Miami-Dade County Notice of Commencement: Filing, Recording, and Posting

If you are starting construction, renovation, or repair work on property in Miami-Dade County, you file a Notice of Commencement by downloading the county’s form, filling in your property and contractor details, signing it before a notary, recording it with the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller for $10 for the first page, and posting a certified copy at the job site before the first building inspection. Florida’s Construction Lien Law requires this document for any project with a direct contract price over $2,500, and skipping it can leave you paying twice for the same work.¹

When You Need to File One

Nearly every permitted construction project in Miami-Dade County requires a Notice of Commencement. The only exemption is work where the direct contract price is $2,500 or less. If your project is above that threshold, the notice must be recorded and posted before the first building inspection, and before any labor begins or materials arrive on site.

Florida building permit cards carry a printed warning that failure to record a Notice of Commencement may result in paying twice for improvements to the property. That warning is literal. Without a recorded notice, subcontractors and suppliers lose the structured notice-and-payment framework the Construction Lien Law provides, and they can place liens directly on your property to recover what they are owed.²

Where to Get the Form

Miami-Dade County publishes a free, downloadable Notice of Commencement form on its permits page at miamidade.gov.³ Blank copies are also available at the Clerk of Courts recording office. The form follows the format set by Florida Statute 713.13, so any version that substantially matches the statutory template works.

Information to Gather Before You Start

Most of what you need is already in your building permit, your contract with the general contractor, and the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s records. Collect the following before you sit down with the form:

The property’s full legal description and 13-digit folio number, formatted as 99-9999-999-9999. If you do not have these from closing documents, look them up on the Property Appraiser’s property search tool at miamidadepa.gov.⁴
The full legal name and mailing address of the property owner. If the fee simple titleholder is different from the person contracting for the work, both names and addresses go on the form.
The general contractor’s name, address, and phone number.⁵
The construction lender’s name and address, if the project involves a construction loan. When a lender is involved, the lender is actually required to record the notice before disbursing any construction funds.
The surety’s name, address, and bond amount if your contractor has provided a payment bond. This tells subcontractors they can claim against the bond instead of filing a lien.
A brief description of the improvement, such as “new single-family residence” or “kitchen remodel and addition.”
An expiration date, if you want something other than the one-year default.

Filling Out and Signing the Form

The numbered fields on the form correspond to the items above: legal description and folio number, property address, owner information, contractor details, and lender or bond information. For the expiration date, leave it blank if one year from recording is enough; the clerk will treat one year as the default. If your project will run longer, write a specific later date on the form at the time of filing.⁶

Only the property owner can sign the Notice of Commencement. Florida law is explicit on this: no one else may sign in the owner’s place, even with a power of attorney.⁷ If there are multiple owners, all of them should sign. An authorized agent can carry the signed document to the clerk’s office for you, but the signature itself must be the owner’s.

The owner’s signature must be notarized. Appear before a notary public, who will verify your identity, witness your signature, and complete the acknowledgment section at the bottom of the form. Florida caps notary fees at $10 per notarial act.⁸ Many banks, UPS stores, and title companies offer the service.

Recording the Notice With the Clerk

Once the form is signed and notarized, submit it to the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller for recording. The clerk accepts filings three ways:

In person, by bringing the original notarized document to the County Recorder at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, 20 NW 1st Avenue, Suite 5.246, Miami, FL 33128.
By mail, to the same address. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want the recorded original returned.
Electronically, through one of the clerk’s approved e-recording vendors (Corporation Service Company, e-Docs Solutions, eRecording Partners, Hopdox, and Simplifile). These platforms add their own convenience fee on top of the county recording fee.⁹

Recording Fees

The recording fee is $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page. Most Notice of Commencement forms run one or two pages, so expect to pay between $10 and $18.50. You will also want at least one certified copy, which is required for posting at the job site. Certified copies cost $1 per page plus a $2 certification fee.⁹

The clerk assigns the document a book and page number in the official records when it is processed. Keep that reference. You will need it if you later file a Notice of Termination, and subcontractors use it to verify the notice when they send their own preliminary notices.

Posting at the Job Site

A certified copy of the recorded notice has to be posted at the construction site before the first building inspection. If the inspector arrives and no certified copy is visible, the inspection is disapproved.³ The Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources verifies posting at every first inspection after a building permit is issued.¹⁰

Post it where it is easy to see from the street or the main entry. A plastic sleeve or laminated cover keeps the document legible through weather. The notice has to stay posted until the project is complete or the notice expires. If the posted copy becomes damaged or illegible, replace it with a fresh certified copy right away.

Subcontractors and material suppliers rely on the posted notice to find the owner’s name and address, the contractor’s information, and whether a payment bond exists. That is where they get the address to send a Notice to Owner, which is how they preserve their lien rights.

Expiration and Renewing

A Notice of Commencement expires one year from the date of recording unless you wrote a longer period on the form. If the construction contract calls for a completion period longer than one year, the notice should state that it is effective for one year plus the additional time needed.⁵

Letting the notice expire while construction is still going is a serious mistake. Any payments you make after the expiration date are treated as improper payments under the Construction Lien Law, which means they may not count as credit against lien claims. You could pay your contractor in full after the notice has lapsed and still owe the full amount again to a subcontractor who files a valid lien. If your project is running past the expiration date, record a new Notice of Commencement before the old one lapses.

Ending the Notice Early

When a project finishes before the notice’s expiration date, you can formally close it out by recording a Notice of Termination under Florida Statute 713.132. Terminating early shuts the window during which new lien claims can be filed, which protects you from claims that surface well after the work is done.¹¹

A Notice of Termination has to include:

The same identifying details from the Notice of Commencement, including the official records book and page numbers and the recording date.
A termination date, which cannot be earlier than 30 days after the Notice of Termination is recorded.
Whether the termination applies to the whole property or only a specific portion. This matters for phased projects where one building is complete while another is still under construction.
A statement that all lienors have been paid in full.
A statement that you have served a copy of the Notice of Termination on the contractor and every lienor who has a direct contract with you or who has served a Notice to Owner.

You must serve the Notice of Termination on all known lienors before recording it. The contractor’s final payment affidavit should accompany the filing; you are entitled to rely on that affidavit to confirm all subcontractors and suppliers have been paid. The termination becomes effective 30 days after recording or on the later date stated in the document.

What Goes Wrong If You Skip It

The consequences of not recording a Notice of Commencement reach well past a failed first inspection. Florida Statute 713.135 lays them out: the owner’s interest in the property becomes subject to liens under the Construction Lien Law, and the owner can end up paying twice for the same improvements.²

The double-payment scenario works like this. You pay your general contractor. The contractor fails to pay a subcontractor. The subcontractor files a lien against your property. Without a properly recorded notice, you lose the procedural protections that would otherwise require the subcontractor to send you a Notice to Owner before claiming a lien.

For projects with a direct contract value over $5,000, the building permit authority requires a copy of the recorded Notice of Commencement before the first inspection. No recorded notice, no approved inspection, and the project stalls until you get it done. On smaller permitted projects above the $2,500 exemption threshold, the notice is still legally required even if inspection enforcement is less rigid. The lien exposure is the same regardless of project size.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 713.02 – Liens for Improvements to Real Property
2
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 713.135 – Notice of Commencement and Applicability of Lien
3
Miami-Dade County. Notice of Commencement
4
Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser. Folio Numbers
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 713.13 – Notice of Commencement
6
Miami-Dade County. Notice of Commencement
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 713.13 – Notice of Commencement
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission
9
Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller. Official Records
10
Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade County Construction Lien Law for Owners
11
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 713.132 – Notice of Termination