What Is a Notice of Commencement? The Owner's Filing That Starts the Lien Clock
A document the property owner records before work begins, naming everyone involved in the project. For a subcontractor it is the address book: it says exactly who your preliminary notice has to go to.
Also called NOC, Notice of project commencement.
Open the notice of commencement form The Florida statutory form, sliced from the statute word for word. Free, no signup, no watermark.Who files it and why
Unlike almost every other document in the lien process, this one is the owner's job, not the contractor's. The owner records it in the county land records before construction starts and, in several states, posts a copy at the job site.
Its purpose is to make the project visible. Once it is recorded, anybody furnishing labor or material to that property can look up who the owner really is, who the general is, who the lender is, and where notices are supposed to be sent.
That is why it matters to a sub who will never file one. It is the source of the addresses your own notice depends on.
What is on it
The contents are set by statute and vary, but the core is consistent.
- The legal description of the property, and usually the street address as well.
- The owner's name, address and interest in the property.
- The general contractor's name and address.
- The surety, if there is a payment bond, with the bond amount.
- The construction lender's name and address.
- A designated person to receive notices on the owner's behalf, if the owner names one.
- The expiration date of the notice.
The expiration date is the part that catches people
A notice of commencement does not run forever. It has a stated expiration, commonly one year from recording unless a different date is written on the face of it, and on a long job it can lapse while the work is still going.
When it lapses and is not renewed, the protection the owner gets from it lapses too, and the sequence of notices and payments that referenced it becomes messier for everyone. On a job running past a year it is worth checking the recorded date rather than assuming.
For the owner, recording it late or not at all does not just create a technical problem. In some states an owner who pays out without a properly recorded notice of commencement can end up paying twice.
How a subcontractor uses it
Look it up before sending anything. The general who hired you is not necessarily the general named on the notice, the owner is very often an entity rather than the person you met, and the mailing address on it is the one the statute expects your notice to use.
It is a recorded document, so it is a public record in the county where the property sits, and many county recorders now have it searchable online by address or by owner name.
Sending a correct notice to the wrong address is the same as not sending one. The notice of commencement is how you avoid that, and checking it takes minutes.
What it looks like
This is the blank form as this site actually prints it, drawn from the same file the download button gives you. It is not a picture of somebody else's document.
La misma explicación, línea por línea, con las palabras en inglés que aparecen en el formulario. Aviso de inicio de obra, en español.
What to do with it
Questions people ask
Who files the notice of commencement, the owner or the contractor?
The owner. In practice the general contractor often prepares it and walks it to the recorder, because the general has the most to lose if it is missing, but it is recorded in the owner's name and signed by the owner.
Is a notice of commencement the same as a preliminary notice?
No, and they run in opposite directions. The owner records a notice of commencement at the start to announce the project. A subcontractor sends a preliminary notice to the owner to announce themselves. One is the address book, the other is an entry in it.
What happens if the owner never records one?
In states that require it, an owner who pays the general without a recorded notice of commencement can lose the protection it provides and can be exposed to paying a subcontractor's claim even after paying the general in full. For a sub, the absence of one usually means the notice deadlines still run, so send anyway to every party you can identify.
How do I find the notice of commencement for a job?
It is recorded in the land records of the county where the property is, so it is public. Search the county recorder or clerk by property address or owner name. On many sites a copy is also required to be posted at the job itself, so the job trailer or the permit board is worth a look first.