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Texas

Getting paid on Texas construction

Texas gives you a right to stop work when payment runs late, and most contractors never use it because they cannot name the date. These guides cover billing the month, the 35 day clock, getting retainage back out, and the sequence to run when a client goes quiet.

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6 guides on this

How to run the businessPrice a Texas jobBuild the number from five piles of cost, take margin with the divisor rather than the multiplier, and split the contract under Tex. Tax Code s.151.056 so profit sits in the untaxed labor line. Then price the cash gap the 10 percent statutory reserve opens.How to run the businessGet paid in 35 days, or stop workTexas Property Code Chapter 28 gives a private owner 35 days to pay your written payment request, then 1.5 percent a month on what is late. Ten days after one written notice you can suspend work without breaching the contract, and bill demobilization and remobilization before you come back.How to run the businessGet your Texas retainage backTexas makes the owner reserve 10 percent under Prop. Code s.53.101, through the job and for 30 days past completion. The retainage written into your own contract is a second claim with its own notice under s.53.057. Two piles, two notices, two clocks, with the dates counted for you.How to run the businessWhen a Texas client stops payingFive moves in order, cheapest first: the Chapter 28 interest line at 1.5 percent a month, the ten day letter that lets you stop work and bill remobilization, the monthly notice that makes the owner hold your money, the lien affidavit, then suit. Homestead jobs run their own path.How to run the businessBill the month, get paid in TexasIn Texas the month you did the work is a legal fact: lien notices count from it, so an invoice that blurs March into April costs you a notice. This is what goes on the face of a Texas invoice, from the sales tax election your contract already made to the ten percent shown as held instead of missing.How to run the businessTake the Texas hail workTexas hail is a repair market with a season, and the state's own rules favor the local crew. The deductible ban in Bus. & Com. Code 27.02, the Chapter 58 deposit exemption for a one-year local address, the three-day cancellation that voids a rival's paperwork, and the labor tax exemption after a declared disaster.

Count it instead of estimating it

Texas prompt payment calculatorOne date in: the day you sent the payment request. Out comes the day the owner was legally late, the day the money reaches you through the general, and the day you can put the tools down without breaching.Free, no signup.
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The rest of the Texas library

Texas contractor licensingBidding and prequalification in TexasPricing construction work in TexasTexas lien rights and deadlinesWorkers comp for Texas contractorsContractor insurance in TexasRunning a construction business in TexasStarting a construction business in Texas
Every guideThe whole Texas libraryHow to run the business