Remember, if you are not in privity of contract with the general contractor on a private project where the general contractor furnished the owner with a payment bond (e.g., sub-subcontractor or supplier), you NEED to perfect your payment bond rights by initially serving a notice of intent to look to the bond on the general contractor.  (Or, serve a notice to owner but make sure you serve a copy on the general contractor).  Not serving the general contractor with this initial notice can deprive you of payment bond rights.  How do you know if there is a payment bond in place?  Pull up the notice of commencement recorded in the official records where the property is located which should identify if there is a payment bond and will attach a copy of the payment bond.  

 

For more information on payment bond rights, check out this chart.

 

Please contact David Adelstein at dadelstein@gmail.com or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.