Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>Regarding retention, the law in WA for State/County jobs states, "Claim against the public entity / payment bond must be made by contractors within 30 days from the acceptance of the work, and against the retainage within 45 days from the acceptance of the work." We are usually a subcontractor, is this referring to completion of our portion of the project or the entire project?
Regarding retention, the law in WA for State/County jobs states, "Claim against the public entity / payment bond must be made by contractors within 30 days from the acceptance of the work, and against the retainage within 45 days from the acceptance of the work." We are usually a subcontractor, is this referring to completion of our portion of the project or the entire project?
We have not been paid retention on a job that we completed on 11/30/17 as a sub contractor. I am not aware if a notice of completion has been filed. We did not receive one.
1 reply
Dec 12, 2018
I'm sorry to hear you've gone unpaid. First and foremost - it's worth noting that when there's question as to when a deadline applies, assuming that the deadline will come sooner rather than later is typically the safest way to operate. That being said, completion of a claimant's work and completion of the overall project can be quite the difference in timing. Based on §60.28.011 of the Washington retainage statutes on public projects, it appears that a claim of lien upon public project retainage funds must be made within 45 days of the completion of the overall work of improvement. Note, though, that where the project is split into separate phases (under the general contractor/construction manager procedure defined under RCW 39.10.210), a claim may be necessary within 45 days of the completion and acceptance of the claimant's work.