What a maintenance bond is
A maintenance bond, also called a warranty bond, guarantees your finished work is free of defects in materials and workmanship for a set period, often one or two years. Sometimes it's built into the performance bond; sometimes the owner wants it separately.
In North Carolina
North Carolina's Little Miller Act (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 44A-26) mandates only performance and payment bonds on qualifying public construction projects and does not require a separate maintenance or warranty bond. NCDOT's Standard Specifications for Roads and Structures (Article 103-7) fold a 12-month defect-and-workmanship guarantee into the existing performance and payment bonds rather than requiring a stand-alone maintenance bond. Owners on public or private projects may require a separate maintenance bond by contract.
- G.S. 44A-26 lists only performance bonds and payment bonds—each at 100% of contract amount—as mandatory; maintenance bonds are not enumerated.
- NCDOT Standard Specifications Art. 103-7 state: 'Appropriate provisions of the payment and/or performance bonds shall cover this guarantee for the project'; no separate maintenance bond form is issued.
- N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-1-20 separately requires businesses that issue warranties on real property (e.g., home-warranty companies) to hold a $100,000 surety bond—this is a licensing bond, not a construction maintenance bond.
You need this bond if you're
- A contractor finishing public works with a warranty period
- A site contractor handing improvements over to a city or county
- Paving, concrete, roofing and landscaping contractors
- A developer whose subdivision bond is being released
What the surety looks at
Your business, credit and the finished project. Often handled together with the performance bond.