Florida notice to owner form, free and on the statutory wording

This form is for people who are not in a contract with the owner

Section 713.06 is headed liens of persons not in privity, and subsection (1) names who it covers: a materialman or laborer not in privity with the owner, a subcontractor, or a sub-subcontractor. If you signed your contract with the owner, you are in privity and this is not your form.

Subsection (2)(a) then says all lienors under this section, except laborers, must serve a notice on the owner as a prerequisite to perfecting a lien and recording a claim of lien. A laborer is excused. Everyone else on that list sends this.

The statute says what the notice has to contain, and the form below already contains it: the lienor's name and address, a description sufficient for identification of the real property, and the nature of the services or materials furnished or to be furnished.

Forty five days, and what the clock actually starts on

Section 713.06(2)(a): the notice must be served before commencing, or not later than 45 days after commencing, to furnish his or her labor, services, or materials. The clock starts on the day you first furnish something to that job, not on the day you signed, not on the day you invoiced.

There is a second, outer limit in the same sentence. Whatever the 45 days says, the notice must be served before the date of the owner's disbursement of the final payment after the contractor has furnished the affidavit under subparagraph (3)(d)1. If final payment has already gone out on the contractor's final payment affidavit, you are late even inside 45 days.

Section 713.06(2)(f) is the one that catches people out. It forgives errors or omissions in the form against anyone who was not adversely affected by them, and then says a lienor must strictly comply with the time requirements of paragraph (a). The wording is forgiving. The deadline is not.

Who else has to get a copy

A sub-subcontractor, or a materialman to a subcontractor, must serve a copy of the notice on the contractor, and section 713.06(2)(a) makes that a prerequisite to perfecting a lien as well. A materialman to a sub-subcontractor serves a copy on the contractor too, and on the subcontractor if the materialman knows the subcontractor's name and address.

Section 713.06(2)(b) adds one more. If the owner designated a person in addition to himself or herself in the notice of commencement to receive a copy of lienor notices, as 713.13(1)(b) allows, you serve a copy on that person. Failing that one does not invalidate an otherwise valid lien, which is a softer rule than the others on this page, but the copy costs nothing.

The Copies to line at the bottom of the form is where those names go. The statute prints it pointing at the very paragraphs above.

What serving it does, and what it does not do

It is not a lien. Section 713.06(2)(a) says the notice is not a lien, cloud, or encumbrance on the real property nor actual or constructive notice of any of them. Nothing is recorded and nothing attaches to the title.

It does not put you ahead of anyone. The same subsection says serving the notice does not give the lienor serving it any priority over other lienors in the same category.

It does not replace the claim of lien. Serving the notice does not dispense with recording the claim of lien, in the statute's own words. This is step one of two.

What it does is switch the owner's obligation on. Section 713.06(3)(c)1 says the owner is under no obligation to any lienor, except laborers, from whom he or she has not received a notice to owner at the time of making a payment. Until your notice lands, the owner can pay the contractor in full and owe you nothing.

If no notice of commencement was ever recorded

You still have to serve the notice, and section 713.06(2)(e) tells you where to get the names. In the absence of a recorded notice of commencement, a lienor may rely on the information contained in the building permit application to serve the notice.

That is worth knowing on small residential work where nobody recorded anything. The permit application is public and it carries the owner and the contractor.

Where a notice of commencement does exist, use it. Section 713.06(2)(d) says a notice served on a lender must be addressed to the persons designated, and to the place and address designated, in the notice of commencement.

Missing it is a complete defense, and nothing rescues it

Section 713.06(2)(a) is blunt: the failure to serve the notice, or to timely serve it, is a complete defense to enforcement of a lien by any person. Not a factor, not a penalty. A defense that ends the claim.

Being named in the contractor's paperwork does not save you either. Section 713.06(3)(c)4 says nobody who was required to serve a notice, did not serve it, and whose time has expired is entitled to be paid by the owner because he or she is listed in an affidavit furnished by the contractor.

This is the cheapest document on a construction job and the most expensive one to forget. Serving it early costs a stamp. Serving it on day 46 costs the lien.

Questions people ask

Once the job is running and you are getting paid on it, the paperwork that comes next is the waiver: see the Florida statutory lien waiver forms, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver for which of the two to sign.