Payment bonds guarantee payment for construction labor, services and materials. Payment bonds are mandatory for public projects with few exceptions. Section 255.05, Florida Statutes, requires the general contractor to post a payment bond on each public project for the benefit of subcontractors, suppliers and laborers who work on the project. Public projects require bonds as substitutes for lien rights because public property cannot be subjected to liens and lien foreclosure. Private property owners have the option to render their property immune from construction liens by nonprivity contractors, suppliers and laborers by requiring their general contractor to post a statutory payment bond per Section 713.24, Florida Statutes.

Both the public and private payment bond statutes require bond claimants to timely serve notices that preserve bond-claim rights. The initial notice is generally known as a notice to contractor and must be timely served when a claimant commences work. The second notice is called a notice of nonpayment and it must be timely served after the claimant completes contractual performance. Since notices of nonpayment are not liens or encumbrances on real property there was never a requirement to sign each notice of nonpayment under oath. Now that has changed.

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