How to Get a Bid Bond in Texas: Your Pre-Bid Checklist

To get a bid bond in Texas, pull the owner’s requirements from the bid documents (exact owner name, project number, bid amount including alternates, bid security amount, required form, and bid opening date and delivery method) and send them to your surety agent with a short application as soon as you decide to bid. Once you are prequalified, we can issue bid bonds the same day. A first request takes longer, so don’t wait until the day before bid opening.

A few terms first. The principal is you, the contractor bidding the job. The obligee is the owner who asks for the bond: a county, city, school district, TxDOT, a federal agency, or a private owner. The surety is the insurance company that guarantees that if you win, you will sign the contract and post the performance and payment bonds. If you need a refresher on what each bond does, see bid bond vs. performance bond.

Every bid bond request has two parts. What the owner requires comes from the solicitation, and you can’t change it. What the surety needs is about you and your company. A request is complete only when both parts are there.

Bid bond requirements in Texas: what the owner sets

No single Texas rule covers every bid bond for Texas construction projects. Each owner writes its own requirements into the bid documents, sometimes under a statute:

• Counties. The bid specifications may require a bid bond of five percent of the total contract price on public works or contracts over $100,000, from a surety authorized to do business in Texas (Local Government Code §262.032(a)).
• TxDOT. The bond amount is “the amount indicated on the proposal form” (2024 Standard Specifications, Item 2, §§8.2 and 9.2).
• Federal jobs. The bid guarantee must be at least 20% of the bid price, capped at $3 million (FAR 28.101-2), usually on Standard Form 24.
• Cities, school districts and private owners set their own amount and form in the bid packet.

Our Texas bid bond page has the owner-by-owner table. For this checklist, the point is simpler: the bid documents control, and every item below comes from them.

What to pull from the solicitation

Item	Where you usually find it	Why it matters
Owner’s exact legal name	Invitation to bid, bid form, or the bond form itself	The bond names this as obligee. “Harris County” and “Harris County Flood Control District” are different entities
Project name and solicitation or project number	Cover page, advertisement	Ties the bond to this one bid
Bid amount, including add alternates	Your bid form	The bond must cover the amount you actually bid
Bid security amount	Instructions to bidders	A percentage (5%, 10%, 20%) or a fixed dollar amount. Note whether it is based on the base bid or the greatest amount bid
Required bond form	Bid documents or attachments	Some owners require their own form; private work often uses AIA A310; federal uses SF 24; TxDOT printed bids use the TxDOT form
Bid opening date, time and place	Advertisement, latest addendum	Sets your deadline. Check every addendum, because openings move
Delivery method	Submission instructions	Sealed paper bid, an online portal, or TxDOT’s electronic bidding system. This decides whether you need an original, a scan, or an electronic bond
Signature, seal and power-of-attorney rules	Instructions to bidders, bond form	Some owners spell out dating, seal and attachment rules (TxDOT does)
Joint venture or vendor ID details	Bid form, TxDOT proposal	TxDOT requires a joint venture’s bond to name all participants

What does the surety need for a bid bond application?

This part depends on whether you already have a bonding program.

First time, single jobs up to about $1M. The usual starting point is our credit-based contract bond program. It is underwritten on the owner’s personal credit and a short application about the company and the job, not audited financial statements. Expect to provide:

• company legal name, entity type, address and FEIN
• owners’ names and home addresses, with consent for a credit review
• the kind of work you do and how long the company has done it
• the solicitation details from the table above
• signatures on the surety’s indemnity agreement

Larger jobs, or once you outgrow the credit-based program. The surety moves to full underwriting: CPA-prepared financial statements, a work-in-progress schedule, a bank line, references and a general indemnity agreement. That file is the same one the performance bond relies on, so we cover it in depth in how to get a performance bond in Texas.

Either way, the surety reviews the job as if you will win it. It is approving the bid bond and the performance and payment bonds that follow.

Your bid bond request: a fill-in checklist

Copy this, fill it in, and send it with the bid documents. A request with every line filled is one we can act on without a round of follow-up questions.

Field	Your answer
Bidder’s exact legal name (as it will appear on the bid)
Obligee’s exact legal name
Project name
Solicitation, bid or project number
Project location (county)
Base bid amount
Add alternates (each amount)
Greatest total you might bid
Bid security required (percentage or fixed amount)
Based on base bid or greatest amount bid?
Required bond form (owner form attached, AIA A310, SF 24, TxDOT)
Bid opening date and time
Delivery method (paper, portal, TxDOT e-bid)
Delivery address or portal name
TxDOT vendor ID (TxDOT bids only)
Joint venture partners, if any
Addenda received (numbers)
Estimated start date and contract time
Your contact for bid day (name, cell)

Example: a completed request (fictional)

This example is invented. The company, owner and numbers are not real.

Bidder: Gulf Coast Storefront & Glass LLC Obligee: Example Independent School District (fictional) Project: Elementary Campus Security Vestibule Renovation, Bid No. 27-014 Base bid: $482,500. Alternate 1 (added entry canopy): $36,000. Greatest total: $518,500 Bid security: 5% of the greatest amount bid = $25,925 Form: District’s bid bond form, attached as Exhibit C Bid opening: Tuesday, 2:00 p.m., district purchasing office, sealed paper bids only Addenda: 1 and 2 acknowledged Start / duration: June start, 75 calendar days Bid-day contact: Owner’s cell number

Notice the alternate. If the bond were written on the base bid alone ($24,125), it would fall short of the 5% the district asked for on the greatest amount bid.

How long does it take to get a bid bond?

Once you are prequalified, we can issue a bid bond the same day. The first request takes longer, because the surety has to set you up before it issues anything. Work backwards from the bid opening:

When	What to do
The day you decide to bid	Send the bid documents and your application. Ask about the bid bond and the performance and payment bonds together
As soon as you have them	Send addenda that change the price, owner name, project number or opening date
When your price is final	Confirm the final bid amount and alternates
Day before opening (paper bids)	Confirm the signed, sealed bond and power of attorney are in hand or with our runner
Bid day	Sign the bond in the company’s exact legal name, and confirm the e-bid bond is attached or entered

For paper bids, we offer runner delivery to bid openings in Harris County. For electronic bids, we send e-bid files anywhere in Texas.

How does an electronic bid bond work for TxDOT?

TxDOT bids submitted electronically take an electronic bid bond only. “Guaranty checks or printed bid bonds will not be accepted,” and you enter the bond authorization code into TxDOT’s bidding system (Item 2, §8.2). TxDOT’s bidding system help names Surety2000 and SurePath as the electronic bid bond services (TxDOT iCX help).

We issue TxDOT electronic bid bonds. What we need from you:

• the project and proposal details, and the guaranty amount printed on the proposal form
• your company name exactly as TxDOT has it, or your TxDOT vendor ID. TxDOT makes it “the Bidder’s responsibility” to get the bond issued in the right name or vendor number (§8.2)
• every joint venture partner, because a joint venture’s bond must name all of them

On a printed TxDOT bid, you can use a guaranty check or a printed bid bond on TxDOT’s own form, or an electronic bid bond (§9.2).

What mistakes get a bid rejected?

Some of these are written rejection rules. TxDOT will not accept a bid if “the proposal guaranty did not comply with the requirements contained in this Item” (Item 2, §7). On federal sealed bids, a missing or noncompliant bid guarantee “requires rejection of the bid,” with limited exceptions (FAR 28.101-4). Other owners write similar language into their packets. The common causes:

• Wrong obligee name. “City of Pasadena” when the bid is to a utility district. Copy the name from the bond form or bid form, not from memory.
• Missing the alternates. The bond covers the base bid, but the packet asked for a percentage of the greatest amount bid.
• Wrong form. An AIA A310 sent where the owner required its own form, or a printed bond on a TxDOT e-bid.
• Missing or undated power of attorney. TxDOT printed bids need the power of attorney “dated and attached” (§9.2).
• Unsigned or unsealed bond. TxDOT requires the bidder’s signature, the surety’s signature and the surety’s impressed seal (§9.2).
• Dated after bid opening. TxDOT bonds and the federal SF 24 must be dated on or before the bid opening date.
• Wrong percentage. A 5% bond on a federal job that needed 20%.
• Name mismatch. The bond says “Gulf Coast Glass” and the bid is signed by “Gulf Coast Storefront & Glass LLC.” Use one exact legal name everywhere.

Before you seal the envelope, check each of these items against the instructions to bidders.

Does a bid bond cost anything?

Usually very little. We issue bid bonds with no separate premium or for a small flat fee, because the premium is earned on the performance and payment bonds after you win. The bigger savings is cash: a bond replaces a cashier’s check for the bid security. Our bid bond page compares the two.

Getting your bid bond

Send us the bid documents (invitation to bid, bid form, bond form and every addendum), the filled-in checklist above, and the bid opening date and delivery method. If this is your first bond with us, include your application so we can set up your program before bid day.

Call us at (281) 484-8320, or start from our Texas bid bond page. For the full range of construction bonds, see contractor bonds.