Retainage Law Changes In Washington State

There were two new pieces of legislation passed by the Washington State Legislature in 2009 that impact retainage withheld on public works construction contracts.

Summarized briefly, one is a clean-up piece of legislation (HB 1199), and the other will change the order of priority of claims against the retainage (SHB 1555). SHB 1555 is a problematic and technically flawed piece of legislation that will be a challenge for public agencies to implement.

The PowerPoint presentation below is an excerpt of some training that I will be doing next week (May 7, 2009) in Spokane at the annual convention of the Washington Association of School Business Officials (WASBO). The PowerPoint contains my quick analysis of these bills.

Let me know what your thoughts are about these two new bills.

You can view the presentation below.

Retainage Law Changes In Washington State

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