Below are the bare minimum steps that must be completed in order to perfect a Payment Bond Claim. The deadlines and Documents that you will use to complete these steps vary depending upon whether you were hired by the General Contractor or a Subcontractor and whether your work was performed under a written contract or a verbal agreement.
Step One: Serve the Surety and the General Contractor with the Notice of Claim within the applicable statutory deadline. Note that the deadline to complete this mandatory step is different depending upon whether the claim is for unpaid progress payments or for unpaid withheld contractual retainage. Need more information? 
Step Two: File a Lawsuit against the Surety and the General Contractor to enforce payment under the Payment Bond if you have not been paid within the statutory deadline.
Step One: If your contract allows for the withholding of contractual retainage, then you must serve the General Contractor with the Notice of Contractual Retainage by the 15th day of the second month from when you first provide labor and/or materials to the Project.
Step Two: Serve the General Contractor with the Second Month Notice of Claim within the statutory deadline. Note that this step can be combined with Step 3 below.
Step Three: Serve the Surety and the General Contractor with the Notice of Claim within the statutory deadline. Note that the deadline to complete this mandatory step is different depending upon whether the claim is for unpaid progress payments or for unpaid withheld contractual retainage.
Step Four: File a Lawsuit against the Surety and the General Contractor to enforce payment under the Payment Bond if you have not been paid within the statutory deadline.
Again, the above steps represent the bare minimum that you need to do to perfect a Payment Bond Claim. Read on to learn how to maximize the probability of being paid through each step.
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