Short answer: A Notice of Commencement is not a lien. It is a document the property owner records before construction starts, and it does not mean anyone is claiming money from you. What it does is open the job in the public record: it names the owner, the contractor, the lender and the surety, and it tells everyone working on the property where to send their notices. It is also the document that sets the priority date for every construction lien that may later be recorded against the property — which is exactly why it matters far more than the one page it occupies.
Why it showed up on your title
Most people meet this document for the first time in a title search, during a sale or a refinance, and the reaction is always the same: something is on my property and I did not put it there.
Take a breath. A recorded Notice of Commencement is a notice, not a claim. Nobody is asserting a debt. It appears in the public records for the same reason a permit does — because Florida requires improvements to real property to be visible to the people whose money and rights depend on them.
What it can do is complicate a closing, because a title company will want to know whether the job is finished and whether anyone who worked on it is still unpaid. That is a solvable problem, and the sections below explain how it gets solved.
Who is responsible for filing a Notice of Commencement?
The owner. Not the contractor. This surprises people, because the contractor is usually the one who hands over the form and asks for a signature.
A contractor may prepare it, may walk it to the courthouse, and may collect it from recording. None of that changes whose document it is. The owner signs it, the owner swears to it, and the owner carries the consequences if it is wrong or missing. If you are the owner and you have never read yours, you are relying on a document you have never checked.
On most permitted jobs above the statutory threshold, the building department will not release the permit for inspection until a recorded copy is filed with them. That is the practical enforcement mechanism — the job stops until it exists.
What has to be in it, and where it goes
| Item | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|
| The property description and the owner’s name and address | This is the address every notice will be mailed to. Get it wrong and you never see them. |
| The contractor’s name and address | Identifies who is in direct contract with you |
| The surety, if the job is bonded | On a bonded job, claims go to the surety, not to your property |
| The lender, if there is construction financing | Tells lienors who is funding the improvement |
| A person designated to receive notices, if any | An optional second address for copies |
It has to be signed by the owner and notarized, recorded in the county’s official records, and a certified copy posted at the job site. All three. A Notice of Commencement sitting in a drawer, or filled out and never recorded, does none of the work it exists to do.
Does a Notice of Commencement expire in Florida?
Yes. It is effective for one year after recording unless the document itself states a longer period on its face.
This catches people constantly, because nobody sends a reminder. Long jobs outlive it. Stalled jobs outlive it. A renovation that pauses for a hurricane, an insurance fight, or a supply problem can easily run past twelve months while everyone assumes the paperwork is still doing its job.
Why it matters: the Notice of Commencement is the anchor for the notice-and-payment system that protects an owner who pays correctly. When it lapses, payments made afterwards can fall outside the protection the owner assumes they still have. If your job is approaching a year, this is a question for your attorney before your next draw goes out, not after.
Notice of Commencement vs Notice to Owner
These get confused constantly. They are different documents, sent by different people, in opposite directions.
| Notice of Commencement | Notice to Owner | |
|---|---|---|
| Who creates it | The owner | A subcontractor or supplier |
| Who receives it | The public record, the job site, the building department | The owner |
| What it does | Opens the job and sets the lien priority date | Preserves that sender’s right to lien |
| When | Before work begins | Generally within 45 days of first furnishing |
They are two ends of the same system. The Notice of Commencement tells subcontractors and suppliers where to send their notices; the Notices to Owner are what comes back. Together they are the list of every person who can lien your property, which is the list you need before you pay anybody.
How long is a Notice to Owner good for in Florida? covers the other end of that exchange.
The part almost nobody knows: priority
Construction liens do not take their date from when they are recorded. They generally relate back to the date the Notice of Commencement was recorded.
That single rule is why lenders care so much about this document. If the Notice of Commencement is recorded before the mortgage, construction liens can outrank the mortgage — which is why a construction lender will insist on recording its mortgage first and will check that no work began beforehand.
For an owner it means something simpler and more useful: a lien recorded months from now may carry a date from the very beginning of your job. The clock on your exposure started when the job opened, not when someone got angry about a bill.
How do you terminate a Notice of Commencement?
A Notice of Commencement is not released the way a lien or a mortgage is released. People search for that constantly and it is the wrong mental model. It either expires on its own, or the owner records a Notice of Termination.
Termination is a real procedure with real prerequisites. An owner may not record a Notice of Termination except after construction is complete, or after construction stops before completion and every lienor has been paid in full or pro rata. You cannot terminate your way out of paying people.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Everyone is paid | All lienors paid in full, or pro rata, before you may record it |
| The affidavit is attached | The notice must be accompanied by the contractor’s final payment affidavit |
| Served BEFORE recording | On the contractor, and on each lienor in direct contract with you or who served a Notice to Owner |
| It states everyone is paid | The notice itself must say all lienors have been paid in full |
| It does not take effect immediately | Effective at the later of 30 days after recording, or the termination date stated in it |
Getting this wrong is expensive. An owner who records a termination fraudulently — to cut off people who have not been paid — can be liable to any lienor who suffers damages as a result. This is not a form to run from a downloaded template.
If you fire your contractor, deal with the Notice of Commencement
This is the situation owners miss most often, and it is the one that costs them.
You terminate a contractor halfway through the job. In the eyes of the statute, construction has now ceased before completion. Your Notice of Commencement is still on the public record, still naming the contractor you just fired, and still running.
Two things follow:
- You cannot simply terminate it and move on. Because construction stopped before completion, the Notice of Termination is available to you only after the lienors on that job have been paid in full or pro rata. The people who worked before the firing do not lose their rights because you and the contractor fell out.
- The old notice does not describe your new job. It names a contractor who is gone. The ordinary practice is to terminate the existing Notice of Commencement and record a new one naming the replacement contractor, so the new work is opened under its own document with its own date.
Firing a contractor is the moment to call a construction lawyer, not the moment to download a form. The termination, the accounting to the lienors, the replacement contract and the new notice all have to line up, and they have to happen in the right order.
What goes wrong most often
- Never recorded at all. The form was signed, and it stayed in a folder.
- A wrong or stale owner address. Every Notice to Owner then goes to an address you do not check, and the first you hear of an unpaid supplier is the lien.
- Assuming it lasts the whole job. One year, unless it says otherwise on its face.
- Never getting a copy. The contractor recorded it and the owner never read what it says.
- Treating it as the contractor’s paperwork. It is the owner’s document, sworn by the owner.
- Trying to terminate it with a downloaded form without meeting the conditions.
- Not posting a certified copy at the job site, which is a separate requirement from recording.
If you are buying and one is on the title, check the permit
Here is the part that should change what you do next. A Notice of Commencement usually means a permit was required for that work. Somebody improved this property under a permit, and that permit has its own life cycle, separate from anything in chapter 713.
A permit is not closed because the work looks finished. It is closed when the building department performs the final inspection and issues a Certificate of Completion or a Certificate of Occupancy. Until that happens the permit is open, no matter how good the kitchen looks.
Three things every buyer should know:
- Your title insurance will not save you. An open or expired permit is treated as a physical condition of the property, not a title defect. It is outside the policy.
- The standard Florida contract puts this on YOU. Under the commonly used Florida Realtors/Florida Bar forms, it is the buyer’s job to identify open or expired permits within the time allowed. Miss that window and you can be deemed to have taken the property with the building code violations, and to have given up the remedy.
- It can kill your financing. An open permit surfacing late routinely stalls or collapses a financed closing.
What to do: when a Notice of Commencement appears in the title work, call the building department for that address and ask for the permit history — what was pulled, what was inspected, and what was closed out. Do it inside your inspection period, not after.
If a permit is open, it can generally be closed by the original contractor or by a replacement contractor calling for the outstanding inspections and doing whatever work is needed to pass them. The question is who pays for that, and whether it gets fixed before you own it or after. Before is cheaper.
And ask the other three questions while you are there: Is the job actually finished? Has the one year run? Is anyone still unpaid? The last one is answered with documents, not assurances — the contractor’s final payment affidavit and lien releases from everyone who served a Notice to Owner. How to pay a contractor in Florida without paying twice explains which documents those are and when to collect them.
Construction lien and notice services
Williams Law Firm prepares and serves construction notices for Florida projects, and reviews Notices of Commencement, terminations and payment paperwork for owners and contractors.
Notice to Owner services | Claim of Lien services
If you have any questions about liens or notices: Call a Construction Lawyer Board Certified by The Florida Bar: (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.
NO ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. Reading this article, or emailing, calling, or messaging this firm, does not create an attorney-client relationship. No attorney-client relationship exists without a Fully Signed Legal Representation Agreement with Williams Law Firm. Until that agreement is signed, please do not send confidential or sensitive information.
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.
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