Florida Public Jobs: The 255.05 Payment Bond Notices Subcontractors Miss

Mechanic's liens don't reach public property in Florida. A county courthouse, a school gym, a stretch of state highway — none of it can carry a lien, so a subcontractor who finishes the job and doesn't get paid has no dirt to attach. The legislature's substitute is a mandatory payment bond on most public contracts, governed by Fla. Stat. § 255.05. The bond exists on almost every job above a small dollar threshold. What catches subs is that the statute runs two separate notice clocks, with two different trigger dates, and missing either one can end the claim before the final pay application is even due.

//Which jobs carry a bond

Section 255.05(1) requires the bond on public contracts for construction, maintenance, or repair, with two carve-outs: a state contract of $100,000 or less may go without one, and a contract let by any other public entity — a county, a city, a school board — of $200,000 or less may also be exempted. Above those numbers the bond is required, and it has to be recorded, with a certified copy available, before the contractor starts the work.

//The notice to contractor: due before most subs start counting

A claimant who is not in privity with the general contractor — a sub-subcontractor, or a supplier who sells to a subcontractor rather than to the GC — has to serve the general contractor with a written Notice to Contractor. The statute lets it go out 'before commencing or not later than 45 days after commencing to furnish labor, services, or materials.' Laborers are exempt from this notice. Nothing else in the statute substitutes for it: a non-privity claimant who never sends it has no bond claim to fall back on later, however clean the unpaid invoice is.

//The notice of nonpayment: a 45-to-90-day window, not a deadline

Serving the bond claim itself runs on a second, later clock. Under § 255.05(2)(a), the Notice of Nonpayment 'may not be served earlier than 45 days after the first furnishing of labor, services, or materials by the claimant or later than 90 days after the final furnishing.' Both ends matter — serve it too early and it's premature; miss the 90-day end and the claim is gone.

• +First furnishing on the job: March 2, 2026.
• +Earliest the Notice of Nonpayment can go out: April 16, 2026 (45 days after first furnishing).
• +Final furnishing of labor or materials: August 10, 2026.
• +Latest the Notice of Nonpayment can go out: November 8, 2026 (90 days after final furnishing).
• +Outside deadline to sue on the bond, absent an earlier contest notice: August 10, 2027 (one year after final furnishing, under § 255.05(10)).

//If the contractor contests, the clock shrinks to 60 days

Once the Notice of Nonpayment is served, the general contractor can serve its own Notice of Contest at any time. Doing so shortens the claimant's time to sue on the bond to 60 days after that contest notice is served — well inside the one-year outside deadline described below. A claimant who treats the one-year figure as the real deadline, and ignores a contest notice sitting in the file, can run out the clock without realizing it.

//The one-year outside deadline, and what isn't verified here

Section 255.05(10) sets the general backstop: an action on the bond 'must be instituted against the contractor or the surety on the payment bond ... within 1 year after the performance of the labor or completion of delivery of the materials or supplies,' measured from the claimant's own last furnishing, not the whole project's completion. The same subsection carves out actions for recovery of retainage, which run on a different timeline; the exact day counts for that retainage carve-out weren't confirmed against the primary source for this piece, so they're left out here rather than guessed at.

None of this is legal advice — it's the statute's own day counts, laid out in order. If you want the dates for one of your own jobs worked out on a single page, email info@noumansadiq.com with the job's state and the date you first furnished labor or materials.