Virginia Payment Bond Claim — The 90-Day Notice Goes to the Prime Contractor, the Statute Is No Longer § 11-60, and the Bond May Not Exist at All Below $500,000 (Va. Code § 2.2-4341, 2026)
✓ Verified against Virginia statutes · Reviewed September 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Virginia mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
None — N/A
Mechanics Lien
90 days — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
6 months — From filing
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Virginia’s Little Miller Act Moved, and Most Summaries Did Not
On a private Virginia job, an unpaid subcontractor or supplier records a memorandum of mechanic’s lien against the property under Title 43. A Virginia Department of Transportation interchange, a county courthouse, a public university residence hall, or a municipal water treatment plant is different. Public property generally cannot be liened, so the Commonwealth substituted a statutory payment bond, and the rules for claiming on it live in the Virginia Public Procurement Act . That relocation is the first practical problem a Virginia claimant runs into. A large share of the bond-claim checklists, notice templates, and third-party summaries in circulation still cite Va. Code § 11-60 and its Title 11 neighbors. The operative provisions today are § 2.2-4337 for when bonds are required and in what amount, § 2.2-4338 for alternative forms of security, and § 2.2-4341 for who may sue, what notice is owed, how it is served, when the action is barred, and when a waiver is void. The Mechanics Lien Management Method treats a Virginia public job as a single-instrument file with a tier question at the front . Confirm a bond exists, get a copy at award, and then answer one question before calendaring anything: did you contract with the prime, or with a subcontractor? Everything downstream — whether you serve a notice at all, and what the 90 days even means — follows from that answer.
What § 2.2-4341 Actually Requires
Three things in that subsection decide most Virginia bond claims. The first is who owes the notice . It is the claimant with a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor and no contractual relationship, express or implied, with the contractor — the second-tier sub, the supplier selling to a sub, the equipment vendor invoicing a sub. A first-tier claimant is governed by subsection (A) and owes nothing. The second is the recipient . The notice goes to the contractor. Not the surety, and not the public body that awarded the contract. Virginia is one of a minority of states where a claimant who mails a well-drafted demand to the surety’s claims department, and only there, has satisfied nothing the statute asks for. The third is the method , which the statute does not leave to judgment: service by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place where his office is regularly maintained for the transaction of business. Email to a project manager, a portal upload, and a hand-carried letter to the jobsite trailer are not that. Use certified mail to the business office and keep the receipt in the project file.
The Same 90 Days Means Two Different Things
Virginia uses a 90-day period in both operative subsections, and they do not do the same work. Subsection (A) covers the claimant in direct contract with the prime: that claimant may bring an action on the payment bond if it has not been paid in full before the expiration of 90 days after the day it performed the last of the labor or furnished the last of the materials. That is a ripeness rule. The claimant serves nothing on anyone; it simply cannot file until the 90 days has run. Subsection (B) covers the claimant whose contract is with a subcontractor, and there the 90 days is a condition precedent . Written notice must reach the contractor inside the window or the action does not lie at all. One number, one direction on the calendar, and completely opposite consequences for missing it: a first-tier claimant that files early has a premature case it can refile, and a second-tier claimant that notices late has no case. The sorting question is contractual, not functional. It does not matter how much of the work you self-performed, how well the prime’s superintendent knows your crew, or whether your invoices went to the prime’s accounting department. It matters whose signature is on your contract. When the answer is genuinely unclear — a purchase order issued by a joint venture, a sub that was later absorbed by the prime, a change directive signed by someone else — serve the…
Every Virginia Public-Work Bond Deadline in One Table
The Mechanics Lien Management State System runs the subsection (B) notice and the one-year suit date from the claimant’s own last furnishing, and the subsection (A) waiting period from the same day. Private-work rules are on the Virginia lien statutes page, with the calculator on the Virginia mechanics lien hub . The last two rows matter more in Virginia than in most states. Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads carry a heavy volume of federal work — GSA, the Navy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and federal agency campuses — and a prime contract with a federal agency is Miller Act work under 40 U.S.C. § 3133, not § 2.2-4341 work. The federal notice also runs 90 days to the prime, which is a convenient coincidence and not a reason to stop checking which statute governs. The federal suit window is narrower on both ends: no sooner than 90 days, no later than one year, in U.S. District Court.
Below $500,000, There May Be Nothing to Claim Against
Va. Code § 2.2-4337(A) requires performance and payment bonds upon the award of nontransportation-related construction contracts in excess of $500,000 , and of transportation-related projects authorized under Title 33.2 and funded in whole or in part by the Commonwealth in excess of $350,000 . The payment bond is in the sum of the contract amount, for the protection of claimants who have and fulfill contracts to supply labor or materials to the prime contractor or to any subcontractors. Read the thresholds against the work Virginia actually awards and the gap is obvious. A great deal of municipal, school district, and small-agency construction lands under half a million dollars. On that work there may be no bond, no lien, and no statutory security of any kind — only a contract claim against the party that already stopped paying. A public body may require a bond below the threshold and many do as a matter of policy, so the answer is specific to the job rather than to the dollar figure. The defense is a single email at award, to the contracting officer or procurement office, asking for a copy of the payment bond for the project. Getting it while everyone is cooperative takes an afternoon. Getting it on day 80 of a 90-day window, from a prime that can already see a claim coming, is a different exercise. Read what comes back for the surety’s name, the penal sum, and any limitation…
A Waiver Signed Before the Work Is Void
Section 2.2-4341(D) is the most under-used provision in the Virginia statute: any waiver of the right to sue on the payment bond required by this section is void unless it is in writing, signed by the person whose right is waived, and executed after such person has performed labor or furnished material in accordance with the contract documents. All three conditions have to hold. A clause in a subcontract or a credit application signed at the start of the job — the sort that recites that the subcontractor waives all bond and lien rights — fails the third condition on its face, because it was executed before any labor was performed. A claimant who is told during a payoff negotiation that it signed its bond rights away at contract signing should read the document and the date rather than accept the characterization. The converse deserves equal attention. A release executed after the work, on a progress payment or a final payment, can be entirely effective, and the broad release language on a standard payment application is exactly the kind of writing subsection (D) validates. Before signing one, run it through the lien waiver center and confirm whether it reaches bond rights as well as lien rights.
Generate the Virginia Bond Notice From One Project Record
Virginia Bond Claim Notice Generator Produce the § 2.2-4341(B) written notice to the prime contractor, formatted for registered or certified mail to the contractor’s business office and stating the amount claimed and the party for whom the work was performed — with a calendar carrying the 90-day notice date, the 90-day waiting date for direct claimants, and the one-year suit date, all measured from your last furnishing. Pair it with the property search tool to confirm the awarding public body, the bond claim hub to compare Virginia with other Little Miller Act states, mechanics lien vs. bond claim for choosing the remedy early, the mechanics lien deadlines by state pillar, and the preliminary notice center for the private-work analogue. When the prime disputes the tier question or the surety goes quiet, connect with a Virginia construction attorney through the Mechanics Lien Management network.
Track the Virginia Notice and Suit Clocks Automatically
The Mechanics Lien Management lien generator produces the § 2.2-4341(B) notice to the prime contractor from one project record. The Mechanics Lien Management deadline calculator tracks your last furnishing date, the 90-day notice date, and the one-year suit date together. Miss the deadline and you lose your bond rights entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the deadline for a Virginia payment bond claim?
Ninety days for the notice and one year for the suit, and both run from the same event. Va. Code § 2.2-4341(B) lets a claimant who has a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor, but no contractual relationship with the prime contractor, bring an action on the payment bond only if it gave the contractor written notice within 90 days from the day on which the claimant performed the last of the labor or furnished the last of the materials for which the claim is made. Section 2.2-4341(C) then bars any action on a payment bond brought more than one year after the day the claimant last performed labor or last furnished or supplied materials.
Who do you send a Virginia bond claim notice to?
The prime contractor. Section 2.2-4341(B) directs the written notice to the contractor and names no one else — not the surety, not the public body that awarded the contract. It also fixes the method: the notice is served by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place where his office is regularly maintained for the transaction of business. Sending a demand to the surety's claims department is a reasonable business step and it is not the statutory notice. Send the certified letter to the contractor's business office and keep the receipt.
Is Virginia's bond statute still Va. Code § 11-60?
No, and that stale citation is the most common error in Virginia bond-claim summaries. Virginia's public procurement bond provisions now sit in the Virginia Public Procurement Act: § 2.2-4337 requires the bonds, § 2.2-4338 addresses alternative forms of security, and § 2.2-4341 governs actions on payment bonds, notice, and waiver. A notice letter or a complaint that cites the old Title 11 sections is not automatically fatal, because what matters is that the right recipient got the right facts in time, but it is a reliable sign that the underlying deadline research is out of date too.
Does a subcontractor with a direct contract with the prime have to give notice in Virginia?
No. The 90-day notice in § 2.2-4341(B) applies only to a claimant who has a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor and no contractual relationship, express or implied, with the contractor. A first-tier subcontractor or a supplier selling directly to the prime is covered by § 2.2-4341(A) instead, which imposes a different kind of 90-day rule: that claimant may bring an action on the payment bond if it has not been paid in full before the expiration of 90 days after the day on which it performed the last of the labor or furnished the last of the materials. That is a waiting period before suit, not a notice to serve.
Does every Virginia public construction contract have a payment bond?
No, and the threshold is high enough that it changes the analysis on midsize work. Va. Code § 2.2-4337 requires performance and payment bonds upon the award of nontransportation-related construction contracts in excess of $500,000, and of transportation-related projects authorized under Title 33.2 and funded in whole or in part by the Commonwealth in excess of $350,000. The payment bond is in the sum of the contract amount and protects claimants supplying labor or materials to the prime contractor or to any subcontractors. Below the thresholds a public body may still require a bond, so ask for a copy at award rather than assuming.
Can a Virginia subcontract waive the right to sue on the payment bond?
Not in advance. Section 2.2-4341(D) makes any waiver of the right to sue on the payment bond void unless it is in writing, signed by the person whose right is waived, and executed after such person has performed labor or furnished material in accordance with the contract documents. A no-bond-claim clause buried in a subcontract signed at the start of the job fails all three conditions, because it was executed before the work. A lien waiver or release signed later, after the labor was performed, is a different matter and can be fully effective, which is why the release language on each payment application deserves reading.
Can a sub-subcontractor two tiers down claim on a Virginia payment bond?
The statute does not say so in terms, and a claimant that far down the chain should treat its position as contested rather than assumed. Section 2.2-4341(A) describes a claimant with a direct contractual relationship with the contractor, and § 2.2-4341(B) describes a claimant with a direct contractual relationship with any subcontractor. A party whose only contract is with a sub-subcontractor fits neither description on the face of the text. Serve the § 2.2-4341(B) notice on the prime within 90 days anyway, because it costs a certified letter, and get a Virginia construction attorney's read on standing before the one-year date arrives.