Florida Construction Lien Law: Notices, Deadlines, and Enforcement

Florida construction lien law, set out in Chapter 713 of the Florida Statutes, gives contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and laborers the right to place a legal claim against property they improved when they aren’t paid. That claim clouds the title and can eventually force a sale. But the right is easy to lose. Florida imposes strict notice requirements, tight deadlines, and specific paperwork on almost every party in the payment chain, and one missed step can wipe out lien rights entirely.

Who Has Lien Rights in Florida

The statute lists the parties eligible to claim a lien: contractors, subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, laborers, material suppliers who contract with any of those parties, and certain design professionals such as architects and engineers working under design-build contracts.¹ Anyone outside those categories has no lien rights. A supplier who furnishes lumber to a sub-subcontractor can lien; a party further down the chain with no direct labor or material connection to the property cannot.

The work covered is broad. “Improvement” includes building, demolition, excavation, landscaping, permanently installed appliances and fixtures, and even solid-waste removal from the job site.¹ If your labor, services, or materials fit that definition and you fit one of the categories above, you have a potential lien.

The 45-Day Notice to Owner

If you don’t have a direct contract with the property owner, you cannot skip the Notice to Owner. Subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and material suppliers must serve this preliminary notice before they can ever record a lien. Laborers are exempt, and so is a general contractor who contracted directly with the owner.²

The deadline is unforgiving: no later than 45 days after you first furnish labor, services, or materials to the project, and in any case before the owner makes final payment to the contractor.² The notice must identify you, describe the property, and describe the work or materials you’re providing. A sub-subcontractor or a supplier to a subcontractor also has to send a copy to the general contractor.

This is where most lien claims die. Failing to serve the Notice to Owner, or serving it late, is a complete defense to any later effort to enforce a lien. Minor errors in the notice’s content can be forgiven if nobody was harmed by the mistake, but the 45-day clock has to be hit exactly.²

The Notice of Commencement

Before construction begins, the owner (or an authorized agent) must record a Notice of Commencement in the county clerk’s office. The document announces the project and anchors the priority date for every construction lien that follows. It applies to most private projects, with a narrow exemption under Section 713.02(5) for very small work.

The Notice of Commencement must include the legal description of the property, the owner’s name and address, the general contractor’s name and address, the name and address of any construction lender, and information about any payment bond.³ The owner signs it personally, and either a certified copy or a notarized statement gets posted at the job site. For subs and suppliers preparing their own Notice to Owner, that posted document is often the only place to find the information they need.

Skipping the Notice of Commencement is risky for owners. Without it, the owner loses the statutory framework for making “proper” payments, so paying the general contractor may not protect the owner from later lien claims by unpaid subcontractors or suppliers.

Recording the Claim of Lien Within 90 Days

If you served your Notice to Owner (or you’re exempt) and still haven’t been paid, the next move is recording a Claim of Lien in the clerk’s office of the county where the property sits. The document must be sworn to or affirmed by you or your authorized agent and must contain:

Your name and address for service of notices
The name of the person you contracted with or who employed you
A description of the labor, services, or materials you provided and the contract price
A description of the real property sufficient to identify it
The owner’s name as listed on the Notice of Commencement
The dates you first and last furnished labor or materials
The unpaid amount, including any unpaid finance charges due under your contract

You have 90 days after last furnishing labor, services, or materials to record. Miss that window and the lien right is gone. Warranty repairs and minor punch-list work generally do not restart the clock. After recording, you have to serve a copy of the Claim of Lien on the owner. Failure to serve within 15 days makes the lien voidable, but only to the extent a court finds the delay actually harmed someone entitled to receive it.⁴

Enforcing the Lien and the One-Year Deadline

Recording the Claim of Lien creates a security interest. It doesn’t collect the debt. To get paid, you must file a foreclosure lawsuit within one year of the recording date. If you don’t, the lien expires automatically.⁵ You should also record a lis pendens notice with the suit to protect your position against later buyers and creditors.

Owners have a way to speed up that timeline. By recording a Notice of Contest of Lien and serving it on the lienor, the owner shortens the one-year window to 60 days. If the lienor doesn’t file suit inside those 60 days, the lien is extinguished.⁵ Owners who believe a lien is invalid use this tool to clear title quickly. If a Notice of Contest lands in your hands, the clock is already running.

How Lien Priority Works

Priority decides who gets paid first when the property is sold to satisfy competing claims. Liens held by subcontractors, suppliers, and others not in direct contract with the owner attach and take priority as of the date the Notice of Commencement was recorded. If no Notice of Commencement was filed, those liens take priority from the date the individual Claim of Lien is recorded.⁶

Construction liens take priority over any conveyance or encumbrance recorded after the lien attached. A mortgage recorded before the Notice of Commencement, however, generally beats every construction lien on the project.⁶ That’s why construction lenders insist the Notice of Commencement be recorded before they release funds.

Lien Waivers and the Pre-Work Trap

Lien waivers get exchanged during the payment process to confirm that a party has been paid and is releasing (or conditionally releasing) its lien rights for that payment. Florida provides statutory forms, and using the wrong form or altering the language can create trouble later.

The rule that catches people out: any waiver of lien rights signed in advance of the work being performed is unenforceable.⁷ A property owner or general contractor cannot demand a lien waiver as a condition of hiring you. You can waive, release, or satisfy lien rights after the work is done and payment is received, and waivers typically come in conditional and unconditional versions at both progress-payment and final-payment stages.

Getting a Lien Off the Property: Bonds and Transfers

A recorded lien clouds title and can block sales and refinancing. Florida offers two ways to shift the lien off the real estate and onto a bond while the underlying dispute plays out.

The first is a payment bond secured by the contractor before construction begins. If the contractor furnishes a bond in at least the amount of the original contract price and attaches a copy to the Notice of Commencement, every lien filed after the bond’s execution transfers automatically to the bond. A Notice of Bond is recorded in the clerk’s office to formalize the transfer, and a copy is served on the lienor.⁸

The second is available after a lien has already been recorded. Under Section 713.24, the owner or another interested party can petition the court to transfer the lien to a cash deposit or surety bond. Once the court approves, the lien no longer encumbers the property, and the lienor’s claim continues against the bond or deposit.

Liens on Leased Property

When a tenant hires a contractor to improve leased space, the lien can reach the landlord’s interest, not just the tenant’s leasehold. If the lease requires the tenant to make improvements, or if the landlord simply stays silent, the landlord’s fee interest may be encumbered by liens arising from the tenant’s project.⁹

Landlords can protect themselves, but only by acting before work starts. The lease must contain language expressly prohibiting the landlord’s liability for tenant improvements, and the landlord must record either the lease or a short form containing that language in the official records before the tenant records a Notice of Commencement.⁹

Any contractor or lienor working on tenant improvements can serve a written demand on the landlord for a verified copy of the lease provision prohibiting lien liability. If the landlord doesn’t respond within 30 days, the landlord’s property becomes subject to liens regardless of what the lease says.⁹ The tenant also has to notify the contractor about any lien-prohibition clause in the lease, and a knowing failure to do so lets the contractor void the contract.

Penalties for a Fraudulent Lien

Florida punishes fraudulent liens well beyond just erasing them. A lien is fraudulent if you intentionally exaggerate the amount owed, include charges for work you didn’t perform, or list materials you never delivered. Compiling a claim with reckless disregard for accuracy amounting to willful exaggeration also counts.¹⁰

A court finding of fraud strips your lien rights on that property. The owner (or any contractor or subcontractor harmed by the fraudulent lien) can recover court costs, attorney fees spent clearing the lien, bond premium costs, and punitive damages up to the difference between the amount claimed and the amount actually owed. Willfully filing a fraudulent lien is a third-degree felony.¹⁰ A minor math error or a good-faith dispute over the amount owed will not convert an otherwise valid lien into a fraudulent one.

Public Projects: Bond Claims Instead of Liens

You cannot lien publicly owned property. Government buildings and state roads are off limits. Instead, Florida’s payment bond statute, Section 255.05, requires contractors on public works projects to furnish a payment bond that protects subcontractors and suppliers.

The bond must equal the full contract price. For state-funded projects, the bond requirement applies to contracts over $100,000. County, city, and other local government projects may exempt contractors from the bonding requirement on contracts of $200,000 or less, at the awarding authority’s discretion.¹¹

The timing rules mirror private-project practice. A subcontractor or supplier without a direct contract with the general contractor has to serve written notice on the contractor within 45 days of first furnishing labor or materials, stating the intent to look to the bond. If you go unpaid, you have to serve a sworn notice of nonpayment on both the contractor and the surety no later than 90 days after your last furnishing. Suit against the bond must be filed within one year of the final furnishing.¹¹

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XL Chapter 713 – Definitions
2
Justia Law. Florida Code Title XL Chapter 713 – Liens of Persons Not in Privity
3
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 713 Section 13 – Notice of Commencement
4
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Section 713.08 – Claim of Lien
5
FindLaw. Florida Statutes Title XL Section 713.22 – Duration of Lien
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Section 713.07 – Priority of Liens
7
Justia Law. Florida Code Title XL Chapter 713 – Waiver or Release of Liens
8
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Section 713.23 – Payment Bond
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Section 713.10 – Extent of Liens
10
Justia Law. Florida Code Title XL Chapter 713 – Remedies in Case of Fraud or Collusion
11
Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XVIII Chapter 255 – Bond of Contractor Constructing Public Buildings