Washington Payment Bond Claim — The 30-Day Notice Runs From Completion and Acceptance, Is Filed With the Public Body, and the Four-Month Deadline You Have Heard About Belongs to the Retainage Fund (RCW 39.08.030, 2026)
✓ Verified against Washington statutes · Reviewed September 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Washington mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
60 days — Notice to Owner
Mechanics Lien
90 days — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
8 months — From filing
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Washington Public Work Runs on Two Funds, Not One
On a private Washington job, a subcontractor or supplier serves a 60-day preliminary notice under RCW 60.04.031 and records a claim of lien within 90 days of last furnishing. A school district gymnasium in Spokane, a Sound Transit station, or a county road project is different. Public property generally cannot be liened, so the Legislature substituted two security funds and a claimant should pursue both. The first is the payment bond required by RCW 39.08.010 , written by a surety company and conditioned to pay laborers, mechanics, subcontractors and material suppliers. The second is the retained percentage under RCW 60.28.011 , up to five percent of the moneys earned by the contractor, held by the public owner as a trust fund for claimants. One is a promise from an insurer. The other is cash the owner is already sitting on. The Mechanics Lien Management Method treats a Washington public job as a two-fund file with three clocks: the 10-day supplier notice from first delivery, the 30-day bond notice after completion and acceptance, and the 45-day retainage notice after completion of the contract work. They are measured from different events and none of them substitutes for another.
What RCW 39.08.030 Actually Requires
Two things in that sentence decide most Washington bond claims. The first is the trigger . The 30 days runs from completion of the contract coupled with an acceptance of the work by the affirmative action of the awarding board, council, commission, trustees, officer or body. Acceptance by affirmative action means a vote, a resolution, a formal act that appears in the public record. It is an event on the owner’s calendar, and it can land many months after a subcontractor’s own last day. The second is the recipient . The notice is presented to and filed with the public body that awarded the contract. The statute does not send it to the surety, and it does not send it to the prime. That is the opposite of the pattern in most Little Miller Act states, and it is where multistate claimants lose Washington claims: the demand goes to the surety’s claims department, which is a sensible business step and not a statutory filing. The remaining clause in the section is a waiting rule rather than a deadline. Attorneys’ fees are not allowed in any suit brought before the expiration of 30 days following the date the notice was filed, which gives the public body and the surety a month to resolve the claim before a fee-bearing lawsuit is on the table.
The 10-Day Notice Almost Nobody Sends
RCW 39.08.065 imposes a separate, much earlier obligation on one group of claimants. Every person, firm or corporation furnishing materials, supplies or provisions to a subcontractor must, not later than 10 days after the date of the first delivery , deliver or mail to the contractor a notice in writing identifying the subcontractor that received them and stating that the contractor and its bond will be held for payment. Read the scope carefully. It reaches suppliers of materials, supplies or provisions selling to a subcontractor . A subcontractor performing labor under a direct contract with the prime is not in that category, and a supplier selling directly to the prime is not either. But for the aggregate yard, the rebar supplier, or the equipment and consumables vendor selling to a sub, this is the first and shortest deadline on the job. Ten days from first delivery is a credit-department deadline, not a collections deadline. By the time an account is visibly slow, the window closed months earlier. The workable practice is to make the § 39.08.065 notice part of opening the account on any public job: confirm whether the customer is the prime or a sub, and if it is a sub, mail the notice with the first ticket.
Every Washington Public-Work Deadline in One Table
The Mechanics Lien Management State System runs the 10-day notice from first delivery, the 30-day bond notice and the 45-day retainage notice from the owner’s completion and acceptance, and the four-month foreclosure date from the filing of the reserve-fund claim. Private-work rules are on the Washington lien statutes page, with the calculator on the Washington mechanics lien hub . The last two rows are federal. Work under a prime contract with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Navy at Bremerton, or GSA is Miller Act work under 40 U.S.C. § 3133, where the notice goes to the prime within 90 days of last furnishing and suit is filed in U.S. District Court.
The Retainage Claim Is the Other Half of the File
RCW 60.28.011(1)(a) requires the public body to reserve a percentage of the moneys earned by the contractor, not to exceed five percent , as a trust fund for the protection of claimants. Subsection (2) sets the claim procedure: notice of the lien of the claimant must be given within 45 days of completion of the contract work , and in the manner provided in RCW 39.08.030. That cross-reference is why the retainage notice is also filed with the public body rather than mailed to a surety. Then RCW 60.28.030 supplies the enforcement deadline that the bond statute lacks: a person filing a claim against the reserve fund has four months from the time of that filing to bring an action to foreclose the lien. This is the true home of the four-month figure that circulates as a supposed bond deadline, and noticing where it actually lives is the fastest way to stop misapplying it. Practically, the retainage is the easier target. It is a defined pot of money already in the owner’s hands, it is not subject to a surety’s coverage analysis, and a timely claim against it tends to concentrate the prime contractor’s attention faster than a bond demand does. Treat the bond and the reserve fund as one strategy with two filings.
Generate the Washington Bond and Retainage Notices From One Project Record
Washington Bond Claim Notice Generator Produce the RCW 39.08.065 ten-day notice to the contractor at first delivery, the RCW 39.08.030 notice of claim for filing with the public body, and the RCW 60.28.011 notice of lien against the retained percentage — with a calendar carrying the 30-day bond date, the 45-day retainage date, the 30-day fee-waiting period, and the four-month foreclosure date. Pair it with the property search tool to confirm the awarding public body, the bond claim hub to compare Washington 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 lien waiver center before signing a release that also gives up bond and retainage rights. When the public body disputes the filing or the surety goes quiet, connect with a Washington construction attorney through the Mechanics Lien Management network.
Track the Washington Bond and Retainage Clocks Automatically
The Mechanics Lien Management lien generator produces the ten-day supplier notice, the notice of claim on the bond, and the notice of lien against the retained percentage from one project record. The Mechanics Lien Management deadline calculator tracks completion and acceptance, the 30-day and 45-day filings, and the four-month foreclosure date. Miss the deadline and you lose your bond rights entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the deadline for a Washington payment bond claim?
Thirty days, but not from your last day on the job. RCW 39.08.030 says a claimant has no right of action on the bond for any sum whatever unless, within 30 days from and after the completion of the contract with an acceptance of the work by the affirmative action of the board, council, commission, trustees, officer or body acting for the public entity, the claimant presents to and files with that body a notice in writing. The clock is tied to the prime contract being finished and formally accepted, which is an event on the public owner's calendar rather than yours.
Who do you send a Washington bond claim notice to?
The public body that awarded the contract. RCW 39.08.030 requires the notice of claim to be presented to and filed with the board, council, commission, trustees or body acting for the state, county, municipality, city, town or district. It does not direct the notice to the surety or to the prime contractor. Sending a demand only to the surety company named on the bond, which is what claimants coming from other states tend to do, satisfies nothing in the statute. Copies to the prime and the surety are useful, but the filing with the public body is the step that preserves the claim.
Is there a 10-day notice on Washington public projects?
Yes, for one group of claimants. RCW 39.08.065 requires every person, firm or corporation furnishing materials, supplies or provisions to a subcontractor to deliver or mail to the contractor, not later than 10 days after the date of the first delivery, a written notice identifying the subcontractor that received them and stating that the contractor and its bond will be held for payment. It runs from first delivery, not last, so it is the earliest deadline on the job. A claimant in direct contract with the prime does not owe it.
How long do you have to sue on a Washington payment bond?
Chapter 39.08 RCW does not set an outer deadline for the suit itself. The statutory condition is the 30-day notice of claim; once that is filed, the time limit for bringing the action comes from the terms of the bond and from the general limitations period for the underlying obligation. RCW 39.08.030 adds only that attorneys' fees are not allowed in a suit brought before 30 days have expired following the date the notice was filed, which is a short waiting period rather than a deadline. Read the bond itself, because many bond forms impose their own limitation.
Where does the four-month Washington bond deadline come from?
From a different statute and a different fund. RCW 60.28.030 gives a person filing a claim against the reserve fund four months from the time of that filing to bring an action to foreclose the lien. That is the retained percentage held under RCW 60.28.011, not the payment bond, and the four months runs from the date the claim was filed rather than from completion or last furnishing. Attaching it to the bond claim produces a deadline that does not exist and hides the one that does, which is the 30-day notice after completion and acceptance.
Can you claim against retainage and the bond on the same Washington project?
Yes, and a claimant generally should. RCW 60.28.011 requires the public body to reserve a percentage of the moneys earned by the contractor, not to exceed five percent, as a trust fund for claimants, and provides that notice of the lien of the claimant must be given within 45 days of completion of the contract work in the manner provided in RCW 39.08.030. The two remedies run on separate clocks measured from separate events, and the retainage is real money already sitting with the public owner rather than a claim against a surety's underwriting decision.
Does every Washington public works contract have a payment bond?
No. RCW 39.08.010 requires the bond as the general rule, but on contracts of $150,000 or less the contractor may elect, and the public entity may accept, retention of 10 percent of the contract amount in lieu of the bond. On a job in that range there may be no bond to claim against at all, and the retained funds become the entire remedy. Confirm which arrangement the owner used before planning the claim. RCW 39.08.015 also makes a public entity that failed to take the required bond liable to claimants for the full amount of the debts.