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.

5 ways to move forward

Practical guidesBill 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.Practical guidesGet 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.Practical guidesGet 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.Practical guidesWhen 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.Practical guidesTake 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

Bidding and prequalification in TexasPricing construction work in TexasTexas lien rights and deadlinesFinding construction work in TexasThe Texas electrician licence ladderThe Texas plumbing licence ladderThe Texas trades with no licence to wait forTexas franchise tax for contractors
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