What Is a Notice to Owner? Florida's 45 Day Clock, and What Starts It
Florida's name for the preliminary notice. If you are not in direct contract with the owner, section 713.06(2)(a) requires you to serve it before you start or within 45 days of starting to furnish labor, services or materials, and the lien right depends on it.
Also called NTO, Florida notice to owner.
Fill in the Florida notice to owner The statutory form, word for word, filled in on this page and downloaded as a PDF. Free, no signup, no watermark.What it does
A notice to owner tells the property owner that somebody they have no contract with is working on their building and will expect to be paid. It is not a complaint, it is not a threat, and sending one does not mean anything has gone wrong.
Its purpose is to make the owner aware that a lien right is accumulating, so that the owner can protect themselves by obtaining waivers before releasing money to the general. That is why the statute requires it early rather than when a payment is late.
The practical effect for you is simpler. Serve it and your lien right exists. Do not serve it and, in most cases, it does not, regardless of how good the debt is.
Who has to send one
Anyone not in privity with the owner. In plain terms, if your contract is with the general contractor, a subcontractor, or anyone other than the owner personally, you are the party the notice requirement is aimed at.
A contractor in direct contract with the owner does not serve a notice to owner, because the owner already knows about them. That is the whole test: does the owner know you exist because they signed something with you.
Suppliers are caught by this as often as trades, and a supplier several steps down the chain is exactly the party the statute was written about.
The 45 day clock runs from furnishing, not from the invoice
Section 713.06(2)(a) says the notice must be served before commencing, or not later than 45 days after commencing, to furnish labor, services or materials. The trigger is the first day you furnish something to the job.
That is not the date of your contract, not the date of your first invoice, and not the date the payment became late. People lose the right by counting from the wrong event far more often than by forgetting the notice existed.
The same subsection makes service a prerequisite to perfecting a lien, so a late notice is not a procedural irregularity to be argued about later. Send it in the first week you are on site and the counting problem disappears.
Where it goes, and what the notice of commencement gives you
The owner is the obvious recipient. The recorded notice of commencement is where you find them, and it typically also names the general contractor, the lender and any surety, along with the addresses for notices.
Pull that document before you serve, not after. It is a public record, it is filed at the start of the job, and it is the cheapest piece of due diligence in Florida construction.
Keep proof of service with the job file. A notice you cannot prove you served is a notice you did not serve, as far as a later argument is concerned.
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.
What to do with it
Questions people ask
Is a notice to owner the same as a preliminary notice?
Yes. Notice to owner is what Florida calls it. Other states call the same idea a preliminary notice, a notice of furnishing, a notice of right to lien or a pre lien notice. The deadline, the recipients and the consequences of missing it are all set state by state, so the local name matters less than the local rule.
Does sending a notice to owner mean I am filing a lien?
No, and it is worth saying so to a nervous customer. It is an early notice that preserves a right you may never use. Most notices are served on jobs that pay normally and nothing further ever happens.
What happens if I miss the 45 days in Florida?
Section 713.06(2)(a) makes service of the notice a prerequisite to perfecting a lien, so missing the deadline generally means losing the lien right on that job. You still have your contract claim against whoever hired you, which is a far weaker position than a claim against the property.
Do I have to send a notice to owner on every job?
On every Florida job where you are not in direct contract with the owner. Because the deadline runs from your first day of furnishing rather than from any sign of trouble, the workable habit is to serve it as a matter of routine at the start, not to decide job by job whether this one looks risky.