Bid bonds
Guarantees you will enter the contract at the price you bid. Usually the first bond a contractor needs, and usually needed on a deadline.
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Surety bonds
A bid is due Thursday. The bond should not be the reason you miss it.
Most contract and license bonds can be searched, approved and issued online in minutes, with the signed and sealed bond in your hands the same day. Larger or harder bonds we work by hand with an underwriter.
When Tennessee requires one
Public work over $100,000 carries a statutory bond requirement.
Under T.C.A. § 12-4-201, a contractor on a Tennessee public works project with a contract price over $100,000 must furnish a payment bond of at least 25 percent of the contract price. Contracts of $100,000 or less fall outside that requirement.
Performance bonds are a separate matter. The statute does not set a performance bond threshold, so the requirement comes from the contracting agency and is commonly 100 percent of the contract price. Read the bid package rather than assuming, because the owner sets the terms.
Private work is governed by the contract, not the code. A general contractor can require a bond from a subcontractor on any job, at any size, and increasingly does.
State highway work administered by TDOT sits under its own bonding statute and its own notice rules. If you are bidding TDOT lettings, send us the package and we will read the bonding article before you price it.
What we place
Contract, commercial, fidelity and court bonds.
Performance and payment
The pair required on most public work and on a growing share of private work. Performance guarantees the job gets finished; payment guarantees your subs and suppliers get paid.
Prequalification letters
A letter stating the bonding capacity behind you, which you can show a general contractor before a bid. Worth having in hand before you need it.
License and permit
Contractor licensing bonds, right of way and street opening permits, and the other bonds a municipality asks for before it issues a permit. Most issue instantly.
Fidelity and ERISA
Employee dishonesty coverage, and the ERISA bond required of anyone handling funds in a company retirement plan.
Court and probate
Probate, fiduciary, appeal and administrator bonds, usually needed on a court's timetable rather than yours.
How it works
Two routes, depending on the bond.
Search and buy it yourself. Our bond portal carries thousands of bond forms across more than two dozen sureties. Search by state or by the name of the bond, answer the questions, and approved bonds issue immediately, e-signed and sealed with the power of attorney attached. There is no login and no account to create.
Or send it to us. Contract bonds above the instant-issue range, anything with credit history behind it, and anything you are not sure how to classify get worked by hand with a surety underwriter. That is the better route if the bond is large, if the bid package wording is unusual, or if you have been declined before.
- Contract surety written on credit, without full financial underwriting, up to $1 million
- Pricing is a percentage of the bond amount, not of your contract, and is driven largely by personal credit
- Premium is paid in full up front and the first year is fully earned
- Have the obligee name, the bond form or statute, the bond amount and the job details ready
- Changes to a bond already issued are handled by endorsement, not by buying a second bond
Worth knowing
A bond is not insurance, and the difference matters.
Your liability policy protects you. A surety bond protects the party who required it, which is the owner, the public body or the general contractor. If the surety pays a claim on your bond, it has the right to collect that money back from you.
That is why bonding runs on credit and track record rather than on coverage limits, and it is why bonding capacity is worth building deliberately. Contractors who establish a relationship before they need a large bond get better terms than contractors who appear the week a bid is due.
Find the bond you need, or send us the bid package.
The portal is open to anyone and needs no account. If the bond is large, unusual or urgent, call instead and we will take it to an underwriter directly.
Search for a bond