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Bond Claims Questions
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Bond Claims
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Working on a Tex-dot project and have two invoices that have gone unpaid. 1st invoice is 128,936.10 and the second one is for 355,000.00. Do i file the lien at one time for the whole amount or do i have to file two different liens?
TexasCalled to make a payment bond claim from GC. Was told I could not make claim because it was past 90 days of invoice. By only a few days. We did an attempt to receive payment from GC. No response no emails or answering phone calls. Please help..
TexasI am a subcontractor on a job where the client does not want to pay the GC. The GC said he wont pay me untill he gets paid. The owner and the GC had a lot of proboems before and the client isnt paying him. I already finished the work about 3 weeks ago. I am owed 9k and he says he wont pay me untill they pay him what should i do?
North CarolinaCan a non-US first tier subcontractor working on a US-embassy project in Europe file a claim under the Miller Act or does the Miller Act only protect US-subcontractors?
Washington DCI am a licensed Plumber, worked with JN Plumbing Heating & Cooling I been domiciled and had wrote a itemized bill and landlord changed shook my hand and I did all Plumbing in unit, only had vandleism and my plumbing truck was distroyed, I would not want to file a lien but my police report of hate, distruction is not acceptable, I want to file a mechanics lien after hate crime and it's over $14,009.77 Itemized bills and noterized.
Licenced plumber,
John & Jeff Naclerio Spitzer NYS#Ol95489
FloridaI hired a general contractor to do a two bathroom shower/bath remodel in Califonia. I have paid him 10.5/17K for about 40% of the work. We have had disagreements about the quality of his subcontractor work. He is a GC who does not understand or care to understand the details of his subcontractor work, which I have a better understanding of. He blames me for causing him problems and losing money on extra subcontractor days. He has now stopped replying to my texts and emails for the past week. He wants to separate, which I have told him that I am open to, but only on mutually agreeable terms. I am anticipating that he will abandon the project. I am going to continue to reach out to him and express my interest in a separation agreement. If I don't hear from him, I will send him a certified letter after three weeks of silence from him saying I am moving on and hiring new contractors. I am then planning on placing a claim on his surety bond. My question is if it is ok to finish the remaining work or should I wait for the surety to finish their investigation so that they can decide if they want to hire a new contractor for me to finish it? I have been without a shower in my home for 8 weeks! Thanks for the advice.
CaliforniaAre subcontractors required to provide a payment bond performing work on a federal government construction project costing $80,000.00??
New JerseyI was sent Bond of affidavit claim form from a surtey company. Do i need to still file a complaint with the courts? Can i get assistance even though ive already completed the administrative process and never got response? Or can i just fill out bond then deposit it with the court? If there a maximum i can seek for damages? Non judicial administrative process do i just go get judgement? Any and all help is appreciated..
TexasI have a general contractor refusing to provide the payment bond information after sending the request certified mail. what to do next? they owe my company roughly $250 K.
AlabamaFidelity Insurance Company sent out a letter that there was no bond on this job, so the bond claim was sent out anyway (within the deadline). Then, after the fact, they send out another letter that there is a bond. Do I need to send out a new or amended bond claim, even if I am now outside the deadline? Thank you!
TexasWe are the main contractor hired by our client, but based on Level set research it looks likie this is a public project.
I received this email for the current lien we are trying to file.
Ref. #397-6887
This is Liz reaching out from the Levelset Support team!
Our researcher sent you a message regarding your mechanics lien for your job Oakland University/RFP Katke Cousins on 10/12/2020, and that message hasn't been responded to yet. Would you mind taking a look at this today? Here is what she said:
"Hi again - I've been able to find a legal description, but it looks like this may be a public project. We don't offer a product for situations where you were hired by the owner on a public job, but you can ask a construction lawyer for more info on the best way to proceed.
You can do that for free here: https://www.levelset.com/payment-help/ask-question/ or in the Ask A Construction Lawyer section on the Summary page of this project.
Let me know how you'd like to proceed, and if we don't hear back, we'll continue processing this as is. Thanks!"
Please let me know how you would like to proceed -- You can respond directly to this email, live chat with us from your account, or give us a call at 504-708-1287. We will continue processing as is unless we hear back within one business day.
MichiganHello Sir, i must say you have explained playing the race card very well but what should be the strategy when customers play this way. Sir most physical retailers also face false customer claims.
I have red this article, it helped me a little bit but i want you to go through this and suggest me some better ideas.
below is the article link, thank you
Strategies to resolve customer’s false claims
KansasI have a lot of unpaid invoices.. Most of these invoices were last year .. I did however finish a small job on this project on feb 01 20 .. so I need to proceed fast .. this is a power coap job that is funded by ras .. we are doing miles of aerial cable .. someone said a bond claim was the best action ..
IndianaLooking into this for someone. Contractor performed sub par work on commercial property which wasn't complete. Client paid portion of funds for the work to begin. Contractor given opportunity to correct issues however advised client that he needs additional money which client refused. How does client file claim against contractor bond and find out the amount of bond available. Client looking to recouped money for work performed and damages caused by contractor. This is in Cleveland Ohio.
OhioI’m a PM for a second tier sub with a payment and performance bond working for a GC on a public bonded job (airport). Unfortunately, the project was terminated for convenience back in May by the owner due to massive revenue losses from covid. The owner then asked for cancellation and final closeout costs. There were a lot of incurred costs from our suppliers since POs and submittals had been approved for production. There was a lot of heated back and forth with GC about close out costs and coming to an agreed final deductive change order. We were asked by the GC to provide all of our supplier invoices as back up for auditing purposes by the owner. They made us go back to suppliers several times and demand less cancellation/ restocking fees. Only 1 of 3 suppliers was asked to deliver the material to the site. The other 2 suppliers were in mid production and it was determined by owner that there was no benefit in receiving a lot of raw materials and unusable parts so they gave their invoices based on restocking and production costs up until that point . The GC told us the owner needed final material costs and our closeout costs. We were verbally strong armed into believing we were not allowed to take any profit markup on suppliers closeout invoices. We obliged to this as all of this was completely uncharted and no one had any experience in dealing with a terminated public projects like this and we did not want to give the perception we were trying to make a huge profit at the expense of the airports troubles. After all revisions final costs were submitted around June to GC/ owner. Of course, 1 supplier came after the fact and realized he never included 30k of taxes. We let the GC know and they basically told us to pound sand it’s too late for changes all final costs were submitted , we threatened to go directly to the airport directors as not only are we not taking a dime in profit makeup on material Invoices and just passing the true cost through after hours and hours of back and forth, we’re also getting screwed in the back end by late costs not accounted for. They reluctantly gave us a verbal approval and said the owner will pay for the taxes. Finally at the end of July the GC sent our final deductive change order from original contract price / pay application. We reviewed and approved . Unfortunately because of all the numerous invoice revisions and disorganization from chaos termination a few weeks later we realized that the final pay app we certified was actually incorrect...it was missing the 30k of taxes from one supplier and a few other costs. We informed GC and they would not budge stating it was entirely too late for changes at that point. So what we did was ask our suppliers as we have a good relationship with them to help us out on the invoices. We were able to get them to reduce a few percentage and they gave us updated invoices reflecting. We did not tell the GC or owner about this as my opinion was we’re not increasing the bottom line number the owner is paying for termination, and we were not asking the suppliers anything unreasonable. We were totally transparent with them and plainly asked for a reduction to us since we weren’t allowed to take a markup and are taking it on the chin for late added costs that we weren’t going to get paid for. Since July GC has been quiet, we’ve been hounding them about final payment and every week it’s the same story that they’re about to get paid and they won’t pay until they get paid. Either the airport has been dragging their feet or GC on final costs and we’ve been hounding the GC to put more pressure on the owner as this is ridiculous they terminated the project and now we all are bearing the cost of tons of money in material unpaid and getting screamed at by suppliers whose patience is running thin. Finally to the root of the issue. they notified us last week they were going to run checks and send out bond waivers. Ive not looking forward to this process as I knew it’d be a fight. Sure enough they send me an unconditional final waiver for my suppliers to sign and state they will need that in order for us to receive payment. I tell them there’s no way suppliers are signing off on an unconditional final waiver without having some proof of payment given the situation and we are definitely not going to pay them out of our own account before we get paid, however we can do a conditional final waiver with the conditions being upon receipt of payment and clearance of check xxxx. They came back to us with the same stance and said the CEO wants unconditional final waivers from your suppliers before we can release payment. We didn’t respond as we were deliberating on the best way to do this and also about the suppliers reduced invoices to us as we didn’t want to disclose they reduced their invoice to us after the final price went in for approval. Our accounting advised us the suppliers could put $10 on the waiver as we do for some projects. The GCs closeout rep then sent an email before we agreed and said how about if I request joint checks, and listed the supplier amounts out they had from the backup. Obviously, that would not work for us because the closeout invoice from suppliers was now reduced. I declined and was vague stating that we ate the tax and some costs on things and had to work it out with our suppliers, I think the best thing to do is a normal release and you all issue the check for the final closeout costs from the approved final pay application. They responded ok. Later today they send an email stating that check xxxx for the amount of xxxx will be available Monday afternoon for mail upon receipt of : Final unconditional waiver from us and they have the entire revised new contract amount listed. And then final unconditional waiver for suppliers with explicit instructions that say... Waivers must be for exact amount paid for the entire project and need to match the amounts submitted to airport for the final termination change order. .... so here we that one little sentence has us paralyzed on what to do. We counted on paying suppliers for their new reduced invoice to us and truly need that to make this whole ordeal at least a few points in the black for us. I don’t know what to do. I see 3 options. 1. Get the waivers, Pay the suppliers on their original closeout invoice and we take it on the chin for all the late added costs. 2. I tell them straight up our suppliers invoices are now lower because we had to work incurred costs out with them that we were supposedly not allowed to add or were too late on. 3. The best option if it is legal. Get the suppliers to sign off on a waiver for the original closeout invoice cost and GC and airport will never know the wiser. 3 is what I want to do if able. A. I don’t know if that’s legal to do. B. Does the GC even have a legal right to demand that? I assume they are explicitly wanting the actual payment made because either the airport has told them to do that since this was a termination and they were counting beans over the closeout costs. OR the GC knows what we’re trying to do and is wanting a way to do extract that extra profit from us.
If we can’t legally put the suppliers incorrect older amount on the waivers; maybe I am just ignorant to laws I’m unaware of But I do not understand why it would matter or not if the suppliers were paid the exact amount as provided on the closeout invoices if they are signing off on an unconditional waiver. Also the bottom line price is not increasing to the GC or airport it’s just shifting within our circle of 2nd tier and supplier and everyone. If anyone would have any heartache over that it would be the airport because they might think they overpaid for cancellation/ restocking of items they are not getting.
On a personal note, screw them for what they have put contractors through on this. They made one of the most asinine decisions by terminating before evaluating the costs. They’ve cost tax payers millions by doing this due to all the wasted and unusable material. Then they wanted every penny back from contractors, demanded we deliver about 500k of material to site but have taken months to even approve final payment for the cancellation of the project while all of us are left holding the burden of invoices piled to the sky and a huge loss in revenue since we now have no work while we scramble to pick up contracts we would have otherwise been bidding and scheduling out.
Ethically, from our view that extra profit we are taking from the supplies revised invoices is justified and fair. But... that does not mean legal. I respectfully request your expert opinion on this situation.
Florida