This section will deal with several areas of differences between Tennessee and Georgia law, including liens, retainage, and public project bond laws. It is typical that neighboring states would have similar approaches to laws. But Tennessee and Georgia, for example, have very different approaches to the lien laws, with Georgia allowing owners and contractors to give notice of their presence on a project, which requires front-end project notice requirements so the parties can know who is on a project and requirements for second and lower tier subcontractors and suppliers to have to give notice of their presence or lose their lien or bond claim rights. Meanwhile, Tennessee does not have front-end notice requirements, but requires periodic notices over time after work begins in order to have a lien. Similarly, Georgia law requires lien and bond waivers to follow a specific statutory format or else a lien is not waived, while Tennessee does not require waivers to follow as strict wording.

Additionally, retainage has had stricter requirements under Tennessee law, although Georgia has recently enacted a more limited retainage restrictions. Other differences in requirements will also be discussed.

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