Maryland Payment Bond Claim — The 90-Day Notice Goes to the Contractor Alone, and the One-Year Suit Clock Starts at the Public Body's Final Acceptance (State Fin. & Proc. §§ 17-108, 17-109, 2026)
✓ Verified against Maryland statutes · Reviewed September 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Maryland mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
120 days (sub) — Notice of Intent
Mechanics Lien
180 days — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
1 year — From filing
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Why a Maryland Public Job Needs Its Own Playbook
On a private Maryland job, an unpaid subcontractor or supplier works under the Maryland mechanics lien statute in the Real Property Article: a notice of intention to claim a lien to the owner, then a petition to establish the lien in circuit court. A Maryland State Highway Administration interchange, a Montgomery County Public Schools addition, a University System of Maryland lab building, or a Baltimore City water main replacement is different. Publicly owned property generally cannot be liened, and Title 17 of the State Finance and Procurement Article puts payment security in the lien’s place. The Maryland statute is short, about a page and a half from definitions to venue, and every sentence in it matters. It keeps the 90-day notice most contractors already know from the federal Miller Act. It then changes the two details that multistate contractors most often assume without checking: who receives the notice and what event starts the suit clock . The Mechanics Lien Management Method handles a Maryland public job as a three-date file : your last date of supply, which starts both the 90-day notice window and the 90-day waiting period before suit; and the public body’s date of final acceptance, which starts the one-year suit period. Two of those dates are in your records. The third is in the agency’s.
What § 17-108 Actually Requires
Start with who owes the notice . Section 17-108 uses the word supplier , which § 17-101 defines as a person who supplies labor or materials, including a lessor of equipment to the extent of the equipment’s fair rental value. The notice obligation falls on a supplier whose contract runs to a subcontractor or sub-subcontractor rather than to the contractor. That reaches second-tier claimants and third-tier claimants who sold to a sub-subcontractor. A first-tier subcontractor with a direct contract with the prime gives no notice. Next is who receives it . The notice goes to the contractor, by certified mail, at its residence or at any place where it has a business. There is no second recipient. The surety is not named, the public body is not named, and nothing in the subsection requires a copy anywhere else. That puts Maryland alongside Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts among the states that send a lower-tier claimant’s notice to the prime alone. Compare the full map in the Little Miller Act deadlines for all 50 states . Last is what it must say . The notice has to state the amount claimed with substantial accuracy and identify the person for whom the work was done or to whom the materials were supplied. There is no statutory form. A one-page letter that names the project, the public owner, the subcontractor you supplied, your last date of supply, and the job-specific…
First-Tier Subs: No Notice, but a 90-Day Wait
Section 17-108(a) sets the baseline right for everyone. A supplier may sue on the payment security if it supplied labor or materials in work under a contract subject to the subtitle and it has not been paid in full within 90 days after last supplying them. For a subcontractor that signed with the prime, that is the whole precondition. No notice has to go out. The same 90 days is a floor on timing. A first-tier sub that files suit two weeks after the prime stops paying has filed before the statute allows it. The practical sequence for a first-tier claimant is to send a demand when payment stalls, keep documenting, and file after day 90 and inside the one-year period that § 17-109(b) measures from final acceptance. A first-tier sub gains nothing by skipping a letter. Nothing in § 17-108 requires one from a claimant in direct contract with the prime, but a written demand to the prime with a copy to the surety creates a record, and in practice it often draws the surety’s claims department in before litigation. Treat it as good practice, not a statutory step.
Every Maryland Public-Work Claim Deadline in One Table
The Mechanics Lien Management State System tracks a Maryland public job on two clocks: the claimant’s last supply and the public body’s final acceptance. Private-work rules are on the Maryland lien statutes page, with the calculator on the Maryland mechanics lien hub . The last two rows matter more in Maryland than in most states. Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Joint Base Andrews, the NIH campus and Walter Reed in Bethesda, NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, and the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn all generate federal prime contracts. That work is Miller Act work under 40 U.S.C. § 3133, not Title 17. The federal notice is also 90 days, but federal suit runs one year from the claimant’s own last furnishing and is filed in U.S. District Court. A claimant running a county school job and a base project in the same quarter has two suit clocks that start from different events.
The Suit Clock Belongs to the Public Body
Section 17-109(b) says an action on a payment bond required by the subtitle shall be filed within 1 year after the public body finally accepts the work performed under the contract . That is the prime contract, and its acceptance is an administrative act of the agency, county, or municipality. It does not appear on your delivery tickets, your lien waiver log, or your pay applications. The consequence runs in two directions. On a long public job, where a site-work sub finished in the first year and the building was accepted two years later, the one-year period may not even have begun when the sub starts to worry. On a short job with a fast closeout, acceptance can follow the claimant’s last work closely. Neither case can be computed from the claimant’s own records. The fix is one written request. When the job nears completion, ask the public body’s project manager or procurement office for the date of final acceptance of the prime contract and ask to be told when it occurs. Save the answer in the job file. If the date is disputed later, a written statement from the owner is far better evidence than a guess drawn from punch-list emails.
Getting the Bond, and Why Pay-If-Paid Does Not Save the Prime
You cannot sue a surety you cannot name. Section 17-108(c) gives Maryland suppliers a statutory route to the bond: on an affidavit that the supplier supplied labor or materials and has not been paid, the Comptroller or other officer who has custody of the payment security must issue a certified copy of the payment bond , or a certified statement describing other security, for a reasonable fee. The certification is prima facie evidence of the bond’s contents, execution, and delivery. Ask early. Waiting until the eleventh month of the suit period to find out who the surety is leaves no room if the request is slow. Section 17-108(d) closes the most common escape route. A provision in an executory contract cannot waive a supplier’s right to sue on the payment security, a clause that conditions payment on receipt of payment from a third party cannot abrogate that right, and a provision that violates the subsection is void as against public policy . A prime that tells a supplier it will be paid when the county pays can still argue about the subcontract, but it cannot use that clause to defeat a claim against the payment security.
Generate the Maryland Notice From One Project Record
Maryland Public Works Notice Generator Produce the § 17-108(b) notice to the contractor, with the job-specific amount and the name of the party you supplied, ready for certified mail, plus a calendar carrying the 90-day notice cutoff, the 90-day earliest-suit date, and a reminder to confirm final acceptance. Pair it with the property search tool to confirm the public owner, the bond claim hub to compare Maryland with other Little Miller Act states, mechanics lien vs. bond claim for choosing the remedy early, the notice of intent center for the private-work analogue, and the mechanics lien deadlines by state pillar. When the prime disputes the notice or the surety denies the claim, connect with a Maryland construction attorney through the Mechanics Lien Management network.
Track the Maryland Notice and Suit Clocks Automatically
The Mechanics Lien Management lien generator produces the § 17-108(b) notice from one project record. The Mechanics Lien Management deadline calculator carries the 90-day notice cutoff and the final-acceptance suit period together. Miss the deadline and you lose your claim rights entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the deadline for a Maryland payment bond claim notice?
Ninety days after you last supplied labor or materials, and only if you owe a notice at all. Under Maryland State Finance and Procurement § 17-108(b), a supplier that has a direct contract with a subcontractor or sub-subcontractor, but not with the contractor, may sue on the payment security only if it gives written notice to the contractor within 90 days after last supplying the labor or materials for which it claims. A first-tier subcontractor that contracted directly with the prime owes no notice, but under § 17-108(a) it cannot sue until it has gone unpaid for 90 days after last supplying. The notice window and the waiting period are the same length, and they measure from the same day.
Who do you send a Maryland bond claim notice to?
The contractor, and no one else. Section 17-108(b)(2) requires the notice to be sent by certified mail to the contractor at its residence or at any place where it has a business. The statute does not name the surety, the public body, or the Comptroller as recipients. Maryland therefore breaks from the prime-and-surety pattern used in most Little Miller Act states: a carefully drafted claim letter sent only to the surety's claims department is not the notice the statute requires. A courtesy copy to the surety is harmless and often useful, but the certified letter to the contractor is the one that preserves the right to sue.
How long do you have to sue on a Maryland payment bond?
One year after the public body finally accepts the work performed under the contract, under State Finance and Procurement § 17-109(b). The clock does not run from your last delivery or your last day on site. Final acceptance is an act of the agency, county, or municipality that let the contract, and on a large project it can come months after a subcontractor demobilizes. That cuts both ways: it can extend a claimant's time well past a year from its own last work, and a claimant who guesses at the date can also misjudge it. Ask the public body in writing for the date of final acceptance and keep the answer in the file.
What must a Maryland bond claim notice say?
Section 17-108(b)(2) requires two things of the content: the notice must state with substantial accuracy the amount claimed, and it must name the person for whom the work was done or to whom the materials were supplied. In practice that means the dollar figure due for this project, not a running account balance across jobs, and the name of the subcontractor or sub-subcontractor you contracted with. Adding the project name, the public body, the contract number if you have it, and your last date of supply costs nothing and makes the notice easy to match to the bond. An inflated or blended figure invites an argument that the amount was not stated with substantial accuracy.
Where do you file suit on a Maryland payment bond?
Section 17-109(a) directs the action to the appropriate court of the county where the contract was executed and performed, or where the contractor has its principal place of business. A Baltimore County subcontractor working a Montgomery County school job for a prime headquartered in Anne Arundel County may therefore have a choice. Section 17-109(c) adds that the public body named as obligee on the bond, or a trustee for other security, is not liable for costs in the action, so the public entity is not a defendant you can shift costs onto.
How do you get a copy of the Maryland payment bond?
Section 17-108(c) gives a supplier a statutory route. On an affidavit that the supplier supplied labor or materials for which it has not been paid, the Comptroller or other officer who has custody of the payment security must issue a certified copy of the payment bond, or a certified statement describing other security, for a reasonable fee. The certified copy is prima facie evidence of the contents, execution, and delivery of the original. That route matters when the prime will not share the bond, because you need the surety's name and the bond terms before a suit can be filed.
Can a pay-if-paid clause defeat a Maryland bond claim?
Not the bond claim itself. Section 17-108(d) provides that a provision in an executory contract cannot waive a supplier's right to sue on the payment security, that a provision conditioning payment on the receipt of payment from a third party cannot abrogate that right, and that a contract provision violating the subsection is void as against public policy. A prime that has not been paid by the agency may still argue about what it owes under the subcontract, but it cannot use a pay-if-paid clause to strip a Maryland supplier of its right to proceed against the payment security.