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What are the laws for providing invoices to project owners?

The owner of a project called our company & they are asking for our Hiring Customers Invoices, because we sent them a second month notice. Are we permitted to send it? I only ask, because I don't know if our hiring customer is marking up our prices to them, and our invoices would let them know what we charged our hiring customer, and do not want to cause problems with them. I have never had a owner call for our hiring customer's invoice, so I wanted to verify what I needed to do.

1 reply

Oct 18, 2019

Whether a sub or supplier is legally entitled to share their invoice information and whether doing so would rock the boat with a customer will be two separate questions with pretty different answers. Can a Texas subcontractor or supplier legally share their notice directly with the project owner? The answer to this question should be a pretty resounding "yes." In fact, monthly notice provisions explicitly allow a sub or supplier to send their invoice as a way to fulfill their notice requirements, pursuant to section § 53-056(f) of the Texas Property Code. But, as we'll look at below, most Texas subs and suppliers opt to send a different monthly notice document in order to fulfill their requirements, rather than sharing their invoices. How will a customer or other higher-tiered parties react if invoices are shared? If a subcontractor or supplier shares their invoice with the project owner, that may upset higher-tiered parties who don't want to air out the margins on the job. In a situation where a payment dispute has gotten so bad that the customer relationship is unsalvageable - angering the customer by sharing invoices (and exposing margins) might not be all that much of a concern. However, while it may be misguided to some degree, sharing an invoice and putting light on a customer's margin may be seen as a breach of trust with that customer. So, generally, it's a good idea to at least consult with them before sharing invoice information. But again - sharing an invoice with the property owner isn't illegal, by any means. Ultimately, it's up to each business to decide how best to proceed.

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