lien, 180 days to give bond notice, and a full two years to file suit on the bond.
The Surety Is a Stranger and You Still Have to Serve It
In 14 of the 50 states the bond notice must reach both the prime contractor and the surety that issued the payment bond. That requirement creates a practical problem private-project claimants never face: the surety is a party the claimant has no contract with, has never communicated with, and frequently cannot name. The bond is a contract between the prime and the surety, furnished to the public owner. The subcontractor two tiers down is a stranger to all of it, and is nevertheless expected to serve it inside a window that in most states is 90 days. Thirty-six states depart from the prime-and-surety pattern, and each departure is easy to get wrong. Illinois requires a verified notice filed with the public body that awarded the contract within 180 days, and a copy to the contractor within 10 days of filing, under 30 ILCS 550/2; and the bond is not the only remedy, because 770 ILCS 60/23 separately gives a lien on the public funds. Ohio requires a statement of the amount due furnished to the sureties under R.C. section 153.56(A), due 90 days after completion of the contract and acceptance of the improvement rather than after last furnishing. New York directs written notice to the contractor that furnished the bond under State Finance Law § 137(3), and names no other recipient — not the public owner, not the comptroller, not the surety — inside a 120-day window. Pennsylvania requires written notice to the prime contractor alone under 8 P.S. section 194(b) and 62 Pa.C.S. section 903(d), and only a claimant with no contract with the prime owes it. Georgia sends a remote claimant's notice to the contractor that furnished the bond, due 30 days after a filed notice of commencement or first delivery, or 90 days after last furnishing if no notice was filed, under O.C.G.A. sections 13-10-63 and 36-91-93. North Carolina requires a lower-tier claimant's notice of claim to go to the contractor within 120 days under G.S. 44A-27(b), and a separate notice of public subcontract served early protects the portion of a claim above $20,000 from a 75-day lookback. Arizona requires a second-tier claimant to give the contractor both a preliminary twenty-day notice and a ninety-day notice under A.R.S. section 34-223(A), with a stricter mailing rule on CMAR and design-build work under section 34-611. Washington requires the notice of claim to be presented to and filed with the awarding public body, not the surety, within 30 days from and after completion of the contract with an acceptance of the work by the affirmative action of that body under RCW 39.08.030; a supplier selling to a subcontractor owes the contractor a further notice within 10 days of first delivery under RCW 39.08.065. New Jersey sends a statement of the amount due to the sureties under N.J.S.A. 2A:44-145, and the same statement must also reach the contractor, because the 90 days that must expire before suit runs from provision to both — and since suit is barred after one year from last furnishing, the statement has to go out by roughly day 275 to be usable. Virginia directs a second-tier claimant's notice to the contractor alone under Va. Code section 2.2-4341(B), served by registered or certified mail to any place where the contractor's office is regularly maintained for the transaction of business, and the surety is not a statutory recipient at all; note also that Virginia's public-works bond provisions were recodified into the Virginia Public Procurement Act, so the section 11-60 citation still carried by many bond-claim checklists is to repealed law. Massachusetts names the contractor principal that furnished the bond and no other party — not the surety, not the awarding authority — inside the shortest common-form window in the country, 65 days after the day the claimant last performed labor or furnished labor, materials, equipment, appliances or transportation, under M.G.L. c. 149, section 29. Colorado does not use a notice at all: an unpaid claimant files a verified statement of the amount due with the board, officer, or other contracting body that awarded the contract, at any time up to and including the time of final settlement under C.R.S. section 38-26-107(1), and has 90 days following the published settlement date to sue. Michigan requires two notices under MCL 129.207 — a notice of furnishing to the principal contractor within 30 days of first furnishing, then a notice of claim to the principal contractor and the governmental unit within 90 days of last furnishing — and MCL 129.209 runs the one-year suit limit from final payment to the principal contractor. Maryland requires a claimant with no contract with the prime to send written notice to the contractor alone, by certified mail within 90 days after last supplying, under State Fin. & Proc. section 17-108(b), and section 17-109(b) runs the one-year suit limit from the public body's final acceptance of the work. Wisconsin requires a start-of-work notice to the prime contractor alone, within 60 days after first furnishing, under Wis. Stat. section 779.14(2)(am), and suit within one year after completion of the work under the contract. Missouri requires notice only from a remote supplier, to the contractor alone, within 90 days of last supplying, under Mo. Rev. Stat. section 107.170.2. South Carolina requires notice only from a remote claimant, sent to the bonded contractor alone by registered or certified mail within 90 days of last furnishing under S.C. Code Ann. section 11-35-3030(2)(c) and section 29-5-440. Oregon requires every claimant, first tier included, to send a notice of claim to the contractor and the contracting agency within 180 days of last furnishing under ORS 279C.600 and 279C.605. Nevada requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered or certified mail: one notice within 30 days after first furnishing and a second within 90 days after last furnishing, under NRS 339.035(2). Utah requires no bond notice from any claimant under Utah Code § 63G-6a-1103(4); the gate is a preliminary notice filed on the State Construction Registry within 20 days after starting work, under § 38-1b-202. Louisiana runs its clock from the public owner rather than the claimant: a sworn statement of the amount due is filed with the public entity and recorded in the parish mortgage records within 45 days after the recorded acceptance of the work or notice of default under La. R.S. 38:2242(B), a claimant with no contract with the prime also notifies the contractor within those 45 days under La. R.S. 38:2247, and suit is due one year from the recorded acceptance. Alabama sends its only notice to the surety, by registered or certified mail to any of its offices, at least 45 days before suit under Ala. Code § 39-1-1(b), and suit is due within one year of final settlement of the contract. Kentucky's bond statutes name no recipient and set no notice at all; the statutory remedy is a lien on the funds due the contractor, filed with the county clerk where the public owner's seat of government sits and delivered to the public authority, with a certified or registered mail copy to the contractor, under KRS 376.230 and 376.240, and a contractor's protest leaves the claimant 30 days to sue under KRS 376.250(4). Kansas's K.S.A. 60-1111 names no recipient and sets no notice at all; the claimant sues directly on the bond within six months after completion of the public improvement, and on KDOT highway work K.S.A. 68-410 requires a sworn itemized statement filed with the Secretary of Transportation within six months of the completion date. Alaska requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered mail within 90 days of last furnishing, under AS 36.25.020(b), and suit is due within one year after final settlement of the contract. North Dakota requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered mail within 90 days after the claimant completes its contribution, under N.D. Cent. Code § 48-01.2-11, and suit is due within one year after completion and acceptance of the project under § 48-01.2-12. Delaware's large public works statute, 29 Del. C. § 6962(d)(9), sets no claimant notice at all; every firm furnishing labor or material sues on the bond in the agency's name, within one year after the contractor ceased work if the bond says so and otherwise within three years after the last work on the contract. The defense is procedural and it happens at the start of the job, not the end. Every public project's payment bond is a public record, and a written request to the contracting public agency, or to the prime contractor, will generally produce a copy. Getting the bond at award, before there is a dispute and while everyone is still cooperative, takes an afternoon. Getting it on day 80 of a 90-day window, from a general contractor who knows a claim is coming, is a different exercise.
Classify the Project Before the First Invoice
Nearly every failure pattern in this data traces to a single omission: nobody asked whether the project was public before the work started. Project type is not a detail that surfaces naturally. A subcontractor hired by a general contractor to frame a building often has no visibility into who owns the land, and a supplier delivering conduit to a jobsite has less. The contract names the general contractor, the purchase order names the general contractor, and the public owner appears nowhere in the paperwork the claimant actually sees. Three questions asked at contract signing settle it. First, who owns the property? If the answer is a state, county, municipality, school district, transit authority, port authority, or public university, the lien track is closed and the bond track is the only one that exists. Second, is there a payment bond, and can I have a copy? On a public project the answer is yes and yes, and the request is routine at award. Third, what is my last-furnishing date going to be? That date, not the invoice date and not the date payment was refused, starts the clock in 49 of the 50 states. Mixed and hybrid projects deserve extra attention because they defeat the simple test. Public-private partnerships, privately developed buildings on ground-leased public land, and privately built facilities financed with public money can carry lien rights, bond rights, both, or a division that depends on which portion of the work the claim arises from. When the answer is not obvious from the deed, the safe practice is to protect both tracks on the earlier of the two deadlines and to have a licensed construction attorney in the state classify the project.
Methodology
Bond notice deadlines, suit deadlines, served parties, and citations are compiled from the public-works payment bond rules tracked in The Mechanics Lien Management State System, part of a verified 50-state statutory rule set sourced from official state legislature and code publications. Each state contributes one state-and-local public-project bond notice rule and one bond suit rule; the federal Miller Act figures cited are drawn separately from 40 U.S.C. section 3133. Three limitations should be read alongside the data. First, the comparison normalizes month-denominated deadlines to 30-day months so that a 90-day window and a six-month window can be placed on one scale; that normalization is for ranking only and is not how any statute computes a date, since a six-month statutory period runs to the calendar date six months out rather than to day 180. Second, the tracked rule for each state reflects the bond notice obligation for a subcontractor or supplier on a state or local public project. Federal projects run on the Miller Act instead, and some states impose additional or different requirements by claimant tier, contract value, or agency, which a single row cannot capture. Third, the private-lien figure used in the comparison is the state's lien recording deadline for a subcontractor or supplier, which is the closest apples-to-apples counterpart to a bond notice but is not the same instrument — one perfects a security interest in property, the other preserves a claim against a bond. The comparison is intended to show how a contractor's calendar changes when the project type changes, not to equate the two filings. The Mechanics Lien Management State System calculates the notice, filing, and enforcement deadlines for each state, project type, and claimant role across all 50 states, including the bond notice and bond suit windows on public work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Little Miller Act?
A Little Miller Act is a state statute that copies the structure of the federal Miller Act, 40 U.S.C. sections 3131 through 3134, and applies it to state and local public works. Because publicly owned property generally cannot be sold to satisfy a private debt, a subcontractor or supplier on a school, courthouse, or highway project has no mechanics lien to record. The statute compensates for that by requiring the prime contractor to furnish a payment bond, and giving downstream claimants a direct claim against that bond. All 50 states have one. What they do not have is a shared deadline: the bond notice window ranges from 30 days to 180 days from last furnishing, and the suit window ranges from 4 months to 2 years.
How long do you have to file a bond claim on a public project?
It depends on the state, and there are two separate clocks. The first is the bond notice deadline — written notice of the claim, usually to the prime contractor and its surety. Across the 50 states, 26 set that window at 90 days. Five states allow 120 days (Nebraska's is four months, owed only by remote claimants) and four allow 180 days. Three states — California, Iowa, and Washington — give only 30 days, Louisiana gives 45 days from the public owner's recorded acceptance of the work, Indiana, Wisconsin and Wyoming give 60 (Wisconsin's and Wyoming's counted from first furnishing), and Massachusetts gives 65. Eight states break the pattern entirely: Michigan and Nevada require a second notice 30 days after first furnishing on top of the 90-day notice, Colorado uses no day count at all, allowing a verified statement of claim to be filed with the contracting body up to the published final settlement date, Utah requires no bond notice at all, only a preliminary notice filed on the State Construction Registry within 20 days after the claimant starts work, Alabama sets no deadline from furnishing and requires only written notice to the surety at least 45 days before suit, Kentucky's bond statutes set no claimant notice at all, Kansas's public works bond statute, K.S.A. 60-1111, sets none either, and neither does Delaware's, 29 Del. C. § 6962(d)(9). The second clock is the deadline to file suit on the bond. Thirty-seven states allow one year (Alabama's, Alaska's, Nebraska's and New Mexico's from final settlement of the contract, North Dakota's from completion and acceptance of the project), three allow six months (Kansas's from completion of the public improvement), Oregon allows two years, and Delaware allows three years from the last work on the contract unless the bond itself shortens that to one year from the day the contractor ceased work. Missouri sets no bond-specific suit deadline, so the general five-year contract period applies, and Mo. Rev. Stat. § 431.030 voids any shorter limit printed in the bond. Indiana is the shortest on local work, at 60 days after final completion and acceptance under Ind. Code § 36-1-12-13.1(d), matched by Iowa, where a claimant who has filed a claim sues between 30 and 60 days after completion and final acceptance under Iowa Code § 573.16, followed by Colorado at 90 days after the published final settlement date, and Washington, Kentucky, Montana and Wyoming are the exceptions in kind: none of chapter 39.08 RCW, KRS chapter 45A, Mont. Code Ann. §§ 18-2-201 to 18-2-208 or Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 16-6-112 and 16-6-113 sets a suit deadline on the bond, so the limitation comes from the bond form itself.
Is the bond claim deadline the same as the mechanics lien deadline in my state?
Usually not. Comparing each state's bond notice window against the private-project lien recording window for the same subcontractor or supplier, the two match in 23 states. In 21 states the public-project bond notice window is shorter, sometimes dramatically so. New York gives 8 months on private work and 120 days on public, and Wisconsin swaps a six-month private window for a 60-day notice counted from first furnishing. Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania each shorten by 90 days, and Wisconsin by about 120. In six states the public window is actually longer, including Oregon at 180 days versus 75, and Connecticut at 180 versus 90. A contractor who applies a familiar private-project deadline to a public job is guessing wrong more than half the time.
Who do you serve with a bond claim notice?
In 14 of the 50 states the tracked bond notice runs to both the prime contractor and the surety that issued the payment bond. Thirty-six states depart from that pattern. Illinois requires a verified notice filed with the public body that awarded the contract, with a copy to the contractor within 10 days, under 30 ILCS 550/2. Ohio requires a statement of the amount due furnished to the sureties on the bond under Ohio R.C. section 153.56(A). New York directs it to the contractor that furnished the bond, and to no one else, under State Finance Law section 137(3). Pennsylvania requires written notice to the prime contractor alone, and only from a claimant with no contract with the prime, under 8 P.S. § 194(b). Georgia requires written notice to the contractor that furnished the bond, and only from a remote claimant, under O.C.G.A. §§ 13-10-63 and 36-91-93. North Carolina requires a notice of claim to the contractor alone within 120 days, and only from a claimant with no contract with the contractor, under G.S. 44A-27(b). Arizona requires two notices to the contractor alone, a preliminary twenty-day notice and a ninety-day notice, from the same kind of claimant under A.R.S. § 34-223(A). Washington requires a written notice of claim filed with the awarding public body within 30 days after completion of the contract and acceptance of the work under RCW 39.08.030. New Jersey requires a statement of the amount due furnished to the sureties, and provided to the contractor as well, under N.J.S.A. 2A:44-145. Virginia requires a second-tier claimant's notice to the contractor alone under Va. Code § 2.2-4341(B). Massachusetts names the contractor principal that furnished the bond and no one else, within 65 days, under M.G.L. c. 149, § 29. Colorado has no notice at all: a verified statement of the amount due is filed with the contracting body that awarded the contract, up to and including final settlement, under C.R.S. § 38-26-107(1). Michigan requires two notices under MCL 129.207, a 30-day notice of furnishing to the principal contractor and a 90-day notice of claim to the principal contractor and the governmental unit. Maryland requires a claimant with no contract with the prime to give written notice to the contractor alone, by certified mail within 90 days after last supplying, under State Fin. & Proc. § 17-108(b). Wisconsin requires a start-of-work notice to the prime contractor alone, within 60 days after first furnishing, under Wis. Stat. § 779.14(2)(am). Missouri requires notice only from a remote supplier, to the contractor alone, within 90 days of last supplying, under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 107.170.2. Indiana requires a statement of the amount due filed with the public body, the board on local work or the Public Works Division on state work, with a copy delivered to the contractor, within 60 days of last furnishing, under Ind. Code §§ 36-1-12-13.1(c) and 4-13.6-7-10. Tennessee accepts notice to either the contractor who executed the bond or the public official who let the contract, within 90 days after completion of the public work, under Tenn. Code Ann. § 12-4-205. South Carolina requires notice only from a remote claimant, to the bonded contractor alone, by registered or certified mail within 90 days of last furnishing, under S.C. Code Ann. § 11-35-3030(2)(c) on state work and § 29-5-440 on local work. Oregon requires every claimant, first tier included, to send a notice of claim to both the contractor and the contracting agency within 180 days of last furnishing, under ORS 279C.600 and 279C.605. Nevada requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered or certified mail: one notice within 30 days after first furnishing and a second within 90 days after last furnishing, under NRS 339.035(2). Utah requires no bond notice from any claimant under Utah Code § 63G-6a-1103(4); the gate is a preliminary notice filed on the State Construction Registry within 20 days after starting work, under § 38-1b-202. Louisiana runs its filings from the public owner's recorded acceptance of the work or notice of default: a sworn statement of the amount due filed with the public entity and recorded in the parish mortgage records within 45 days under La. R.S. 38:2242(B), plus, from a claimant with no contract with the prime, written notice to the contractor within the same 45 days under La. R.S. 38:2247. Alabama requires written notice to the surety alone, by registered or certified mail to any of its offices, at least 45 days before suit under Ala. Code § 39-1-1(b), with no deadline counted from furnishing. Kentucky's bond statutes, KRS 45A.190 and 45A.435, name no recipient and set no claimant notice at all; the statutory remedy is a lien on the funds due the contractor, filed with the county clerk and delivered to the public authority under KRS 376.230 and 376.240. Kansas's public works bond statute, K.S.A. 60-1111, names no recipient and sets no notice at all; a claimant sues on the bond, which is filed with the clerk of the district court, within six months after completion of the public improvement. Iowa's chapter 573 claim is an itemized, sworn statement filed with the officer, board or commission that let the contract, within 30 days after completion and final acceptance, under Iowa Code §§ 573.7 and 573.10; a claimant working for a subcontractor also gives the principal contractor a one-time written notice within 30 days of first furnishing under § 573.15. Nebraska requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered or certified mail within four months of last furnishing, under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-118.01. Idaho requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered or certified mail within 90 days of last furnishing, under Idaho Code section 54-1927. Montana requires a written notice of claim presented to and filed with the public body within 90 days after completion of the contract and acceptance of the work, under Mont. Code Ann. section 18-2-204, plus a notice to the contractor within 30 days of first delivery from a supplier selling to a subcontractor, under section 18-2-206. Alaska requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered mail within 90 days of last furnishing, under AS 36.25.020(b), and suit is due within one year after final settlement of the contract. North Dakota requires notice only from a claimant with no contract with the bonded contractor, to that contractor alone, by registered mail within 90 days after the claimant completes its contribution, under N.D. Cent. Code section 48-01.2-11, and suit is due within one year after completion and acceptance of the project under section 48-01.2-12. Delaware's large public works statute, 29 Del. C. section 6962(d)(9), sets no claimant notice at all; every firm furnishing labor or material sues on the bond in the agency's name, within one year after the contractor ceased work if the bond says so and otherwise within three years after the last work on the contract. Serving the public owner alone in a prime-and-surety state does not preserve the claim, and neither does serving the prime while omitting the surety where the statute names both. Because the surety is a party the claimant has no contract with, obtaining a copy of the bond early is the practical prerequisite to giving valid notice.
What happens if you miss the bond claim deadline on a public project?
The claim against the payment bond is generally lost, and unlike private work there is no lien to fall back on. On a private project a claimant who misses the lien deadline still owns a breach of contract claim against whoever hired them, secured by nothing but that party's solvency. On a public project the bond was the security — it exists precisely because the property cannot be liened — so losing the bond claim means losing the collateral entirely and being left with an unsecured contract claim against a party that has usually already stopped paying. That asymmetry is why the shorter public deadlines matter more than their length alone suggests.