Maine’s public-works bond section is one of the most complete in the country. Where most states set a threshold and a penal sum and leave the rest to other chapters, 14 M.R.S. § 871 also tells you how to mail a claim notice, what the payment bond has to say on its face, and what happens when a supplier cannot yet compute its claim.
The threshold, and the exception in front of it
14 M.R.S. § 871 opens by pointing somewhere else:
“Except as provided in Title 5, section 1745 , before any contract exceeding $125,000 in amount for the construction, alteration or repair of any public building or other public improvement or public work, including highways, is awarded to any person by the State or by any political subdivision or quasi-municipal corporation or by any public authority, that person must furnish to the State or to the other contracting body, as the case may be, the following surety bonds”
Three things are doing work.
The carve-out is first. Before anything else the section defers to Title 5, section 1745. A Maine contractor cannot read § 871 alone and be confident it applies; the exception is named before the rule.
Highways are inside, expressly. Several states put road work in a separate chapter with a separate figure — Virginia and Illinois both do. Maine says “including highways” in the triggering sentence, which removes the question.
The contracting bodies are listed broadly. The State, any political subdivision, a quasi-municipal corporation, or any public authority. “Quasi-municipal corporation” is a wider net than most states cast.
Both bonds at the full contract amount
Maine does not use a percentage. It uses the whole figure, twice.
The performance bond is “in an amount equal to the full contract amount, conditioned upon the faithful performance of the contract in accordance with the plans, specifications and conditions thereof.” The payment bond is “in an amount equal to the full amount of the contract solely for the protection of claimants supplying labor or materials to the contractor or the contractor’s subcontractor in the prosecution of the work provided for in the contract.”
Compare that with the states that shade it. Idaho floors both at eighty-five percent (Idaho Code § 54-1926); Louisiana requires fifty percent (La. R.S. 38:2241); South Carolina requires one hundred percent of a reduced base (S.C. Code § 11-35-3030). Maine takes the contract amount and does not adjust it.
Note also who the payment bond is for: claimants supplying labor or materials to the contractor or the contractor’s subcontractor. The second tier is written into the definition rather than bolted on afterwards.
The surety has to be named on the bond
A short clause with a practical effect:
“A payment bond issued pursuant to this paragraph must include on its face the name of and contact information for the surety company that issued the bond.”
For a claimant, this is the difference between knowing who to write to and starting a search. Federal claimants have a statutory route to a copy of the bond under 40 U.S.C. § 3133(a); Maine takes a simpler route and puts the surety’s identity on the instrument itself.
Registered or certified mail, to one of three places
Maine is one of the few states that specifies the channel for a second-tier notice, and it does it in detail.
The notice requirement itself tracks the federal pattern closely: a claimant with a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor but none with the contractor has no right of action on the payment bond unless the claimant gives written notice to the contractor within 90 days of last furnishing, “stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the party to whom the material was furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was done or performed.”
Then it goes further:
“Such a notice must be served by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place the contractor maintains an office or conducts business, or at the contractor’s residence.”
Registered or certified. Postage prepaid. And three acceptable addresses — an office, a place of business, or the contractor’s residence. An email to a project manager is not on that list, and a claimant relying on one has not met the section.
The material supplier’s exception to the clock
Most one-year limits are flat. Maine writes an exception into its, for a specific and sensible reason.
The base rule is familiar: no action after one year from the date the last labor was performed or material supplied. The exception:
“except that in the case of a material supplier, when the amount of the claim is not ascertainable due to the unavailability of final quantity estimates, the action may be commenced before the expiration of one year from the date on which the final quantity estimates are determined.”
with the corresponding notice “filed before the expiration of 90 days following the determination by the contracting authority of the final quantity estimates.”
This addresses a real problem on unit-price work — a supplier on a highway contract may genuinely not know what it is owed until the contracting authority finalises quantities, which can fall well after the last delivery. Maine moves both clocks to the determination date for that supplier rather than letting the claim expire before it can be computed.
Bid security is a standard, not a number
Maine does not set a percentage for bid security. When the contracting authority requires it, the contractor furnishes security “in an amount the contracting authority considers sufficient to guarantee that if the work is awarded the contractor will contract with the contracting agency.”
That is a different drafting choice from Oklahoma’s five percent (61 O.S. § 1) or the federal “at least 20 percent of the bid price” capped at $3 million (FAR 28.101-2(b)). The amount is whatever the authority considers sufficient, so it comes from the solicitation and not from the statute.
What § 871 sends to another title
The section is unusually complete, but it is not everything.
The Title 5, section 1745 exception in the opening line is not read here, and it is the first thing that decides whether the rest applies. The section also does not set the general procurement rules for Maine public work, and it does not address bonds on private projects, where the contract documents govern.
We have quoted what § 871 says. Where it points elsewhere, this page points with it rather than guessing at the destination.
