City of Columbia right of way bonds.
From $100. Enter your amount.
Before you cut pavement, bore, or otherwise work in the public right of way, the City of Columbia requires a right-of-way (encroachment) permit — and conditions it on a bond that you will restore the right of way to city standards. The City sets the amount on your permit; our price is 1% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum. The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly.
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Apply to filed in one sitting.
No underwriting queue for the standard right-of-way bond — enter your amount, pay, and file with the City. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your business details, a short description of the work being performed, the bond amount the City required, and the effective date — that is the entire application. No credit section.
Issued on the spot
The application collects no credit information, so most applicants see the executed bond generated as soon as they pay. Larger amounts may get a quick review.
File with the City of Columbia
Submit the executed bond with your right-of-way permit application to the City of Columbia. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the right-of-way bond actually guarantees
The public right of way — the streets, sidewalks, and the ground beneath them — belongs to the City of Columbia. Anyone who cuts, bores, excavates, or builds in it needs a right-of-way (encroachment) permit, and the City conditions that permit on a bond. The bond is a restoration-and-public-safety guarantee: that you will put the right of way back the way you found it, to city standards.
It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier standing behind you, and the City of Columbia (the obligee). If you damage the right of way and do not restore it — leave a failed patch, a sunken trench, or an unsafe condition — the City can recover against the bond to make the repair.
It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Contractors who restore the right of way properly treat the bond as a permit formality, not a risk. We issue the amount the City set; pricing is 1% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum, and the application collects no credit information.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued on the spot for most.
These are the actual issuing fields, including a short description of the work — no credit section, because this application does not collect credit information. Submit and most executed bonds generate instantly.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other South Carolina bonds.
The City of Columbia is waiting on one document.
From $100, no credit review, no credit fields to fill out, bond usually issued on the spot. Free until issued.