What careful owners ask first.

Then none go. Every letter comes to you as a ready email file in your name. You open it in your own email, change it if you like, and send it, or delete it. Nothing goes out unless you say so, and we never call or email your general contractors.

Most subs don't, and the letter doesn't demand it. It states the date the money was due and what Kansas law adds, then asks the GC to release it or say what's missing. A due date in writing gives the GC a date to answer to. "Just following up" doesn't.

It goes from you, once per late job, with one follow-up, and you can edit any line. See all five sample letters word for word.

Not often in court. Most of these get paid or settled without a lawsuit, so few are ever written up. When one has been, the Kansas Court of Appeals (2017) held a GC to the 18 percent, plus the sub's costs and lawyer's fees, on four Blue Valley school jobs in Johnson County, even though the GC had filed counterclaims, because nobody disputed that the work was done. Those were public jobs; the same point hasn't been tested on private ones.

A backcharge is its own conversation. The letter keeps it separate from the retainage on finished work, and the 18 percent runs only on money that isn't in dispute.

That's covered. On the Kansas City, Missouri side, your GC owes your share 7 days after it receives it on private jobs, 15 days on public jobs, once your subcontract's conditions for release are met. Your Kansas City, Missouri jobs get their own dates and their own letter, which states the facts and dates.

We cover Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties on that side. We don't cover St. Louis.

Then those jobs work differently, and the statement says so. The Kansas and Missouri due dates don't reach a federal job: Kansas's private-job law leaves out public works and its public-job law covers only state and local owners, and Missouri's covers private and state or local owners. So on a federal job the statement shows the amount held, the federal pay rule (your GC pays you within 7 days after it's paid for your work; retainage follows your subcontract's own terms) and the payment-bond dates, which run from your own last day of work on the job. There's no lien on federal property, so those bond dates are the ones to watch. We don't draft letters on federal jobs yet.

No. It's dates and arithmetic from your own books, with the Kansas statute cited, and a business letter in your name asking for your own money. We never contact your GC, and the price doesn't change with what gets paid. Anything past one letter and one follow-up is between you and your attorney.

It depends on what really happened. If the crew stayed insured and you just had an old certificate, a certificate showing its policy was in force on the dates you paid it clears those payments. For last year's payments that means last year's policy, not this year's. If its policy really lapsed for a while, payments in the gap usually stay charged, so the statement flags an expired certificate at the next payment, while it can still be fixed.

If the crew has no policy at all, what you already paid it is going to be charged. The statement catches that at the first payment, so the crew can get its own policy before the next one. Ask your agent first which kind of policy your insurer's auditor accepts. We never promise to erase a charge on past payments to an uninsured crew.

If that crew was insured all along, you can. The catch is the clock. Most insurers give you about 30 days from the audit bill to dispute it in writing (the builders' fund gives 20), and by then you're chasing a crew you may not work with anymore for last year's policy, not this year's.

A crew that had no policy on those dates stays charged either way. The statement finds those crews while they're still on your jobs, before the bill.

Good, keep them on it. Ask them one thing: before the audit, do they line up what you paid each crew against that crew's certificate dates? Most agents give tips and sit in on the audit; none we found does the payment-by-payment check during the year.

If yours does, you may only need the retainage side. If not, the statement tells you which crews are missing a certificate while there's still time to fix the next payment.

It checks yours, because its own auditor charges it if you have none. It doesn't see your crews' certificates: the subcontract only says you have to collect them. If one of your crews has no policy, the charge lands on your audit, not the GC's.

Does the wrap-up carry your workers' comp, or only liability? If it carries comp, those jobs are off your audit and off the statement; mark them once and they're left off Page 2, with a reminder to keep the enrollment letter. In Missouri there's no wrap-up law like Kansas's, so check the enrollment letter covers your crews' travel and any off-site work. If it's liability only, your comp auditor still counts those crews, so they stay on the comp page; only the liability page leaves them off. Either way, the rest of your jobs are where the charge comes from.

Then the certificates matter more, not less. The Fund charges premium on all of an uncovered sub's pay, says your coverage can be ended over it, and gives you 20 days to contest the audit bill. You already report payroll every month, so the subs are what the audit finds. The statement shows which ones are missing while they're still on your jobs.

That's exactly why the subs are the audit now. When payroll is reported every month, the main thing left for the auditor to find is a crew without a certificate for the dates it worked. The statement catches those each month.