How Long Is a Notice to Owner Good For in Florida?

Short answer: A Florida Notice to Owner does not expire on a date. It is a one-time notice with a deadline to serve it, not a document with a shelf life. Serve it before you begin furnishing, or no later than 45 days after you first furnish labor, services, or materials — and in any event before the owner makes final payment to the contractor. Miss that window and no later document fixes it.

But before you prepare anything, find out whether the job is bonded. On a bonded project, the Notice to Owner is not the document that protects you. You need a Notice to Contractor, and it starts a different sequence with a different party to serve. Preparing the wrong notice on time protects nothing.

Why “how long is it good for” is the wrong question

This is one of the most common questions we hear from subcontractors and suppliers, and the phrasing itself causes the problem. People picture the notice as a permit that stays valid for a period and then lapses. It does not work that way. It has a deadline to serve. Once properly served, it does the job it was meant to do on that project.

Start with the Notice of Commencement

Everything downstream depends on this one document, which is why we put it first rather than last.

The Notice of Commencement is the owner’s document, recorded under section 713.13 before work begins and posted at the job site. It is public record in the county where the property sits. It tells you three things you cannot safely guess at:

• Who the owner is, and the address where notices must go
• Who the contractor is
• Whether there is a payment bond, and who the surety is

That third item is the one people skip. Section 713.13(1)(a)5. requires the notice of commencement to state the name and address of the surety on the payment bond under section 713.23, if any, and the amount of that bond. Section 713.13(1)(e) goes further: a copy of any payment bond must be attached at the time the notice of commencement is recorded.

So the Notice of Commencement is not merely a source of names and addresses. It is how you learn which body of law you are operating under.

If there is no Notice of Commencement

Not every project has one recorded. When there is none, the building permit application is the fallback source for identifying the owner and the property. Permit applications are filed with the local building department and are generally obtainable as public records.

If the bond is not attached

Sometimes the notice of commencement names a surety but no bond copy is attached. You are not stuck. Under section 713.23(1)(b), the owner, contractor, or surety must furnish a true copy of the bond, at the cost of reproduction, to any lienor demanding it. A person who fails or refuses without justifiable cause is liable to the lienor for damages caused by the refusal.

Demand it in writing, and demand it early. You cannot address a notice to a surety you cannot identify, and the 45-day clock does not pause while you look.

Recommended: Request copy of a bonds before you sign a contract  The point is to get the payment bond early, before you start the work.

Bonded or not bonded: two different tracks

This is the fork in the road, and getting it wrong is the error that costs people their rights while they believe they are protected.

Note that a properly recorded bond, with the bond attached to the notice of commencement, is what supports the owner’s exemption under section 713.02(6). Section 713.13(1)(e) states that failing to attach the bond copy negates that exemption, and allows a notice of bond to be recorded afterward. Whether a lien remains available on a given project turns on those details, which is exactly why the recorded documents matter more than what anyone tells you on site.

Who has to serve a Notice to Owner

Under section 713.06(2)(a), a lienor who is not in privity of contract with the owner must serve a Notice to Owner to preserve lien rights. In practice that means subcontractors and suppliers — anyone who contracted with the general contractor, with another subcontractor, or with a supplier, rather than directly with the owner.

If you contracted directly with the owner, you are in privity and this notice is not what preserves your rights. The size of the job does not change the requirement.

The 45 days, and the second clock most people miss

The Notice to Owner must be served:

• Before commencing to furnish labor, services, or materials, or
• Not later than 45 days after first furnishing, and
• Before the owner disburses final payment following the contractor’s final payment affidavit

That last condition catches people. Even inside the 45 days, a notice served after the owner has already made final payment can leave you without the rights you were trying to preserve.

The 45 days runs from first furnishing — not from the date you signed the contract, and not from the date you invoiced.

The Notice to Contractor on a bonded job

Section 713.23 sets out a parallel sequence for bonded projects, and each step is separate.

Step one: the Notice to Contractor

A lienor not in privity with the contractor, except a laborer, must serve a notice to contractor before beginning, or within 45 days after beginning to furnish labor, materials, or supplies. Same window as the Notice to Owner, different recipient, different statute.

Step two: the Notice of Nonpayment

If you are not paid, you must serve a written notice of nonpayment on the contractor and on the surety. It may be served during the progress of the work or afterward, but not later than 90 days after your final furnishing.

This one deserves emphasis. The statute makes the notice of nonpayment a condition precedent to recovering under the bond. It is not a courtesy or a collection letter. Miss it and the bond claim is gone even if the notice to contractor was perfect.

Note also who gets served: the surety, not the owner. A lienor who serves the owner and stops has served the wrong party on a bonded job.

Step three: suit

An action against the contractor or the surety on the bond must be brought within 1 year after the performance of the labor or completion of delivery of the materials and supplies.

The combined notice

Section 713.23 expressly permits one document to do both jobs. The notice to contractor may be combined with a notice to owner given under section 713.06, and when combined may be entitled “NOTICE TO OWNER/NOTICE TO CONTRACTOR.”

In practice this is often the sound approach. Bond status is not always clear at the outset, notices of commencement are sometimes recorded late or incompletely, and bonds are sometimes named but not attached. A combined notice, served within the 45 days on the parties the recorded documents identify, addresses both possibilities rather than betting the job on a determination you may be making with incomplete records.

It is not a reason to stop reading the notice of commencement. It is protection against what the notice of commencement fails to tell you.

What you lose if you do not serve in time

Precision matters here, because the usual shorthand is wrong. Failing to timely serve the Notice to Owner does not mean you “lost your lien.” At that point there is no lien to lose. A construction lien does not exist until a Claim of Lien is recorded.

What you lose is the right to claim a lien at all on that project. Without timely service there is no right to record a Claim of Lien, and the deadlines that follow become irrelevant — there is nothing left to record or enforce.

The same structure applies on the bond side. Missing the notice to contractor does not mean you lost a bond claim; it means you lost the right to make one. And missing the 90-day notice of nonpayment forfeits recovery under the bond even where the first notice was served correctly, because the statute makes it a condition precedent.

Losing the right to lien, or the right to claim on a bond, is not the same as being owed nothing. A breach of contract claim against the party you actually contracted with may remain, with its own deadline. But a lien attaches to the property and a bond claim reaches a surety, while a contract claim reaches only your customer — and if your customer is the reason you are unpaid, that difference is the whole case.

What goes in the notice

These are statutory forms, not letters you compose. Section 713.06(2)(c) prescribes the Notice to Owner and section 713.23 prescribes the notice to contractor. The content generally includes:

• Your name and address as the lienor
• A description of the real property sufficient to identify it
• The nature of the labor, services, or materials you are furnishing
• The name of the person you contracted with
• The owner’s name, and on a bonded job a statement that you intend to look to the contractor’s bond for payment
• The statutory warning language, in prescribed form

That warning language is not optional and not something to paraphrase. A notice missing required content, or altering the prescribed warning, invites an argument that it was never effective — and that argument arrives months later, when the deadline to fix it has long passed.

How to serve it

Section 713.18 governs service, and the method is not a matter of preference:

• Actual delivery to the person to be served, and for a partnership or corporation to the individuals the statute specifies
• Registered or certified mail, or common carrier delivery service, postage or shipping prepaid, properly addressed
• Posting on the site, available only in the limited circumstances the statute describes

Service by mail is generally effective on mailing, not on receipt, provided it is properly addressed — which is exactly why the address you pull from the notice of commencement matters so much. And email alone is generally not authorized service.

Keep proof. Certified mail receipts, return receipts, and carrier tracking are what establish service months later when someone disputes it.

The mistakes we see most often

• Never pulling the notice of commencement, and therefore never learning the job was bonded
• Serving a Notice to Owner on a bonded job and assuming the bond claim is protected
• Serving the notice to contractor but never serving the 90-day notice of nonpayment on the contractor and surety
• Serving the owner instead of the surety on a bonded project
• Counting the 45 days from the contract date or first invoice instead of first furnishing
• Assuming a small job does not need a notice
• Using stale information from a prior project with the same contractor
• Serving by email and treating it as done

Notice to Owner and Notice to Contractor services

Williams Law Firm prepares and serves construction notices for Florida projects at $45 per notice plus postage, with discounts available above 100 notices per month. Every notice is reviewed by a Florida licensed attorney at no additional charge. Client may be responsible for costs and expenses in addition to this fee.

Learn more about our notice services, or call (407) 926-4100. We also offer a free initial telephone consultation, limited to 30 minutes.

Williams Law Firm | Orlando, Florida
Glenn Williams, Esq., Board Certified in Construction Law by The Florida Bar

NOT LEGAL ADVICE. This article is general information and educational commentary about construction and construction law. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer about your specific situation. Do not act, or refrain from acting, based on anything in this article.

FLORIDA ONLY. Glenn Williams is licensed to practice law only in the State of Florida. This content generally reflects Florida law. Laws differ by state and by country, and this may not reflect the law where you live or where your project is located. If you are outside Florida, consult a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction.

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DEADLINES. Construction law deadlines are short and unforgiving. Contacting this firm does not stop, extend, or preserve any deadline. Statutes change; verify current law before relying on any deadline stated here.