I have a question regarding the use of a contractor-to-owner sworn statement that I have been unable to find an answer to online, namely: Is a Contractor to Owner Sworn Statement normally used and considered acceptable practice for requesting a final payment for the balance due on a commercial building construction loan where the balance due is the retainage accrued over the previous draws/requests (Note: previous draw requests at this point in time equal the total contract amount including extras and credits) submitted on a sworn statement to the bank for payment? I would think ‘Not’ given that the majority of contractor-to-owner sworn statements normally provide a clause that reads ‘It is understood that the total amount paid to date plus the net amount of this payment in the application shall not exceed ______ % of the cost of work completed to date’. What say u? Thank you ahead of time.
You appear to ask is whether a Sworn Statement should be used to collect the Retainage. If that is the question, then the answer is "Yes." I suspect there must be more to the situation making you question your options. But, really the
should have their own requirements before the Retainage is disbursed. That may be a Sworn Statement, Lien Waiver, etc. The exact document mix is project-specific.
I hope the above was helpful. Best of luck.
No disrespect intended but that did not answer my question. If carefully read, my question has to do with using a contractor to owner sworn statement for progress draws requiring a retainage that gets subtracted from each draw/request whereby the majority of contractor to owner sworn statements normally contain a clause stipulating the total amount paid to date plus the net amount of this payment in the application shall not exceed ___ percent of work completed to date. This noted, it seems clear to me that the same contractor to owner sworn statement format cannot be used to secure a final payment where the balance due is the retainage collected to date from the previous draws. If I am missing something, please let me know. I am not questioning my options. Rather, I am presenting an issue in using a sworn statement for requesting progress payments based on requests for work completed to date that are essentially partial payments given the retainage required for each draw/payment. This being the case, it would appear that the sworn statement used for progress payments would indeed need to be changed to accommodate a final payment consisting of retainage to date whereby the clause referred to above would need to be rephased given the final payment requires no retainage whatsoever not to mention all previous requests equal the adjusted contract amount in which case the column labeled this request should theoretically remain blank with this payment equal to the retainage or balance due. Not trying to make this confusing but as an attorney I am sure you would agree that the vernacular in the contractor to owner sworn statement as initially described herein for making progress payments leaves much to be desired in attempting to use the SS without any modification thereto to accommodate a final payment or balance due that is essentially the amount retained to date from previous draws.
Thank you for your follow up. Sorry if I misunderstood. Maybe the best thing to do would be to consult 1 on 1 with an Attorney. That should allow you to make your points specifically.
Best of luck!