Understanding How Maintenance Bonds Work in a Real Estate Project

by |

Every real estate transaction carries high value and a lot of risk with it. Surety bonds protect the investment of a project owner and ensures he gets value for his money. Contractors working on real estate projects have to furnish surety bonds before they are awarded the contract. They have to furnish maintenance bond in particular, which ensures that the building they build will stay in the optimum condition for at least a specified time. After that period, any defect or fault will not be covered under the scope of the bond.

Different Parties to Maintenance Bonds

• Contractors, purchase these bonds to showcase the quality of their work and durability. They have to get these bonds as a mandatory document to win the project.
• Project owners, who keep these bonds as a surety that their real estate project will be delivered as per contracted terms. If there is a default, they will be compensated for it and won’t have to cover for the default from their pocket.
• The surety company, which issues the bond runs a full check on the contractor’s background. They have to run these checks to make sure that they are putting their money on the right person. Before they issue the bond they create necessary channels required to later recover the money from the contractor in case he defaults.

More about Maintenance Bonds

Under maintenance bonds, contractors have to pay the entire money of the bond value in full, as compared to an insurance bond where the premium is just a fraction of the insurance value.

In case of a default, the contractors at times try to pay in cash for losses directly to the project owner. A maintenance bond restricts them from doing such a thing outside the scope of the bond.

Decoding How Performance Bonds Work and Why You Need Them

by |

Everyone expects that the person they hire should complete the assigned job. But there can be instances when that job is not completed as intended, or not completed at all. A surety bond binds the contractor taking up the project to deliver what he committed to do. In case he doesn’t, the surety bond compensates the loss incurred by the project owner, charging the contractor for the same later.

Understanding Performance Bonds
Performance Bonds ensure optimum performance by the contractors throughout the project duration. These bonds are the most commonly used surety bonds for public work contracts that have an estimated value of $100,000 or more. However, that is only one of the conditions for issuing them. These bonds can also be used for managing company operations that may not be bound by this cap. Bidding could be done initially, post which the winning contractor has to furnish a performance bond as a guarantee for successfully completing the project.

These bonds create a win-win situation for all, bringing lucrative contracts for contractors and ensuring highly satisfying results for the project owners.

How Performance Bonds Work
Performance bonds safeguard the interests of the project owner if a work is not done satisfactorily or if the contractor has defaulted deliberately or even unwillingly. Since this risk of default is always there, surety bond institutions (banks/insurance companies/private lenders) run an extensive check on the contractor’s history before issuing the bond. They take into account his past experience, risk capital, financial statements, and more. Under the circumstance where the contractor’s history doesn’t seem credible enough, he is not issued the bond, thereby denying him the chance to win a contract too.

This way, there is a very little scope for a miss to ever happen. And if it happens, the surety bonds take care of the losses. There are rarely any government or private projects involving large investments that happen now without performance bonds.