The short answer
What does a Florida Notice of Contest of Lien do to my deadline?
It cuts your enforcement window from one year to 60 days, running from the date the clerk served the notice — a date the clerk certifies on the face of the page you received. Miss it and the lien “is extinguished automatically,” with no motion for the owner to file. Only instituting suit preserves it.
General information about construction lien law, not legal advice. Deadlines and requirements turn on your role, your contract, and the project, and a construction attorney is the right person to confirm how they apply to you.
An envelope arrived from the clerk of court. Inside is a single page titled Notice of Contest of Lien, and it does not accuse you of anything. There is no hearing date, no complaint, and nothing to answer.
It is still the most urgent piece of mail in Florida construction. That page just took your one-year enforcement window and cut it to sixty days.
What actually happened in Florida terms
When you recorded your Claim of Lien, the lien did not continue for longer than one year after the claim was recorded — or one year after recording an amended claim showing a later final furnishing date — unless an action to enforce it was commenced in that time. That is generous enough that most claims settle long before litigation, with one wrinkle worth knowing: a lien continued past the year by commencing an action is not enforceable against creditors or subsequent purchasers for value without notice unless a notice of lis pendens is recorded [Fla. Stat. § 713.22(1)].
An owner or the owner’s attorney — and nobody else — may elect to shorten that time by recording a notice in the clerk’s office. The lien of any lienor upon whom such notice is served, and who fails to institute a suit to enforce within 60 days after service, “is extinguished automatically” [§ 713.22(2)].
Three things about the mechanics matter, and one of them is the difference between a live claim and a dead one.
It says nothing about the merits. A contest notice does not adjudicate anything; it only shortens the time to file suit. Strong liens and weak liens get contested identically. The owner is not arguing with you. They are starting a timer.
Nothing you write back matters. There is no response to file and nowhere to file it. The only act that preserves the lien is instituting the suit — that is the statutory act, and it is worth being exact about, because a letter, a phone call, or retaining a lawyer are all consistent with the lien extinguishing on day 60.
It can reach more than the lien. The same subsection lets the owner shorten the time to commence an action on a claim of lien or on a claim against a bond or other security under § 713.23 or § 713.24. If your claim has already been transferred to a bond, do not assume the bond sits on a separate, comfortable timetable. Ask which clock you are actually on.
The statutory form, and why the service date is the date
The statute prints the notice, which is worth reading once because it is four lines long and it is the entire instrument.
Reproduced so you can recognise what you were served with. The clerk fills in the service certification; the owner or the owner's attorney signs the notice itself.
NOTICE OF CONTEST OF LIEN To: (Name and address of lienor) You are notified that the undersigned contests the claim of lien filed by you on , (year) , and recorded in Book , Page , of the public records of County, Florida, and that the time within which you may file suit to enforce your lien is limited to 60 days from the date of service of this notice. This day of , (year) . Signed: (Owner or Attorney)
This is the statutory form, reproduced substantially as it appears in the section itself, together with the clerk’s duty to serve it, certify the service and the date of service on the face of the notice, record it, and then serve the recorded notice on both the lienor and the owner or the owner’s attorney. The section is Fla. Stat. § 713.22
The notice is not a lien document and there is nothing here for a filing service to do. This one is attorney work from the day it arrives. see where SimpleLiens stops
Now the detail that decides your calendar. The 60 days runs from service, not from recording, and the statute tells you exactly where the service date lives: the clerk “shall serve, in accordance with s. 713.18, a copy of the notice of contest on the lienor at the address shown in the claim of lien or most recent amendment thereto and shall certify to such service and the date of service on the face of the notice and record the notice.”
Two consequences:
- The certified date on your copy is the authoritative start date. Not the recording stamp, and not the postmark. Read it before you count anything, and give it to your lawyer in the first sentence.
- The address you put on your Claim of Lien is the address the clerk uses. The statute requires a claim of lien to state the address where notices or process may be served on the lienor [§ 713.08(1)(a)]. A stale address on a claim recorded eight months ago is how a 60-day clock runs down in a mailbox nobody checks.
How much time is left
Enter the date on the clerk's recording stamp. The statute counts 60 days from the clerk's service, which happens after recording, so a count from the recorded date gives you the earliest safe target rather than the legal deadline. Work to this date, and confirm the certified service date on the face of your notice with your lawyer.
The 60 days runs from the clerk's service of the notice, not from the day it was recorded, and the clerk certifies that service date on the face of the notice you received. Service normally follows recording closely, so a count from the recorded date is the conservative end of the window. Give the certified date to your attorney and never plan around the difference.
General information about Florida's construction lien law, not legal advice. A contest notice is a litigation deadline and warrants a lawyer, not an article.
One year, then sixty days
- 1You recorded the Claim of Lien
From that day, one year to commence an action to enforce. Most claims never need it, because a recorded lien does its work through title.
- 2The owner recorded a Notice of Contest
A four-line statutory form, recorded in the same official records as your lien, by the owner or the owner’s attorney. No hearing, no judge, no showing of any kind.
- 3The clerk served it, and certified the date
At the address on your claim of lien, in the manner section 713.18 permits, with the service and its date certified on the face of the notice. That service is the event the 60 days runs from.
- 4The clerk served the recorded notice again
After recording the notice with the certificate of service, the clerk serves a copy of the recorded notice on you and on the owner or the owner’s attorney. Two envelopes from the clerk are normal and are not two separate clocks.
- 5Day 60 from service
A suit to enforce has been instituted, or the lien is extinguished automatically. Chapter 713 does contain a computation rule extending a period whose last day is a Saturday, Sunday or specified holiday to the end of the next business day, and tolling recording and filing periods while the clerk’s office is closed in an emergency [§ 713.011]. Whether it moves automatic extinguishment under § 713.22(2) is not a question worth finding out the hard way. Footnote, not a plan.
Your three moves, in this order
1. Get counsel now, not a plan first. Instituting the suit is the only act that preserves the lien, and while the statute does not require a lawyer to do it, sixty days is not long to draft and file a foreclosure complaint from scratch. Bring the whole file in one folder: the contest notice with the certified service date, your Notice to Owner and its proof of service, the recorded Claim of Lien, your service of that claim, and the invoices. A well-organised file is the difference between an engagement that starts this week and one that starts after two rounds of document requests.
2. Evaluate the claim honestly, quickly. An owner who contests is often signalling they think you will not spend the money. Before deciding they are wrong, check what a defence lawyer checks first — and know which of these is fatal and which is not:
| Question | If the answer is bad | How serious |
|---|---|---|
| Was the Notice to Owner served within 45 days of your first furnishing? | Failure to serve, or to serve timely, is a complete defence to enforcement of a lien by any person, and the statute requires strict compliance with the time requirements Fla. Stat. § 713.06(2)(a), (f). | Close to fatal for a non-privity lienor. |
| Was the Claim of Lien recorded within 90 days of your final furnishing? | The claim may not be recorded later than 90 days after final furnishing, and where the original contract was terminated the limit is the earlier of 90 days from that termination or 90 days from final furnishing § 713.08(5). | Fatal if late. |
| Was the recorded claim served on the owner before recording or within 15 days after? | Failure renders the claim voidable to the extent the failure or delay is shown to have been prejudicial to a person entitled to rely on the service § 713.08(4)(c). | Serious, not automatically fatal. Prejudice has to be shown. |
| Are the details in the claim complete and correct? | The omission of details or errors shall not, within the trial court’s discretion, prevent enforcement against someone not adversely affected, and negligent inclusion or omission that has not prejudiced the owner is not a default § 713.08(3), (4)(a). | Usually survivable. Do not concede it as fatal. |
| Is the amount defensible to the dollar? | A wilfully exaggerated claim is a fraudulent lien: a complete defence, forfeiture of the lien, damages including punitive damages, and a third-degree felony for wilfully filing one. A minor mistake or a good faith dispute about the amount is expressly not wilful exaggeration § 713.31. | A strength when clean; catastrophic when padded. |
| Know which category you are in before you commit to a fight. Chapter 12 of the Florida guide has the rest of the failure modes. | ||
3. Do the settle-or-sue maths, with fee-shifting in it. In any action to enforce a lien, including one transferred to security, or to enforce a claim against a bond under this part, the prevailing party is entitled to a reasonable attorney fee for trial and appeal or for arbitration, taxed as part of costs [§ 713.29]. That is not simple loser-pays, because who prevailed is itself litigated when each side wins something. It is still the single most important number in the decision: a clean claim gains enormous settlement leverage because the owner now risks your fees on top of your balance, and a padded one hands the owner a subsidised defence.
What you should not do is ignore it. A contest notice is the cheapest thing an owner can do, and it works on exactly one kind of claimant: the one who files nothing.
Four owner tools, and which one you received
Florida gives an owner more than one way to press a recorded lien, and they run on different clocks. Identify the paper before you count days.
| Document | Who can use it | What it does to your clock | How it ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notice of Contest of Lien Fla. Stat. § 713.22(2) | The owner or the owner’s attorney only. | 60 days from the clerk’s service to institute a suit to enforce. | The lien is extinguished automatically. No motion, no order. |
| Show-cause summons § 713.21(4) | Any interested party, by filing a complaint; the clerk issues the summons. | 20 days after service of the summons to show cause why the lien should not be enforced by action or vacated and cancelled. | The court orders cancellation on a failure to show cause, or a failure to commence the action before the return date. |
| Transfer of the lien to security § 713.24 | Any person having an interest in the property or in the contract under which the lien is claimed. | No change to your suit deadline, but the property is released and your claim moves to the deposit or bond. | The clerk records a certificate of transfer and mails you a copy with the deposit or bond. |
| Request for sworn statement of account § 713.16(2) | The owner. | 30 days to furnish a written statement of account under oath. | Failure or refusal to furnish it, or a false or fraudulent statement, deprives you of the lien. |
| There is also a fifth document with a confusingly similar name aimed at a different claim: a notice of contest of claim against payment bond, which a contractor or the contractor’s attorney may record to cut a bond claim to 60 days after service § 713.23(1)(e). Check which paper you were served with before counting anything. | |||
The transfer-to-security row is the one people misread as good news. It is not automatically bad news either. The amount required is the amount demanded in the claim of lien, plus interest at the legal rate for three years, plus the greater of $5,000 or 25 percent of the amount demanded to apply toward attorney fees and court costs — and where the court finds the excess insufficient to cover the lienor’s fees and costs in the enforcement action, the court must increase it [§ 713.24]. Your claim is now against a bond or a deposit rather than the land, and the deadline in § 713.22 still governs.
The 20-day show-cause summons
The sharper tool, and worth understanding precisely because the casual description of it is wrong.
Upon the filing of a complaint by any interested party, the clerk issues a summons to the lienor to show cause within 20 days after service of the summons why the lien should not be enforced by action or vacated and cancelled of record. On the lienor’s failure to show cause, or failure to commence such action before the return date of the summons, the court shall order cancellation of the lien [§ 713.21(4)].
Three differences from a contest notice. It arrives as a court document rather than a clerk’s mailing of a recorded notice. It requires somebody to have filed a complaint first. And it ends in a judicial order rather than the silent automatic extinguishment § 713.22 produces. What the two have in common is that twenty or sixty days is not enough time to shop for a lawyer.
While you are reading § 713.21, note the other four routes in the same section by which a properly perfected lien can be discharged or released: satisfaction entered on the margin of the record; a recorded satisfaction or release from the lienor, which must carry the lienor’s notarised signature and set out the official records reference number and recording date of the lien; failure to begin an action to enforce within the time prescribed; and a recorded judgment or decree showing a final determination. Route three is the one the notice you were served with is designed to trigger.
The sworn statement of account that kills liens quietly
This one deserves its own section because it is the most dangerous piece of mail a Florida lienor can file under “paperwork,” and almost nothing written for claimants mentions it.
An owner may serve a written demand on any lienor for a written statement under oath of the lienor’s account: the nature of the labour or services performed and to be performed, the materials furnished and to be furnished if known, the amount paid on account to date, the amount due, and the amount to become due if known, as of the date of the statement. The demand must be served at the address and to the attention of the person designated to receive it in the lienor’s own Notice to Owner, and must include a description of the property and the names of the owner, the contractor and the lienor’s customer as set out in that notice.
Then the consequence: failure or refusal to furnish the statement under oath within 30 days after the demand, or the furnishing of a false or fraudulent statement, deprives the person so failing or refusing of the lien [§ 713.16(2)]. The statutory request form carries a warning in capitals saying exactly that.
There are real limits, and they are worth knowing. The consequence does not apply where the demand was not served at your address or directed to the person you designated. Repeated demands do not compound: where the owner serves more than one and nothing about the account has changed since your last response, a failure to answer again does not deprive you of the lien. A negligent inclusion or omission deprives you only to the extent the owner can demonstrate prejudice. And a failure to respond does not affect a claim of lien already being enforced through a foreclosure case filed before the demand was received.
None of which is a reason to treat one casually. If a request for a sworn statement of account arrives in the same period as a contest notice, you now have a 30-day obligation running alongside a 60-day one.
If the 60 days already ran out
The lien is gone, and it went quietly. No order, no notice, nothing to appeal. That is what “extinguished automatically” means.
What did not go anywhere is the money. The debt survives, a breach-of-contract claim against whoever hired you is untouched by lien deadlines, and the parties above you still have exposure they would rather not have. Two of the remedies in Florida’s construction chapter never depended on the lien at all: the 30-day verified-complaint procedure where an undisputed obligation goes unpaid after your customer was paid [§ 713.346], and the misapplication of construction funds statute, which is criminal [§ 713.345]. The escalation playbook for Florida subcontractors covers both.
Some of the surviving routes mapped for missed notice deadlines apply here too, with one warning attached. That post is written for a claimant who never had a lien. You had one — which means the improper-payments exposure and the bond posture in your case are not the same map, and the contest notice you were served may also have shortened the clock on a bond or security claim. Do not assume the bond track is still open on its original timetable without asking.
Then fix the calendar habit that got you here: on the day you record a Claim of Lien, put two things on the wall. The one-year date, and a standing instruction that any envelope from the clerk gets opened the day it arrives.
What this costs, and what we do
A contest notice costs the owner a clerk’s fee. Answering it costs an attorney engagement, and the fee provision runs in both directions, which is the whole reason the owner sent it.
Where SimpleLiens stops is honest and firm: we prepare, execute, record and serve lien documents. Notices are $29 and a Claim of Lien is a flat fee. Enforcement is attorney work, and a contest notice is the moment to hire one — there is nothing in that envelope a filing service can fix. Chapter 8 of the Florida guide covers what the suit involves.
The one thing worth spending money on before any of this happens is the paperwork that makes a claim clean: the notice served on time with a mail log, the claim recorded inside 90 days and served inside 15, and an amount the documents support. That is what makes a contest notice an inconvenience instead of an ending. See what a Florida filing includes.
Florida Notice of Contest: quick answers
How long do I have? 60 days from the clerk’s service, which the clerk certifies on the face of your notice. Not from the recording date.
What if I miss it? The lien is extinguished automatically. No motion, no hearing. The debt survives; the security does not.
Does answering help? No. Only instituting a suit within the window preserves the lien.
Who can record one? The owner or the owner’s attorney. A contractor’s equivalent aims at bond claims instead.
Is this the 20-day summons? No. That comes from a complaint, gives 20 days after service, and ends in a court order.
Is my bond claim safe? Not necessarily. The same subsection can shorten a claim against a bond or other security.
What else can the owner send? A transfer of the lien to security, and a request for a sworn statement of account that costs you the lien if unanswered in 30 days.