Updated Sept 2026 | Private Projects: Chapter 60.04 RCW

If you deliver materials to a subcontractor on a Washington public project, you have 10 days from your first delivery to notify the prime contractor , or you lose the right to sue on the contractor’s bond. This guide explains who owes that pre-claim notice, what it has to say, and how to serve it.

What Is a Public Pre-claim Notice in Washington?

Washington requires public bodies to take a bond from their contractors, conditioned on payment of laborers, mechanics, subcontractors, material suppliers, and those who supply the contractor or its subcontractors with provisions and supplies (RCW 39.08.010). That bond is the payment remedy on public work.

The pre-claim notice, formally the notice to contractor under RCW 39.08.065, is the price of admission for one group of claimants: material suppliers who deliver to a subcontractor. It tells the prime contractor that you have started delivering to the job, who ordered the goods, and that you will look to the contractor and its bond for payment. Serve it and your claim stays alive. Skip it and no suit or action can be maintained against the contractor or the bond to recover for those materials.

Who Must Serve a Public Pre-claim Notice?

RCW 39.08.065 applies to every person, firm, or corporation furnishing materials, supplies, or provisions for public work where those goods are delivered to a subcontractor, or to the agent of a person, firm, or corporation holding a subcontract.

Read that scope carefully, because it is narrower than the notice requirements on private projects:

• Suppliers delivering to a subcontractor , the notice is required
• Suppliers delivering directly to the prime contractor , the section does not apply
• Laborers, mechanics, and subcontractors , the section does not apply; it reaches persons furnishing materials, supplies, or provisions
• Suppliers to other suppliers , not among the persons the bond statute names as protected, so the bond is not available to them in the first place

The notice goes to the prime contractor. Its purpose is to tell the contractor, who is on the hook under the bond, which parties are supplying its subcontractors and might come back with a claim.

When to Serve the Pre-claim Notice

Not later than 10 days after the date of the first delivery of materials, supplies, or provisions to the subcontractor or its agent.

The trigger is your first delivery to that subcontractor , not the date of the purchase order, and not the date the prime contractor started work. Tie the notice to the first delivery ticket and the deadline takes care of itself.

What Happens If You Fail to Serve It?

RCW 39.08.065 is blunt: no suit or action may be maintained in any court against the contractor or the contractor’s bond to recover for the material, supplies, or provisions, or any part of them, unless the section has been complied with. A late or missing notice does not merely weaken the claim , it closes the courthouse door on it.

One more thing to verify early: on contracts of $150,000 or less, the contractor may elect to have the public entity retain 10 percent of the contract amount in lieu of a bond (RCW 39.08.010(3)). Confirm that a bond actually exists so you know what you are preserving a claim against.

How to Prepare and Serve the Notice

1. Prepare the Notice

The notice must be in writing and must state in substance and effect:

• That you have commenced to deliver materials, supplies, or provisions for use on the work
• The name of the subcontractor or agent that ordered them, or to whom they are furnished
• That the contractor and the contractor’s bond will be held for payment

Identify yourself and the project clearly as well , your full business name, your address, and the name and location of the public project. Use your exact registered business name, suffix included, and match the subcontractor’s name to the one on the purchase order.

2. Deliver or Mail It to the Contractor

The statute requires you to deliver or mail the notice to the contractor. It prescribes no particular delivery method, so proof of timely delivery is on you. Registered or certified mail with return receipt requested gives you a dated record; if you hand-deliver, get a signed acknowledgment of receipt.

Keep the proof of service with your delivery tickets and invoices for that job. If the contractor later disputes that it received the notice, that file is your evidence.

Best Practices

Send the notice with the first delivery: The 10-day window is short and it starts at first delivery. Build a template, fill in the subcontractor’s name and the project, and send it the same day the first load leaves your yard.

Send it to the right party: This notice belongs to the prime contractor. Sending it to the subcontractor who ordered the goods, or to the public entity, does not satisfy RCW 39.08.065.

Keep proof of delivery: Certified mail receipts and signed acknowledgments cost almost nothing and settle the only fact that usually matters in a dispute over the notice: whether it arrived, and when.

Remember what the notice is not: The pre-claim notice preserves your right to sue on the bond. It is not the bond claim itself. If you go unpaid, you still have to present and file a written notice of claim with the public body within 30 days after the contract is completed and the work is accepted by affirmative action of that body (RCW 39.08.030).