The Definitive Guide to Filing a Construction Lien in Florida

You did the work. You haven't been paid. Florida's clock runs in days, not months — get your dates before anything else.

Three things to know in your first sixty seconds:

If you don't have a contract directly with the owner, the Notice to Owner comes first — and it's brutal. Subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and suppliers must serve a Notice to Owner (NTO) within 45 days of first furnishing labor or materials — counted from your first day on the job, not your first unpaid invoice. Serve it late and your lien rights are gone before you knew you needed them. Fla. Stat. § 713.06(2)

Everyone's lien deadline is 90 days. The Claim of Lien must be recorded within 90 days of your final furnishing — the last day you did real contract work, not punch-list returns or warranty visits. Fla. Stat. § 713.08(5)

Weekends and holidays extend deadlines. Since October 2023, if a deadline lands on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or a day the clerk's office is closed, it runs to the next business day. Fla. Stat. § 713.011 Plan for the 45th and 90th days anyway.

Florida calls it a construction lien (older documents say mechanic's lien — same thing), and the recorded document is a Claim of Lien. It's a legal claim recorded in the county's official records against the property you improved, without needing the owner's consent.

Its power is the cloud it puts on title:

• Sales stall. Title companies flag liens on every closing; buyers' lenders won't fund encumbered title.
• Refinancing freezes. No lender extends new credit against a liened property.
• Construction loans jam. Draw requests on active projects get held while liens sit on record.

Most Florida liens never see a courtroom: the recording plus the credible one-year foreclosure threat behind it moves the payment conversation. And Florida sweetens the fight for whoever's right — the prevailing party in a lien enforcement action recovers attorney's fees, which makes stiffing a well-papered lienor an expensive bet. Fla. Stat. § 713.29

One uniquely Floridian feature to respect from day one: the system is built around recorded paperwork on both sides. Owners record a Notice of Commencement before work starts; you serve notices and record claims against it — and your lien's priority against later mortgages and buyers generally relates back to that recording. Florida rewards the party whose paper trail is clean — this guide makes that you.

Florida grants lien rights by role and tier Fla. Stat. §§ 713.01, 713.02:

Eligible lienors:

• Contractors — direct contract with the owner; since October 2023 this expressly includes licensed construction managers and program managers coordinating a project
• Subcontractors — contracted with the contractor
• Sub-subcontractors — contracted with a subcontractor
• Material suppliers — to the owner, contractor, subcontractor, or sub-subcontractor
• Laborers — for their own unpaid wages, at any tier
• Design professionals — architects, landscape architects, engineers, surveyors and mappers, and registered interior designers have lien rights for professional services Fla. Stat. § 713.03

Who can't:

• Suppliers to suppliers. A materialman selling to another materialman has no Florida lien rights — know your customer's tier before you extend credit.
• Tiers below sub-sub. A supplier to a sub-subcontractor is the last rung with rights; below that, none.
• Anyone on public property. Government projects can't be liened — your remedy is a payment bond claim under a different statute. Chapter 10 covers it.

This chapter is where Florida liens are won and lost.

The Notice of Commencement — the project's paper anchor

Before work begins on most projects, the owner records a Notice of Commencement (NOC) and posts it at the site. Fla. Stat. § 713.13 For you, the NOC is a gift: it names the owner, the property's legal description, the contractor, the surety, and where notices must be sent. Pull the NOC from the county's official records (or the jobsite board) on day one of every job — it's the address book for every notice you'll ever serve, and liens generally relate back to its recording date for priority.

The Notice to Owner — Florida's 45-day guillotine

Who must serve it: anyone without a direct contract with the owner — subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, suppliers. Who's exempt: contractors in privity with the owner (that is, with a direct contract), laborers, and design professionals under § 713.03.

The deadline: the NTO must be served within 45 days of first furnishing labor, services, or materials (and, in any event, before the owner's final payment made in reliance on the contractor's final payment affidavit). Fla. Stat. § 713.06(2)(a)

Read that twice, because it's the opposite of intuition: the clock starts when you start, not when payment problems appear. A drywall sub who starts March 3 must serve the NTO by April 17 — day 45 — while invoices are still current and everyone's friendly. (And a sub whose final furnishing is May 20 must record any Claim of Lien by August 18 — day 90.) That's not aggression; in Florida it's routine project paperwork, and every sophisticated owner expects it.

What it contains and how it's served: the statutory NTO form — your name, your customer, a description of the work and the property, and the statutory warning text — served on the owner (and others named in the NOC) by certified mail or other permitted traceable delivery. Fla. Stat. §§ 713.06(2), 713.18

The fund-protection effect

The NTO isn't just a formality — it plugs you into Florida's proper payments system — the statute's rulebook for how owners must pay out so that noticed claimants get protected. Once served, the owner must account for your claim when paying the contractor; an owner who pays out ignoring proper procedure can end up liable to you even after "paying in full." Conversely, an owner who follows the statute perfectly can build a defense — which is why your notice being early and correct matters more here than almost anywhere. Fla. Stat. § 713.06(3)

The Claim of Lien — 90 days, sworn, recorded

What amount to claim: unpaid contract price or value of your labor, services, and materials — and since October 2023, contractually owed finance charges are expressly lienable. Not lienable: lost profits on other work, general aggravation, or padding. Chapter 7 explains why an exaggerated lien is worse than a small one in Florida specifically.

Step 1 — Gather the record

• The Notice of Commencement. Owner's name, legal description, contractor, surety, notice addresses — it's all there. No NOC recorded? Pull the county property appraiser record and the last deed; small jobs are sometimes exempt from the NOC requirement, but your lien still needs the true owner and a correct description.
• The property's legal description. From the NOC or the deed — a street address alone invites a challenge.
• Your dates. First furnishing (drives the NTO analysis) and final furnishing (drives the 90 days). Pull them from delivery tickets, daily logs, and pay apps — documents beat memory.
• Your amount. Unpaid contract price or value, plus contractual finance charges. Honest numbers only — § 713.31 makes exaggeration expensive.
• Your notice proof. If you were required to serve an NTO, your lien must say so — have the service receipts ready.

Step 2 — Prepare the Claim of Lien

The statutory form, completed precisely: names, addresses, work description, amounts (specially fabricated but undelivered materials stated separately), first/last furnishing dates, NTO statement. Then execute it — the claim is signed, sworn, and notarized, and SimpleLiens handles the online notarization as part of every Florida filing. Fla. Stat. § 713.08

Step 3 — Record it

E-record with the clerk of court's official records in the property's county (all 67 Florida counties accept e-recording). Recording fees run roughly $10 for the first page and $8.50 each additional. Multi-county property: record in each.

Step 4 — Serve it within 15 days

Serve the recorded claim on the owner (best practice: everyone listed in the NOC) by a § 713.18 method — certified mail return-receipt is standard. Late or missed service makes the lien voidable to the extent of prejudice — a fight you never need to have. Same-week service, receipts kept. Fla. Stat. § 713.08(4)(c)

Step 5 — Calendar the enforcement clock

One year from recording — and know it can be shortened to 60 days without warning (Chapter 7). Put both possibilities on the wall the day you record.

Florida treats homes differently than Texas does — mostly in your favor, with one big system to respect.

Homestead is not a shield against you. Florida's constitutional homestead protection expressly excepts obligations contracted for the improvement of the property. Your properly perfected construction lien attaches to an owner-occupied home and can be foreclosed like any other. Fla. Const. art. X, § 4(a)

But the residential paper system has teeth — the owner's "proper payments" defense. On § 713.06 projects, an owner who does everything right — records the NOC, collects the contractor's final payment affidavit before final payment, honors served NTOs when paying — can limit or defeat claims from lienors who noticed late or not at all. In practice: on residential work, your NTO discipline is your lien. The 45-day habit from Chapter 4 is the whole game here.

The small-job exception: a direct contract of $2,500 or less for repair or improvement of an existing owner-occupied residence carries no lien rights at all — your remedy on those jobs is contract collection, not Chapter 713. Fla. Stat. § 713.02(5) SimpleLiens' eligibility check applies this automatically.

The pressure arrives with the next transaction. Closings, refis, and construction draws all trip on a recorded lien; on active projects, the GC's contract with the owner usually forces liens to be cleared fast. Send a short professional demand referencing the recorded claim, an amount, and a payment path.

Expect one of five responses:

1. Payment — the common outcome for clean liens. Record the satisfaction promptly (Chapter 9).
2. Negotiation — amount disputes settle against a release; answer disputes in writing with your backup (contract, tickets, pay apps). A documented number defends itself.
3. Transfer to bond. The owner or contractor can move your lien off the title and onto a cash or surety bond deposited with the clerk — sized at the lien amount plus 3 years' interest plus the greater of $5,000 or 25% (raised from $1,000 in 2023). Your claim survives against the security; the fight changes address, and bond deadlines apply — involve counsel when this happens. Fla. Stat. § 713.24
4. Notice of Contest of Lien. The owner records a short notice that shrinks your enforcement window from one year to 60 days. Miss it and the lien extinguishes automatically. Fla. Stat. § 713.22(2)
5. The 20-day summons. Harsher still: an owner can force you into court with a show-cause summons — sue within 20 days or the lien is discharged. Fla. Stat. § 713.21(4)

The final gear: a lien foreclosure suit asking the circuit court to sell the property to pay your claim.

The deadlines:

• Default: file within 1 year of recording the Claim of Lien Fla. Stat. § 713.22(1)
• If a Notice of Contest was recorded: within 60 days of that notice
• If a show-cause summons arrived: within 20 days

Contractor prerequisite: a contractor in privity with the owner must deliver the Contractor's Final Payment Affidavit at least 5 days before filing suit — skip it and the case can be dismissed on a technicality. Fla. Stat. § 713.06(3)(d)

The fee-shifting stakes: Florida awards the prevailing party its attorney's fees in lien enforcement. Fla. Stat. § 713.29 That cuts both ways — a righteous, well-papered claim gains settlement leverage from it; a sloppy or exaggerated one hands the owner a subsidized defense.

Where SimpleLiens stops, honestly: we prepare, execute, record, and serve lien documents. Foreclosure is attorney work — typically a five-figure engagement if fully litigated, which the fee-shifting statute can put on the losing side. If you're unpaid 60–90 days after recording — or the moment a contest notice or summons arrives — engage a Florida construction attorney with your NTO receipts, recorded claim, and service proofs in one folder. (Every SimpleLiens filing keeps that folder in your dashboard.)

Three documents, three moments:

Waivers (during the job). Florida provides statutory waiver and release forms — one for progress payments, one for final payment. Fla. Stat. § 713.20 Two protections built into the statute: an owner or contractor cannot require you to sign a waiver in a form different from the statutory ones, and a lien waiver is enforceable per its terms — so read whether yours is conditioned on the check clearing. Practice rule: never hand over an unconditional release for a payment you haven't received; exchange releases against payment, not ahead of it.

Satisfaction of lien (after payment). Once paid, record a satisfaction/release of the recorded lien in the same official records — promptly; a paid-but-unreleased lien is how yesterday's dispute costs you next year's referral. Note a 2023 change: recorded satisfactions and releases must carry the lienor's notarized signature plus the original lien's recording reference. Fla. Stat. ch. 713, as amended by HB 331 SimpleLiens drafts and records Florida lien releases for a flat $49, execution handled.

Public property can't be liened. On Florida public works, the prime contractor posts a payment bond, and unpaid subs and suppliers claim against the bond under § 255.05 — different statute, different deadlines, same discipline:

• Notice to Contractor: if you didn't contract directly with the prime, serve written notice within 45 days of first furnishing that you will look to the bond
• Notice of Nonpayment: serve a sworn notice of nonpayment on the contractor and surety within 90 days of final furnishing (the sworn requirement has teeth — an unsworn notice fails, and a fraudulent one forfeits the claim)
• Suit on the bond: within 1 year of final furnishing

Federal projects in Florida (bases, VA facilities, federal courthouses) follow the Miller Act instead — 90-day notice for second-tier claimants and suit in federal court. If you're unsure whose dirt it is: ownership of the land controls, not who signs your checks.

Honest framing: DIY is workable for a GC in privity on a simple job. Florida's danger zones — the 45-day NTO, final-furnishing math, proper-payments interactions, and the fraudulent-lien statute — are exactly where flat-fee professional preparation earns its keep. Attorneys are the right answer for enforcement, contests, and bond fights.

1. 01Rights lost
   Serving the NTO late — or "when payment slows."

   The 45 days run from your first day, not your first problem. Serve on every job, automatically.

2. 02Deadline blown
   Counting 90 days from the wrong date.

   Punch-list returns and warranty visits don't reset final furnishing. Count from the last substantive contract work.

3. 03Defect
   Ignoring the Notice of Commencement.

   It's your address book and your priority anchor. Pull it on day one; serve everyone it names.

4. 04No cure
   Working unlicensed.

   No license where one's required = no lien, no enforceable contract, no cure. Fla. Stat. § 713.02(7)

5. 05Voidable
   Blowing the 15-day service window after recording.

   Voidable-if-prejudicial is a litigation invitation. Serve the week you record.

6. 06Lien voided
   Willful exaggeration.

   Florida voids the whole lien and shifts fees — round-number padding is the most expensive negotiation tactic in the state. Fla. Stat. § 713.31

7. 07Lien extinguished
   Sleeping on a Notice of Contest or 20-day summons.

   Your one-year runway can become 60 or 20 days by certified mail. Watch the mail; act same-week.

8. 08Avoidable
   Filing at the deadline.

   E-recording rejections don't care that it's day 90. Aim for day 75, always.