The Florida Notice to Owner: Why the Deadline Is 40 Days, Not 45

What Fla. Stat. 713.06(2) requires of a subcontractor, sub-subcontractor or supplier before a Florida construction lien is possible — who must be served, what the notice must say, and why a mailed Notice to Owner has a deadline five days earlier than the one everybody quotes.

Why this notice exists

Section 713.06(2)(a) makes the Notice to Owner a prerequisite: every lienor under that section except laborers must serve it before they can perfect a lien and record a claim of lien.

The consequence of getting it wrong is written into the same paragraph, and it is absolute — the failure to serve the notice, or to timely serve it, is a complete defense to enforcement of a lien by any person. There is no substantial-performance argument to make about a notice that never went out.

Two things it is not. It is not a lien, cloud or encumbrance on the property, and it does not give you priority over anybody else in your category. And serving it does not dispense with recording the claim of lien when the time comes.

Who serves it, and who else gets a copy

The notice goes to the owner. That much everybody knows. The copies are where liens are lost.

A sub-subcontractor, or a materialman to a subcontractor, must also serve a copy on the contractor — as a prerequisite, in the same breath as the notice to the owner. A materialman to a sub-subcontractor must serve the contractor too, and must serve the subcontractor as well if they know the name and address.

Then 713.06(2)(b): if the owner named somebody else in the notice of commencement to receive copies, the lienor serves them as well. That one is gentler — failing to serve the designated person does not invalidate an otherwise valid lien — but it is free to get right.

The 45 days, and the 40 that actually decide it

Section 713.06(2)(a) gives the number every article quotes: served before commencing, or not later than 45 days after commencing, to furnish labor, services or materials. Note that it runs from commencing to furnish, and that you may serve it before you start.

Now section 713.18(2), which is in a different section and is why this guide exists. Service by registered, Global Express Guaranteed or certified mail is effective on the DATE OF MAILING — but only where the notice is mailed within FORTY days after the lienor first furnishes, and only where the sender keeps a mail log showing the tracking number and the mailing date, or the Postal Service tracking record.

Outside those forty days, a mailed notice is not dated to the day you sent it. What counts is when it arrives, and arrival is not something the sender controls. Mail a Notice to Owner on day 43 — comfortably inside the 45 — and you have handed the question of whether you have a lien to the Postal Service.

So there are two deadlines on a mailed notice, and the earlier one is the real one.

And a third deadline, with no number on it

The same paragraph adds: in any event, before the date of the owner's disbursement of the final payment after the contractor has furnished the final payment affidavit.

That is an event, not a day count. On a short job — a two-week scope on a fast-moving project — final payment can be disbursed before day 40 or day 45 has arrived, and the notice you were about to send on Friday is late in a way no calendar warned you about.

The notice must be served regardless of the method of payments by the owner, whether proper or improper. Being paid on time by everybody else in the chain is not a reason to skip it.

What the notice must say

Section 713.06(2)(c) prescribes a form, and the wording of the requirement matters: the notice may be in substantially the following form and must include the information AND THE WARNING contained in the following form.

So the three capitalised paragraphs at the top are not a template flourish. Nor is the IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR YOUR PROTECTION block at the bottom, which tells the owner in plain English what a construction lien is and what to do about it. A cleaner-looking notice that dropped them would be missing the part the statute names.

Beyond the warning, the content is short: your name and address, a description sufficient to identify the property, and the nature of the services or materials furnished or to be furnished.

How to serve it

• Hand delivery to the person to be served — or, for an entity, to a partner, officer, director, member, manager, or an authorised agent (713.18(1)(a)).
• Common carrier delivery service, or registered, Global Express Guaranteed or certified mail, postage paid, with evidence of delivery (713.18(1)(b)).
• Posting on the site of the improvement — and only if service under (a) or (b) cannot be accomplished (713.18(1)(c)).

Ordinary first class mail is not on that list. And the address is settled by 713.18(3): the last address in the notice of commencement or an amendment to it, or, where none was recorded, the last address in the building permit application, or the last known address of the person served. Section 713.06(2)(e) says the same about the permit application as a source for the notice itself — no recorded notice of commencement is not a reason to guess.

Forgiving about content, unforgiving about time

Section 713.06(2)(f) is two sentences that pull in opposite directions, and both are worth carrying. Where a lienor has substantially complied, errors or omissions do not prevent enforcement against a person who has not been adversely affected by them. That is real protection for a notice with a typo in it.

The second sentence: however, a lienor must strictly comply with the time requirements of paragraph (a). No substantial compliance, no harmless error, no relief for a good reason.

Read together they say something useful about where to spend your attention. Get it out early and get it out by a permitted method. The rest of it is fixable.

The habits that keep the right

• Work to forty days, not forty-five, and treat the extra five as the margin they are.
• Keep the mail log or the tracking record the day you send it — 713.18(2) makes the date depend on having kept it, not on being able to find it later.
• Serve the contractor too if you are a sub-sub or a supplier to a subcontractor. It is a prerequisite, not a courtesy copy.
• Read the notice of commencement before you serve anything, for the addresses and for anybody the owner designated. Where there is none, the permit application is the statute's own fallback.
• Serve it at the start of the job rather than at the end of the window. The statute expressly allows service before you commence, and a notice already served cannot be beaten by a final payment nobody told you about.

This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and the law changes. Deadlines here are as Chapter 713 states them; how they apply to a particular job depends on facts a lawyer would need. Confirm with a Florida construction attorney before relying on any of it.