Florida Notice of Commencement Form: The Seven Required Items

Fla. Stat. 713.13(1)(a) does not describe a form. It lists what the notice must contain, and the list is closed: seven numbered items, each of which has to appear for the notice to do its job. Counties publish their own printed versions, and the statutory list is what those versions are reproducing.

The seven items

The subsection requires that “the notice of commencement must contain all of the following information”:

1. The property description. “A description sufficient for identification of the real property to be improved. The description must include the legal description of the property and the street address and tax folio number of the property if available or, if the street address is not available, such additional information as will describe the physical location of the real property to be improved.”

2. The improvement. “A general description of the improvement.”

3. The owner, and the titleholder if different. “The name and address of the owner, the owner’s interest in the site of the improvement, and the name and address of the fee simple titleholder, if other than such owner.” The subsection then resolves the lease case expressly: “A lessee who contracts for the improvements is an owner as defined in s. 713.01 and must be listed as the owner together with a statement that the ownership interest is a leasehold interest.”

4. The contractor. “The name and address of the contractor.”

5. The payment bond surety, if there is one. “The name and address of the surety on the payment bond under s. 713.23, if any, and the amount of such bond.”

6. The construction lender. “The name and address of any person making a loan for the construction of the improvements.”

7. A person designated for service. “The name and address within the state of a person other than himself or herself who may be designated by the owner as the person upon whom notices or other documents may be served under this part; and service upon the person so designated constitutes service upon the owner.”

Item 7 carries its own consequence in the same breath: service on the designated person is service on the owner. The address has to be within the state.

Item 3’s leasehold sentence is the one that most often catches a tenant improvement. Where a lessee contracts for the work, the lessee is the owner for this purpose and is listed as such, with the interest identified as leasehold.

Ending it: the notice of termination

Fla. Stat. 713.132 lets an owner close the period a notice of commencement runs for, by “executing, swearing to, and recording a notice of termination”. That notice has its own required contents, and two of them are dates and statements rather than particulars:

• “The same information that is in the notice of commencement.”
• “The official records’ reference numbers and recording date affixed by the recording office on the recorded notice of commencement.”
• “A statement of the date as of which the notice of commencement is terminated, which date may not be earlier than 30 days after the notice of termination is recorded.”
• A statement specifying whether the notice applies to all the property or to a specified portion.
• “A statement that all lienors have been paid in full.”
• A statement that the owner served a copy on each lienor with a direct contract or who timely served a notice to owner, and will serve later-serving lienors after recording.

The 30-day floor is the structural point: a termination cannot take effect immediately, and the statute states the minimum interval directly. The service requirement is excused only for a lienor “who has executed a waiver and release of lien upon final payment in accordance with s. 713.20”.

Why a contractor reads this list

Item 4 puts the licensee’s name and address on a recorded public document for the job, and the qualifying agent named on a company’s work is the person whose license stands behind it. Items 5 and 6 determine who else has to be notified when a claim is made, which is set out under the lien the notice is measured against.

This page sets out what the statute requires a notice to contain. Whether a given notice is adequate, or what follows from one that is not, turns on the facts of a job and is a question for a lawyer.

Where to go next: who records the notice and when covers the timing and the permit connection, and the Florida general contractor license guide covers the licensing picture around it.