If you supply labor or materials to a public construction project in Wisconsin, the payment protection you rely on looks nothing like the protection you have on private work. You cannot place a mechanic’s lien on a school, a courthouse, or a municipal water plant. Public property is not subject to lien. In its place, Wisconsin law substitutes a payment bond, and the rules for collecting against that bond are strict, deadline-driven, and unforgiving of missteps.
Why public projects are different.
On a private job, an unpaid contractor or supplier can file a mechanic’s lien against the improved property. That remedy disappears on public work. To fill the gap, Wisconsin requires the prime contractor on most public improvement contracts to furnish a payment bond. See Wis. Stat. § 779.14. The bond stands in the place of the property: if you are not paid for your work, you seek payment from the contractor and the bonding company under the bond, rather than from the government entity that owns the project.
The deadlines that decide your claim.
The bond is only as good as your compliance with the statute’s timing rules. Two deadlines matter most.
- Notice. A subcontractor, supplier, or service provider who wants to preserve a bond claim generally must serve written notice on the prime contractor within 60 days after first furnishing labor, services, or materials to the project.
A few narrow exceptions apply:
- Contracts of $5,000 or less
- Claims brought by an employee, and claimants the prime contractor has already listed as working on the job, but the safe assumption is that notice is required. Waiting to see whether payment shows up is the most common and costly mistake we see.
2. Suit. An action on the bond must be brought no later than one year after completion of the work under the contract.
If you miss that window your claim is gone, no matter how much you are owed. Because these clocks start running early, the time to think about a bond claim is when you sign the contract, not when the payments stop.
Where claims go wrong.
Most failed public bond claims are not lost on the merits. They are lost on paperwork and timing:
- Notice served late or on the wrong party,
- Confusion about when “first furnishing” or “completion” occurred,
- A claimant who assumed the lien rules from a private job carried over,
- A supplier several tiers down who never confirmed a bond even existed.
Getting the bond, the contract, and the project timeline in front of legal counsel early turns most of these problems into non-issues.
How we can help.
At Anderson O’Brien, LLP, we have helped Central Wisconsin contractors and suppliers get paid on public bond claims by meeting the statutory deadlines and recovering the money they earned. The deadlines arrive quickly and the requirements are technical, which is exactly why having legal counsel involved early makes the difference between a clean recovery and a claim lost. If you are owed money on a public project, or you want to confirm your payment rights are protected before you break ground, contact the experienced attorneys at Anderson O’Brien, LLP at 715-344-0890. The sooner we see the contract and the bond, the more options you will have.