4 time limits to check after a service job closes

• Virginia caps the look-back for lien memorandum sums at 150 days, measured from the last day of work, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, so record that day.
• California requires stored Cal/OSHA 300 copies to reach a requester by the end of the next business day, according to California Department of Industrial Relations, so log the request date.
• Minnesota, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, requires an express written warranty breach action within two years of discovering the breach.
• Virginia memoranda may include retainage up to 10 percent of total contract price, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, which makes it a cap rather than a clock.

This article is for owners and office leads who close service jobs and need to know which claim and records clocks may still be running. The limits here come from three state sources, Virginia, California and Minnesota, and each one is tied to the state named in its source. Your job list should show the state for each closed job before you read any limit in this article.

A closed job can carry several clocks at once, and they do not all start from the same event. In this article, each clock starts from its own event, which is named in the section that covers it. Your closeout file should therefore name the starting event beside each date, so a reviewer can see which clock produced which date.

150 days before the last day of work

The Virginia lien memorandum rule sets the window in plain terms. Under that rule, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, no memorandum may include sums due for labor or materials furnished more than 150 days prior to the last day on which labor was performed or material furnished to the job preceding the filing of such memorandum. That last date is the anchor for the count, so it belongs in the file before the count starts.

Your first step is to pull the last day labor was performed and the last day material was furnished for each closed Virginia job. Both dates belong on the same closeout page, because the provision counts from the last day on which either kind of work occurred. Your closeout page should show them as calendar dates rather than phrases such as end of spring, so the 150-day count can be checked against a real date.

The time limitations apply to labor performed or materials furnished on construction commenced on or after July 1, 1980, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, so the construction start date matters for older work as well as for recent work. Your older Virginia jobs need that start date checked before the 150-day count is applied. A note beside each start date gives the office a fast way to run that check.

The same provision says the lien claimant may file any number of memoranda, according to Virginia Legislative Information System. That means one job can have more than one filing date on record. Your file can keep each memorandum filing date beside the same last work date, so every filing is checked against the same anchor. Filings kept in date order make the sequence easy to read.

This is the Virginia rule, and it is not a rule for any other state. The sources in this article describe California and Minnesota rules that are separate from this window. Your office's lien paperwork owner can confirm which state's rules apply to each job before the 150-day count is used. Jobs in other states need their own check.

Illustrative example: counting back 150 days

Suppose a closed Virginia job has its last day of work recorded as a calendar date in the closeout file. Counting back 150 days from that date gives the earliest labor or material date a memorandum may include. Labor or materials furnished more than 150 days before that anchor cannot be included. This example uses only the 150-day figure from the provision, not a real job.

End of the next business day

The California rule covers a request by an employee, former employee, personal representative, or authorized employee representative, according to California Department of Industrial Relations, for copies of your current or stored Cal/OSHA 300 forms or a current or stored annual summary. The request has to concern an establishment that the employee or former employee has worked in. Your records should show whether the person asking is the employee, a former employee, a personal representative, or an authorized employee representative.

Under the same provision, according to California Department of Industrial Relations, you must give the requester a copy of the relevant Cal/OSHA 300 forms and annual summaries by the end of the next business day. The word requester in that sentence points to the person who asked, so the request record matters.

Your office can note the date each request arrives on the job file, because the end of the next business day runs from the request. The note works best when it sits with the request itself. A same-day note at intake is the simplest way to start that count.

Your records should keep stored Cal/OSHA 300 forms and annual summaries where the office can pull them the same day, since the deadline is set at the end of the next business day. A stored copy that takes days to locate can miss that deadline even when the office is willing to respond. Storage organized by establishment helps staff find the right forms for the right worksite.

This is California's rule, and it covers the Cal/OSHA 300 forms and annual summaries named in its wording. Your own state's records rules need checking before you assume a similar deadline applies to your work. A closeout checklist can list each state where a closed job was performed, so the right records rule is found before a request arrives.

Two years from discovery

Minnesota's statute sets a two-year limit for two kinds of action, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes: breach of the statutory warranties set forth in section 327A.02, and breach of an express written warranty. The limit is measured from the discovery of the breach. Your file should show the discovery date for each breach beside the warranty it concerns.

The sentence names two kinds of claim, so check which warranty your claim rests on before the two-year rule is applied. The warranty document itself shows whether the warranty is an express written warranty. Statutory warranties are named by section number in the sentence, which gives a second reference point for the check.

Your job file should record the date each breach was discovered, since that date starts the two-year count. A breach found during a callback should have its discovery date written with the callback record. Dates written at the moment of discovery are easier to check later than dates reconstructed from memory.

Twelve years after the effective warranty date

The statute, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, says that an action under section 327A.05 accruing during the ninth or tenth year after the warranty date, as defined in section 327A.01, subdivision 8, may be brought within two years of the discovery of the breach, but in no event more than 12 years after the effective warranty date.

Your Minnesota closeout pages should carry both the warranty date and the effective warranty date, because the 12-year outer limit is counted from the effective warranty date. Separate entries keep each date visible when a claim is checked against that limit. A written reminder of the twelve-year point on the closeout page gives the office a date to check before the window closes.

Retainage is a cap, not a clock. Under the Virginia provision, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, any memorandum may include sums withheld as retainages with respect to labor performed or materials furnished at any time before it is filed, but not to exceed 10 percent of the total contract price. The 10 percent figure limits the amount that can be included, so it does not count days.

The same provision, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, also allows sums that are not yet due because the contracting party has not yet received such funds from the owner or another third party. Those amounts depend on whether funds have been received, which is a payment event rather than a day count. Your closeout file can record payment dates next to the amounts, so the cap and the payment event stay separate.

Under Minnesota law, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, the date of substantial completion shall be determined by the date when construction is sufficiently completed so that the owner or the owner's representative can occupy or use the improvement for the intended purpose. That definition ties the date to occupancy or use, not to a day count. Your job file should record that date as a separate entry from the last labor date.

Your own state's rules are the place to check which date starts the clock on a given job. Minnesota's definition above is one state's wording. A closeout file for a job in another state should note which definition that state uses, if any. Confirming the starting date against that state's rule is the check that matters.

Changes in responsible parties must be reported to the IRS within 60 days, according to Internal Revenue Service, but that rule is excluded from this article because it is not a job-close limit. Your closeout file should not treat that 60-day figure as a deadline for closing a job. Keeping the exclusion in view helps keep the figure out of the wrong column.

Your closeout file should hold the last labor date, the last material date, the warranty date, and the discovery date for each breach. Each of these dates can start a different clock covered in this article. Entering them when the job closes is more reliable than rebuilding them later from memory or old invoices. The field service work order checklist is a place to start for that file.

The Virginia filing dates belong beside the last labor and material dates, so the 150-day count can be read on one page. Each filing can be checked against the same anchor date instead of a separate memo kept in another folder. Memoranda filed in the same period are then easy to compare at a glance.

Minnesota breach discovery dates should sit with the warranty date and the effective warranty date. That arrangement lets the two-year and 12-year windows be read together. The reviewer can then see whether the claim falls inside each window.

The California request log should record the arrival date of each request, since the end of the next business day follows the date a listed requester asks (employee, former employee, personal representative, or authorized employee representative). Staff who handle requests can check the log without searching the whole file. A simple log entry names the requester type and the establishment in the request.

Your next step is to write each closed job's last labor date and warranty date in its closeout file this week. The most recently closed jobs come first, since their dates are easiest to find. Once those entries exist, the Virginia, California and Minnesota checks above can be run against those entries.

• Field Service Work Order Checklist for Dispatch Handoffs
• Work order statuses before dispatch

How far back can a Virginia lien memorandum count labor?

Under the Virginia provision, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, a memorandum may not carry sums for labor or materials furnished more than 150 days before the last day of work. Counting therefore starts at the final day labor was performed or material furnished on the job before filing. Your job file should hold that last day as a calendar date.

When must stored Cal/OSHA 300 copies go to an employee?

Under the California rule, copies of the relevant Cal/OSHA 300 forms and annual summaries must go to the requester, according to California Department of Industrial Relations, by the end of the next business day. A requester can be someone other than the employee, such as a personal representative. A recorded arrival date makes the deadline easier to check.

When must a Minnesota express written warranty breach be brought?

Minnesota requires, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, that an action for breach of an express written warranty be brought within two years after the breach is discovered. The same two-year sentence also covers statutory warranties under section 327A.02. A dated discovery entry gives the two-year count a fixed starting point.

Is retainage a time limit?

No, retainage is a cap rather than a time limit. The Virginia provision, according to Virginia Legislative Information System, lets retainage reach 10 percent of the total contract price. That 10 percent ceiling governs money, not elapsed time.

Does a Minnesota action after the warranty date have an outer limit?

An action under section 327A.05 that accrues in the ninth or tenth year after the warranty date, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, may not be brought more than 12 years after the effective warranty date. The shorter two-year discovery window also applies in that situation. The effective warranty date is the reference point for that outer limit.

What is substantial completion under Minnesota law?

The statute, according to Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, ties the substantial completion date to the point when the owner can occupy or use the improvement for its intended purpose. That wording belongs to Minnesota's statute. Other states' rules should be checked by reading their own statutes.