Payment Bond Deadline Clarified

Kegler Brown Construction Newsletter

The Governor has signed H.B. 490 which will become law on February 9, 2001. Subcontractors and suppliers traditionally believed that they had 90 days from final acceptance of the job to assert payment bond claims until the Thomas Steel case suggested that the 90 days should run from the date the subcontractor completed its work.

This bill will straighten out Ohio law on payment bond claims to clarify that subcontractors have 90 days from final acceptance of the entire project (not just their work) to assert a claim against the bond.

This clarification should eliminate premature payment bond claims against contractors' bonds or the inadvertent loss of payment bond rights by unpaid subcontractors and suppliers.