MAINTENANCE BONDS

Maintenance bonds guarantee to the project owner that the contractor will maintain the project and correct any defective workmanship after the project has been completed based on the agreed terms of the contract for a specified period of time.

The manufacturer’s warranties should be limited by the installer to one year of general bonded maintenance which covers not just inherent defects but also gives the owner a guarantee from the installer of proper installation.  Most performance bonds cover this initial full warranty under a contract clause called bonded maintenance that includes one year of coverage from date of substantial completion.

Occasionally contracts require extended bonded warranties. The option to extend bonded maintenance to 2 or 3 years is available either by endorsing the performance bond or by replacing the performance bond after substantial project completion with a maintenance bond.  Most often the performance bond is endorsed and an additional fee is charged at the time the bond is issued.

A maintenance bond requested prior to completion of the installation will be underwritten as a performance bond.  These maintenance bond “only” situations are rare – but a specialist Surety Broker is qualified to deal with these non-standard requests.