Texas Payment Bond Claim — A Second-Tier Claimant Owes Two Notices Every Month, on Two Clocks, to Two Different Recipient Lists (Tex. Gov't Code Ch. 2253, 2026)
✓ Verified against Texas statutes · Reviewed September 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Texas mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
3rd month 15th — Fund-trapping notice
Mechanics Lien
15th of 4th month — Sub-tier: 15th of 2nd
Enforcement
1 year — From filing
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On Texas Public Work There Is No Lien to File
A Texas subcontractor who has run private jobs for years arrives at a school district project carrying the wrong instincts. On private work the remedy is the Chapter 53 mechanics lien: the monthly notices under Tex. Prop. Code § 53.056 , the affidavit filed with the county clerk, the cloud on title that makes the owner’s lender ask questions. None of that exists here. Public property in Texas cannot be encumbered by a mechanics lien, and there is no title to cloud. What exists instead is a bond the governmental entity was required to obtain before the work began. Section 2253.021 requires a payment bond when the public work contract exceeds $25,000 , or $50,000 where the governmental entity is a municipality or a joint airport board, and a performance bond when the contract exceeds $100,000 . The payment bond is the claimant’s remedy. The performance bond is the entity’s, and a claimant who requests the wrong one from the public body has wasted a week it did not have. The substitution is clean in principle and dangerous in practice, because the replacement remedy comes with a notice regime that is stricter, earlier, and more repetitive than the lien it replaced. Chapter 53 gives a first-tier commercial subcontractor a single clock. Chapter 2253 gives a second-tier claimant two.
When the Bond Exists, and When There Is Nothing to Claim Against
The last row is the one worth checking before anything else. A small municipal contract under $50,000 may carry no payment bond at all, and a claimant who spends two months perfecting notices against a bond that was never issued has been perfecting nothing. Request a copy of the bond from the governmental entity at the start of the job, not when the money goes late. That single request tells the claimant whether a bond exists, who the surety is, and what address the § 2253.048 notice has to reach — three facts that are all needed later and none of which are obvious from the subcontract.
The Two Notices, and Which One You Owe
Texas splits its bond claim notice into two statutes, and which of them applies turns on a single question: does the claimant have a direct contractual relationship with the prime contractor? Read the second one carefully, because the word doing the work is additional . Section 2253.047 does not replace § 2253.041 for lower-tier claimants. It stacks on top of it. A sub-subcontractor working under a first-tier subcontractor, or a supplier that sold to a subcontractor rather than to the prime, owes both notices for the same unpaid month — one to the prime by the 15th of the second month, and one to the prime and the surety by the 15th of the third. A first-tier subcontractor that signed directly with the prime owes only the § 2253.041 notice. This asymmetry is why the rule is so often learned wrong: the first-tier sub down the hall is genuinely following a simpler schedule, and it is telling the truth about its own obligations. Section 2253.047 also carries its own additional triggers — a retainage notice due by the 15th day of the second month after the date of the beginning of delivery or performance, and a specially fabricated material notice due by the 15th day of the second month after the receipt and acceptance of an order — and it does not apply to an individual mechanic or laborer claiming wages.
Every Chapter 2253 Deadline in One Table
The Mechanics Lien Management State System runs both Texas notice clocks from the project record and carries the federal Miller Act track alongside them for claimants working military, VA, and federal courthouse jobs in the same year. The underlying text sits at Texas lien statutes , with the private-work calculator on the Texas mechanics lien hub . The last two rows are a different statute entirely. A federally funded job is not automatically a federal job — what matters is whether the United States is the contracting party. A state highway project built with federal dollars is Chapter 2253 work. A project let by the Army Corps of Engineers is Miller Act work under 40 U.S.C. § 3133, where a second-tier claimant has 90 days from last furnishing and suit lies no sooner than 90 days and no later than one year after last furnishing, in federal district court.
The Suit Deadline Runs From Your Own Envelope
Most states measure the deadline to sue on a public bond from something that happened on the job — last furnishing, completion, acceptance, final payment. Texas measures it from something the claimant did. Section 2253.073(a) supplies the floor: a beneficiary may sue the principal or the surety, jointly or severally, if the claim is not paid before the 61st day after the date the notice for the claim is mailed. So the window opens on day 61 and closes on the first anniversary, and both endpoints are fixed by the postmark rather than by the project. Two consequences follow, and neither is intuitive. First, mailing notice promptly starts the claimant’s own limitations clock early — diligence on the notice shortens the time to sue rather than extending it. Second, because both notice statutes run monthly, a claimant with three unpaid months mailed across three consecutive months holds three claims with three separate anniversaries, and the oldest money expires first. The certified mail receipts are not filing hygiene in Texas. They are the limitations file, and they should be scanned and stored the day they come back.
Generate the Texas Notices From One Project Record
Texas Bond Claim & Notice Generator Produce the § 2253.041 notice with its sworn statement of account, the additional § 2253.047 second-month notice where the claimant has no direct contract with the prime, and the certified mail cover required by § 2253.048 — from one project record, with both monthly clocks and the § 2253.078 anniversary tracked per unpaid month. Pair it with the property search tool to confirm the contracting entity, the bond claim hub for how Texas compares to the other Little Miller Act states, mechanics lien vs. bond claim for choosing the right remedy before the clocks start, and the mechanics lien deadlines by state pillar for crews running both public and private work. When a surety denies a claim or disputes the sworn statement, connect with a Texas construction attorney through the Mechanics Lien Management network.
Run Both Texas Clocks Automatically
The Mechanics Lien Management lien generator produces the § 2253.041 notice with its sworn statement of account and the additional § 2253.047 notice from one project record, and the Mechanics Lien Management deadline calculator tracks the second-month and third-month windows for every unpaid month. Miss the deadline and you lose your bond rights entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you file a mechanics lien on a public project in Texas?
No. Public property in Texas cannot be encumbered by a mechanics lien, which is the reason Chapter 2253 of the Government Code exists at all. Section 2253.021 requires the governmental entity to obtain a payment bond before work begins when the contract exceeds $25,000, or $50,000 where the entity is a municipality or a joint airport board, and a performance bond when the contract exceeds $100,000. The payment bond takes the place of the lien. An unpaid subcontractor or supplier on a Texas public job has a claim against the prime contractor and its surety, not against the courthouse, the school, or the road.
What is the deadline for a Texas payment bond claim?
There is no single deadline, and treating it as one 90-day window is the most common way Texas bond claims are lost. Section 2253.041 requires notice mailed to the prime contractor and the surety on or before the 15th day of the third month after each month in which the claimed labor was performed or the claimed material was delivered. A claimant with no direct contractual relationship with the prime contractor must also comply with § 2253.047, which requires an additional notice to the prime contractor on or before the 15th day of the second month after each such month. Both run monthly, per unpaid month, not once per project.
Who has to send the second-month notice under Texas Government Code § 2253.047?
Only a payment bond beneficiary who does not have a direct contractual relationship with the prime contractor, and who is not an individual mechanic or laborer claiming wages. In practice that means the second-tier and lower claimants: a sub-subcontractor working under a first-tier subcontractor, or a supplier selling to a subcontractor rather than to the prime. A first-tier subcontractor that contracted directly with the prime owes only the § 2253.041 notice. Section 2253.047 is additional, not a substitute — a second-tier claimant owes both notices for the same unpaid month, and they carry different deadlines and different recipients.
Does a Texas bond claim notice go to the surety or just the prime contractor?
It depends which notice. The § 2253.041 notice goes to the prime contractor and the surety. The additional § 2253.047 notice owed by a claimant with no direct contractual relationship with the prime is mailed to the prime contractor. Section 2253.048 governs the mailing for both: notice must be sent by certified or registered mail, addressed to the prime contractor at its residence or last known business address, and to the surety at the address stated on the bond or on an attachment to it, at the address on file with the Texas Department of Insurance, or at any other address permitted by law.
When can a Texas claimant sue on a public work payment bond?
There is a floor and a ceiling, and both are measured from the claimant's own notice rather than from the job. Under § 2253.073(a), a payment bond beneficiary may sue the principal or the surety, jointly or severally, if the claim is not paid before the 61st day after the date the notice for the claim is mailed. Under § 2253.078, a suit on a payment bond may not be brought by a payment bond beneficiary after the first anniversary of the date notice for a claim is mailed. So the claimant must wait 61 days, and then has the remainder of the year from its own mailing date.
Does the Texas payment bond suit deadline run from last furnishing?
No, and this is the provision most often misstated. Section 2253.078 measures the one-year limitations period from the date notice for a claim is mailed — the claimant's own act — not from last furnishing, completion, acceptance, or final payment. The practical consequence runs in both directions. A claimant that mails notice promptly starts its own one-year clock early. A claimant that mails notice for January work in April and for February work in May is holding two claims with two different suit deadlines. The date to calendar is the postmark on each notice, which means the mailing receipts are the limitations file.
What must a Texas bond claim notice actually say?
Section 2253.041 requires the notice to be accompanied by a sworn statement of account. The statement must confirm that the amount claimed is just and correct and that all just and lawful offsets, payments, and credits known to the affiant have been allowed, and it must state any retainage that is not yet due under the terms of the contract. A notice that states a balance without the sworn statement, or that omits known credits, is not the document the statute describes. Chapter 2253 also carries separate notice provisions for claims under a written unit price agreement in § 2253.045 and for retainage in § 2253.046.