Florida mechanics lien guide and deadlines

The notice of commencement is your address book

Before work starts, the owner records a notice of commencement with the clerk and posts a certified copy (or a notarized statement that it was filed, with a copy) on the job. It lists the legal description, the owner, the contractor, the surety and bond amount if there is a payment bond, the construction lender, and anyone the owner designates to receive notices. Only the owner may sign it.

For a subcontractor or supplier, this document is the most useful page in the job file. Notices sent to the last address shown in it count as served on the mailing date even if they come back refused or unclaimed, and if the address is incomplete you may fix it from the property appraiser's records. With no notice of commencement on record, you can rely on the building permit application instead.

Pull a copy from the county clerk the week you get the purchase order. If the owner named a designee or a lender to receive notices, they get your Notice to Owner too.

Notice to Owner: 45 days, and no grace

Every lienor not in privity with the owner, except laborers, must serve a Notice to Owner before it can perfect a lien. It goes out before you start, or not later than 45 days after you first furnish labor, services or materials. It also has to land before the owner disburses final payment after the contractor has given its final payment affidavit, so on a short job the practical deadline can come sooner than day 45.

The statute is blunt about timing. Errors in the content of the notice can be forgiven where nobody was hurt by them, but the lienor “must strictly comply with the time requirements,” and failing to serve, or serving late, is a complete defense to the lien. The notice must carry the statutory warning in capitals that tells the owner it may pay twice unless it collects a written release every time it pays the contractor.

The safest service route is certified, registered or Global Express Guaranteed mail sent within 40 days of first furnishing, with a mail log showing the USPS number and date stamp, or USPS tracking records. Do that and service is effective on the date of mailing, which takes the post office out of your deadline. Our Florida Notice to Owner generator drafts the notice with the statutory warning, and the preliminary notice guide compares it with the California and Texas versions.

Claim of lien: 90 days from final furnishing

Every lienor, contractors and laborers included, perfects its lien by recording a claim of lien in the clerk's office of the county where the property sits, and in each county if it straddles a line. You can record at any time during the work, but not later than 90 days after your final furnishing of labor, services or materials. The claim is signed and sworn to, or affirmed, by you or an agent who knows the facts, and it carries the statute's warning that the lien may stay valid for one year from recording.

Final furnishing has a statutory meaning and it is narrower than most people assume. It is the last date you furnished labor, services or materials. A certificate of occupancy or certificate of final completion does not set it, and coming back to correct deficiencies in your own work does not extend it. For rental equipment it is the last day the equipment was on site and available for use. If the owner terminates the prime contract, the window becomes the earlier of 90 days after termination or 90 days after your final furnishing.

Then serve the recorded claim on the owner, before recording or within 15 days after. Late or missing service makes the claim voidable to the extent it prejudiced someone entitled to rely on it, which is a fight you do not need. The mechanics lien form builder lays out the fields in this order, and the mechanics lien deadline calculator gives you the day-45 and day-90 dates for a Florida job from the two dates you enter.

A worked timeline, first board to lawsuit

A drywall subcontractor signs with the general contractor on a retail build-out. It has no contract with the owner, so it is a lienor not in privity and needs a Notice to Owner. The job closes out with $7,400.00 of retainage still unpaid. Here is every date that matters, worked from the statute.

Two things in that table catch people. Waiting on retainage does not move final furnishing: the clock started on August 14 when the last board went up, not when the general said the retention would be released. And if the owner records a notice of contest and the clerk serves it on, say, January 8, 2027, the 1-year suit window collapses to 60 days from that service, which puts the deadline at March 9, 2027.

One year to sue, or 60 days after a contest

A Florida lien lasts no longer than 1 year after the claim is recorded unless an action to enforce it is filed in that time. Once suit is filed, record a notice of lis pendens as well; without one the lien is not enforceable against creditors or later buyers who paid value without notice.

The owner can shorten that year. By recording a notice of contest of lien, the owner or its attorney cuts your time to sue to 60 days from service of the notice. The clerk serves it on you at the address in your claim of lien, which is why that address has to be one somebody actually opens. Miss the 60 days and the lien is extinguished automatically, with no hearing.

The last row is for contractors only, the party with the contract with the owner. Before filing to enforce its lien, the contractor must deliver a sworn final payment affidavit to the owner at least 5 days ahead, listing every lienor who served a timely Notice to Owner and is still unpaid, with the amount. The duty applies even if the contract was terminated before completion, and even if the contractor had no subs or suppliers at all. A contractor in default on the affidavit has no lien or right of action against the owner for the work under that contract until it cures.

Florida waivers: the statute writes the form

Section 713.20 prints two waivers, one for a progress payment and one for final payment. The progress form says it does not cover retention or anything furnished after the date written on it. Four other rules in the same section shape what you sign at the pay-app table.

In the worked example, every progress waiver the drywall sub signed left its retainage outside the release, which is exactly why it still had something to lien. The final waiver is the one that gives that up, so it goes out only against cleared funds. The lien waiver state requirements guide sets Florida beside the states with no statutory form, and the final lien waiver generator drafts the closing release once the money is in.

Lien the real number, or lose the lien

Florida punishes padding. A lien is fraudulent if the lienor willfully exaggerated the amount, willfully included work not performed or materials not furnished to that property, or compiled the claim with such willful and gross negligence that it amounts to the same thing. A fraudulent lien is a complete defense to enforcement: the court declares it unenforceable and you forfeit the lien.

It gets worse from there. The owner, or a contractor or sub damaged by the filing, can sue you for damages, including attorney's fees, the premium on a bond posted to discharge the lien, and punitive damages up to the difference between what you claimed and what was actually due. Willfully filing a fraudulent lien is a third-degree felony.