Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>if deposit payments were made, does the preliminary notice in TX still need to include the TOTAL contract amount?

if deposit payments were made, does the preliminary notice in TX still need to include the TOTAL contract amount?

TexasPreliminary Notice

we have a project in TX and the customer made two deposit payments prior to shipment. After shipping, we sent the preliminary notice. When creating the preliminary notice, Levelset asks for the Total Contract amount. Does this amount have to be the actual total contract amount, or can it just be the remaining contract amount due after the deposit payments were made?

1 reply

Jan 30, 2020

For the purposes of this question, I'll assume you're referring to the requirements of either the Notice of Specialty Fabricated Materials or the Notice of Contractual Retainage, created by § 53-058 and § 53-057 of the Texas Property Code, respectively. But to be sure - I'm not able to advise you on how you should enter any information onto your notices or into the Levelset system. Still, I think the below information should provide a lot of value. Anyway, for those providing specially fabricated materials, § 53-058(c)(2) specifically requires the "price of the order" to appear on the notice. So, if the price of the total order includes amounts that have been paid via deposit, then those deposits should likely be included on the notice. Looking at § 53-057 - the Notice of Contractual Retainage doesn't specifically require the full price of the order. Rather, under § 53-057(c), the notice "must generally state the existence of a requirement for retainage..." So, a party who isn't specially fabricating materials and is merely sending a Notice of Contractual Retainage might not need to include a full picture of the price for the work - but that notice should provide clear insight into the existence of retainage on the job - and it's usually a good idea to make the percentage of retainage being withheld transparent and open. For more information on Texas notices: Texas Preliminary Notice Guide and FAQs.

0 people found this helpful

Helpful