Subcontractors List

Washington State law requires that for any public works project estimated to cost $1 million or more, each bidder must submit either with their bid or within one hour after the bid submittal deadline as list of subcontractors who will perform work in any of the following three trades: HVAC, plumbing, electrical. But the requirement in RCW 39.30.060 doesn’t just require listing of subcontractors in these trades. If the bidder intends to perform work in any of these trades, they must list themselves.

Failure of a bidder to submit the subcontractors list as required automatically renders that bid non-responsive and the public agency is required to reject the bid. This is considered as a material irregularity in the bid that the public agency may not waive. RCW 39.30.060 states the following: “Failure of the prime contract bidder to submit as part of the bid the names of such subcontractors or to name itself to perform such work or the naming of two or more subcontractors to perform the same work shall render the prime contract bidder’s bid non-responsive and, therefore, void.”

The law is specifically an anti-bid shopping law, designed to prevent bidders from attempting to get lower bids from subcontractors based on other bids received. If a subcontractor who is listed is later substituted by the contractor without just cause as defined in the law, the substituted subcontractor may have a legal cause of action against the contractor, but not against the public owner.

A couple of things to remember about the law:

• It only applies for projects estimated to cost $1 million or more. If the project is estimated to cost $1 million or more and a bid comes in less than $1 million, the bidder must still submit the subcontractors list. Likewise, if the project is estimated to cost less than $1 million, but bids come in higher than $1 million, the subcontractors list is not required to be submitted.

• It only applies to three trades: HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. It’s not a good idea to add other trades to the list because if a bidder failed to name subcontractors for one of the other trades, the public agency would be faced with a responsiveness issue on the bid.

• The list may be submitted either with the bid or within one hour of the bid submittal deadline, at the option of the public agency. The public agency, however, must state in the bidding documents when the list must be submitted. Providing for the submission of the list one hour after the bid submittal deadline allows the bidder the chance to focus developing its bid price and then submitting the list later.