Miller Act vs Little Miller Act

2026-10-188 min read

Both protect the same people the same way: the prime posts a payment bond, and an unpaid sub or supplier claims against the surety instead of the land. What changes when the owner is a state, a county or a school district instead of a federal agency is the calendar. Here is the lower-tier notice window, the one most claims die on, in each.

What the Miller Act requires

The federal act, 40 U.S.C. §§ 3131 to 3134, makes the prime on a federal construction contract post a performance bond and a payment bond before award. The payment bond equals the total contract price unless the contracting officer finds in writing that this is impractical, and it can never be less than the performance bond.

The threshold depends on where you read it. The statute's text says contracts of more than $100,000. The FAR, which is what contracting officers write into solicitations, says contracts exceeding $150,000, and for contracts over $35,000 up to $150,000 it has the officer pick two or more alternative payment protections: a payment bond, an irrevocable letter of credit, a tripartite escrow, certificates of deposit or other deposited security. On a job in that band there may be no bond to claim on at all, so find out which protection was chosen before you mobilise. If you are unpaid, you can get a certified copy of the bond and the contract from the agency by affidavit.

The claim rules themselves are short. A first-tier sub or supplier unpaid 90 days after its last work can sue on the bond. A claimant whose contract is with a subcontractor must first give the prime written notice within 90 days of its last work, stating the amount and who the work was for, served by a method with third-party proof of delivery or the way a U.S. marshal serves a summons. Suit, in federal court in the name of the United States, is due no later than one year after the last work. The bond is the backstop; when the money is due in the first place is a Prompt Payment Act question.

What makes an act a Little Miller Act

Public property cannot be liened, so every state needs its own bond statute for state and local work. Most copied the federal shape: a payment bond above a dollar threshold, a notice step for claimants who have no contract with the prime, and a short suit deadline. That shared shape is why they get the nickname. The details are where they part: the threshold, the length of the notice window, and above all what the clock runs from. If you are still working out whether your job calls for a lien or a bond claim, start with the mechanics lien vs payment bond claim comparison. This page assumes the answer is a bond, and asks which one.

Federal and four states, side by side

Lower-tier notice means the notice owed by a claimant with no contract with the prime. First-tier subs owe less in most of these regimes; Texas makes every claimant send the third-month notice.

One supplier, five calendars

Put the same unpaid supplier on the same job under each act. It sells rebar to the concrete sub, delivers every month from January to April, and is never paid.

Red dates fell before the last delivery on 2026-04-17. California has no row for a notice date because its preliminary notice is served at the start of the job, not counted back from the end; served late, it covers only the 20 days before it went out. February's and March's Texas notices fall in the months between and are left out to keep the table short.

Three of the five regimes put the first notice inside the job, and two of them closed a window before the last truck left the yard. The federal habit of waiting to see whether the sub pays at closeout works on a federal job and fails in Texas and Florida. Run your own dates on the mechanics lien deadline calculator, which carries the federal bond windows beside the state lien rules.

Where the state acts break from the federal model

Texas counts months, not days

Texas does not run one window from your last day. Every month you furnished labor or material starts its own clock. A claimant with no contract with the prime mails the prime a notice by the 15th day of the second month after each month of work, and every claimant mails the prime and the surety a notice with a sworn statement of account by the 15th day of the third month. The statement has to show any retainage that has not yet come due.

This is the rule that catches people who bring federal habits to a Texas school district job. A supplier waiting for the job to finish before chasing January's invoice has already missed January. If your contract with the sub holds retainage, there is one more notice: by the 15th day of the second month after you start, tell the prime the contract provides for retainage. Suit opens if the claim is still unpaid before the 61st day after you mailed the notice, and closes on the first anniversary of the mailing.

California runs from the owner's paperwork

California's bond suit deadline has nothing to do with your last delivery. It is six months after the stop payment notice period ends, and that period ends 30 days after the public entity records a notice of completion, acceptance or cessation, or 90 days after completion if nothing is recorded. On a job that drags on, a supplier can have more time than the federal year. On a job where the agency records completion fast, it can have much less.

The front end is stricter. Anyone without a direct contract with the direct contractor gives the public entity and the direct contractor a preliminary notice, and a late notice only covers work from 20 days before it went out. There is a narrow fallback for a claimant who skipped it: written notice to the surety and the bond principal within 15 days after a notice of completion is recorded, or 75 days after completion if none is, with exceptions where the sub above you has been paid its progress payments. Do not plan around the fallback. Serve the notice; the preliminary notice guide covers who gets it and what goes in it.

Florida front-loads a 45-day notice

Florida's public bond statute borrows its rhythm from the state lien law. A claimant not in privity with the contractor, other than a laborer, serves the contractor a notice that it intends to look to the bond, before starting or within 45 days of starting. Then, if unpaid, it serves a sworn notice of nonpayment on the contractor with a copy to the surety, no earlier than 45 days after first furnishing and no later than 90 days after final furnishing. Suit is due within one year after the labor or the final delivery. If the notice of nonpayment includes retainage, it has to say how much of the claim is retainage.

New York gives 120 days, then hands the suit clock to the owner

New York looks the most like the Miller Act. A claimant with a contract with a subcontractor but none with the prime gives the contractor written notice stating the amount and who the work was for, and the statute lets it be delivered personally or by registered mail. The window is 120 days from the last work instead of 90. The suit deadline is where it parts company: one year from the date the public owner completes and accepts the improvement, not from your last day. A sub that finishes early on a long job gets more time than it would on a federal job, and has to watch the owner's acceptance date to know when it runs out.

Which act is your job under?

Look at who signed the prime contract. If it was a federal agency, it is a Miller Act job. If it was a state agency, county, city or school district, it is normally the state's act, even when federal grant money pays for it. If it was a private owner, no public bond statute applies: your remedy is a lien, plus a bond claim only if the owner required a bond. Tier matters too: the federal notice route is written for claimants with a contract with a subcontractor, while California reaches anyone who provided work through one or more subcontractors. The who can file a mechanics lien guide walks the tiers on the lien side.

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