Notice of Commencement in Miami-Dade: Recording, Posting, Termination

If you’re a property owner in Miami-Dade County hiring a contractor for work worth more than $2,500, Florida’s Construction Lien Law requires you to record a Notice of Commencement with the county before any work begins. The notice of commencement in Miami-Dade goes on file with the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller’s Recorder’s Division, gets posted at the job site, and tells every subcontractor, supplier, and lender who owns the property, who the contractor is, and where to send payment notices. Getting it wrong, or skipping it, can leave you paying twice for the same work.

When You Need to Record One

Florida law requires the owner, or the owner’s authorized agent, to record a Notice of Commencement before any physical work starts on the property.¹ The general exemption is for direct contracts of $2,500 or less.² There is a separate exemption for direct contracts to repair or replace an existing heating or air-conditioning system when the contract amount is under $15,000.³ Anything above those thresholds triggers the requirement, whether residential or commercial.

Timing has a narrow window. The notice must be recorded before work starts, but if construction does not actually begin within 90 days after recording, the notice automatically becomes void.¹ File too early on a project that keeps slipping and you’ll pay the recording fee again to file a new one.

In Miami-Dade, this is not just a paperwork step. The building department will not schedule the first inspection until the notice has been recorded and posted at the site.⁴ No notice, no progress.

What the Notice Must Contain

The statute lists seven categories every Notice of Commencement must include:¹

The legal description of the property (metes and bounds or lot and block), plus the street address and tax folio number if available.
A general description of the improvement.
The owner’s name, address, and interest in the property. If the owner is a tenant rather than the fee-simple titleholder, the form must identify the leasehold and list the titleholder separately.
The name and address of the general contractor.
The surety company’s name, address, and bond amount, if a payment bond is required.
The name and address of any construction lender.
A designated agent in Florida, if the owner names one to receive notices on the owner’s behalf.

Pay particular attention to the folio number. Miami-Dade identifies every parcel with a 13-digit folio formatted as 99-9999-999-9999, which you can look up through the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser.⁵ An error in the property description that adversely affects a lienor makes your payments legally “improper.”⁶

The owner or authorized agent signs before a notary public. Florida caps notary fees at $10 per act.⁷ The Recorder’s Office doesn’t notarize, so handle that before you submit.

How to Record It in Miami-Dade

Submit the notarized notice to the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller’s Recorder’s Division. Recording costs $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, so a typical one- or two-page notice runs between $10 and $18.50.⁸

You have three ways to file:

Electronically through one of five approved vendors: Corporation Service Company (CSC), e-Docs Solutions, eRecording Partners, Hopdox, and Simplifile. You scan the notarized original, submit online, and typically get the recorded image back within 24 hours. Fees are paid by ACH transfer.⁸
By mail to the courthouse.
In person at a county service center.

Once processed, the clerk assigns the document an official records book-and-page reference. From there, you’ll need either a certified copy of the recorded notice or a notarized statement confirming it was filed, paired with a copy of the notice itself.¹ That’s what you post at the job.

Posting at the Job Site

Florida law requires the certified copy (or the notarized statement plus a copy) to be posted at the construction site in a visible location.¹ Miami-Dade inspectors will look for it before signing off on the first inspection, and they can refuse to sign off on any later phase if the posting isn’t there.⁴

Subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and material suppliers use the posted notice to identify the owner, contractor, lender, and any surety, which they need in order to serve a “notice to owner” and preserve their lien rights.⁶ If the posting comes down or blows away, put it back up. A missing posting doesn’t invalidate the recorded notice, but it slows inspections and confuses everyone downstream.

How Long the Notice Lasts

A Notice of Commencement is effective for one year from the date of recording, unless the construction contract calls for a longer period. If the contract runs longer than a year, the notice must state that it’s effective for one year plus the additional time required.¹ Leave the expiration blank and you get the one-year default.

Payments made after the notice expires are classified as improper. The statutory warning is direct: improper payments “can result in your paying twice for improvements to your property.”⁴ If your project is going to run past the expiration, record an amended notice extending the term before you release any more money to the contractor.

Amending the Notice

Florida law lets you record an amended Notice of Commencement to extend the effective period, correct errors, or add information left out of the original.¹ The amendment must reference the official records book and page number of the original, and you must serve a copy on the contractor and on every lienor who has served a notice to owner, either before the amendment or within 30 days after.

One change an amendment can’t handle: switching contractors. If you fire the general contractor and hire a new one, you record an entirely new Notice of Commencement (or a notice of recommencement). That reset matters because it moves the lien-attachment date, which affects the rights of everyone already working on the project.

What “Paying Twice” Actually Means

Skipping the Notice of Commencement doesn’t stop subcontractors and suppliers from filing liens. Without a recorded notice, lienors can rely on the information in the building permit application to serve their notices to the owner.⁶ Lien priority then attaches when each individual claim of lien is recorded, rather than relating back to a single commencement date. That fragments priority and creates competing claims.

Even with a notice on file, you can still create the “paying twice” problem through improper payments. A payment is improper when it’s made after the notice has expired, when the property description is wrong in a way that hurts a lienor, or when you don’t follow the statutory payment procedures. The property stays liable to unpaid subcontractors and suppliers up to the amount of the improper payments, even if you already paid the general contractor in full.⁶ That’s the risk the statute is warning you about.

One practical protection: if you named a designated agent in the notice, subcontractors and suppliers must serve their notices to owner on that agent as well as on you. The more reliably lienors can reach you, the easier it is to confirm your contractor is actually paying people before you release funds.

Closing It Out With a Notice of Termination

When construction is done and everyone has been paid, you can formally close the file by recording a notice of termination. This step is optional, but it shuts down the window during which new construction liens can relate back to your property. The termination takes effect 30 days after recording, or on a later date stated in the notice, whichever comes last.⁹

The termination has to repeat the information from the original Notice of Commencement, add the recording reference numbers of the original, state the termination date, confirm that all lienors have been paid in full, and confirm that you served a copy of the termination on the contractor and every lienor who served a notice to owner.⁹ Anyone who has already signed a final waiver and release of lien doesn’t need to be served.

You can’t record a termination while work is still in progress unless construction has stopped and all lienors have been paid in full or on a pro-rata basis. A fraudulent statement in the termination or accompanying affidavit creates personal liability for damages to any lienor harmed by the false filing.⁹ Before you record, ask the contractor for a final payment affidavit listing every unpaid lienor. If the list isn’t empty, the termination has to wait.

1
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 713.13 – Notice of Commencement
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 713.02 – Liens for Improvements
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 713 – Liens, Generally
4
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 713.13 – Notice of Commencement
5
Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser. Folio Numbers
6
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 713.06 – Liens of Persons Not in Privity
7
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission
8
Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller. Official Records
9
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 713.132 – Notice of Termination