is 20 days: 20 working days or 20 calendar days? We have never worked for a developer before and began work on a project that the City of Riverside owns. We never filed a preliminary notice as we are used to dealing with city and utility company and have never had a problem with payments. This developer is now balking at paying us. It has been 20 calendar days since we completed our portion of the work, but not 20 working days. Is it too late to file preliminary notice?
Preliminary notice must be served within 20 calendar days. So if it was required, you may be out of luck with respect to a stop payment notice. You cannot lien a public owned project.
But, it sounds most likely that this is a public works project. In this case, preliminary notice is not required if you have a direct relationship with the direct contractor. Assuming that this is the case, you may give stop payment notice or make a claim on the payment bond (there will be a payment bond if the value of the project as a whole exceeds $25,000.)
Even if you are not a direct contractor, you may make a payment bond claim by sending notice of the claim to the surety within 45 days of project completion (acceptance by th public entity) or within 15 days from a notice of completion.
If you require legal assistance email me at ryan@huntortmann.com to schedule a free telephone consultation.