Florida's Local Government Prompt Payment Act: The 218.735 Clock on a County or City Job

//A different clock than the lien and bond statutes

Florida Statute 218.735, the Local Government Prompt Payment Act, governs the money side of a contract with a county, city, school board, or special district. It is a separate statute from Florida's 255.05 payment bond notices, which exist for the narrower case of filing a bond claim once a contractor has already stopped paying. 218.735 runs underneath every local-government job whether or not a bond claim ever happens: it sets the number of days the entity has to pay, the number of days that payment has to move down the chain, the retainage cap, and the interest rate on a late payment. A subcontractor who only tracks the bond-claim clock is missing the clock that runs first.

//How the payment clock starts

The clock starts when the local government's office stamps a payment request received — not when it is mailed, and not when the work is finished. Fla. Stat. 218.735(2) gives the entity 25 business days to pay a request that needs a board or agent's approval, and 20 business days if no approval step exists. The entity has to name the specific office or agent who receives requests within 10 days of awarding the contract or issuing the notice to proceed — if nobody has told you where to stamp a pay application, that absence is itself worth raising in writing.

//If the entity is late, or rejects the request

A noncompliant request has to be rejected in writing within 20 business days, and the rejection has to state what is wrong and what fixes it — a verbal "this isn't right" from a project manager does not stop the clock. Once the request is corrected, the entity has to pay or reject it again within 10 business days, or by the first business day after its next scheduled board meeting if board approval is required. If an overdue request sits past its deadline and the contractor sends a written notice of nonpayment, the statute deems the request accepted after 4 business days unless the entity rejects it in writing — a mechanism most subcontractors never use because they don't know it exists. Any payment that misses its deadline accrues interest at 2% per month or the contract's own interest rate, whichever is higher.

//The 10-day and 7-day pass-through below the general contractor

The statute does not stop at the general contractor. Once the general contractor is paid by the county or city, it has 10 days to pay the subcontractors and suppliers whose work that payment covers. Once a subcontractor is paid by the general contractor, it has 7 days to pay its own sub-subcontractors and suppliers. Either tier can dispute a specific amount in writing, stating what is disputed and what would cure it, but the undisputed balance still has to move on time. A general contractor sitting on a county's payment for three weeks while a drywall crew makes payroll is not a negotiating tactic the statute allows.

//Worked example: a county renovation job

Say a drywall subcontractor on a county renovation submits its monthly pay application and the county's office stamps it received on Monday, November 2, 2026. The contract requires board sign-off, so the county has 25 business days to pay, counting weekdays from the next business day. Counting only weekends out, day 25 lands on Monday, December 7, 2026 — and if the county observes Veterans Day (November 11) and the Thanksgiving closures (November 26-27), as most county offices do, the real due date moves two to three business days later, into the December 9-10 range. Once the county pays the general contractor, the general contractor has 10 more days to pay the drywall sub, landing around December 17-20. The drywall sub then has 7 days to pay its material supplier, landing around December 24-27. Every one of those is a missed-deadline date the moment it passes, not a target to aim for.

//Retainage: the 5% cap and how the punch list releases it

The entity can withhold up to 5% of each progress payment as retainage, though it can withhold less, step the percentage down on a schedule, or release it early — none of that is required generosity, it is explicitly permitted under 218.735(9). The 5% cap does not apply at all to projects costing $200,000 or less, or to federally funded work where federal rules conflict. Retainage comes back through the punch list: the contract has to define a single list of remaining items and their estimated cost, due within 30 calendar days of substantial completion on a project under $10 million (extendable to 45 days by contract on a $10 million-plus project). Final completion has to be set at least 30 days after that list is delivered, and within 20 business days of the list's creation the entity has to pay the remaining balance — retainage included — minus up to 150% of what finishing the listed items is estimated to cost. That 150% hold is for items still in a good-faith dispute; it is not a blank authorization to keep the whole retainage indefinitely.

None of this needs a lawyer to track day to day — it needs the stamped-received date written down the day it happens, and the days counted forward from there. If you want the dates for one of your own Florida county, city, or school-board jobs laid out on one page, email info@noumansadiq.com with the job's state and start date. There's no sales call attached to that, just the page.