Notice to Owner (Florida)

Why Florida subcontractors send a notice to owner

If you work for a general contractor, you have no contract with the property owner — yet Florida law gives you a lien on the owner’s property if you are not paid. The price of that right is notice. Section 713.06(2) makes a notice to owner a prerequisite to perfecting a lien for every lienor who is not in privity with the owner, except laborers, and makes late or missing notice a complete defense. The notice also protects the owner: once served, the owner knows to collect lien waivers from you before paying the GC, which is exactly the leverage you want.

The 45-day deadline and how to serve

Serve the notice before you start, or within 45 days after you first furnish labor, services or materials — and before the owner’s final payment once the contractor has given its final affidavit. The first furnishing date is the first delivery or the first day on site, not the contract date. For service, § 713.18 allows hand delivery, a common carrier, or registered, Global Express Guaranteed or certified mail with evidence of delivery. If you mail it within 40 days of first furnishing to the address in the notice of commencement and keep a mail log or USPS tracking record, service is effective on the date of mailing even if the owner never signs for it. The service record at the bottom of the form exists so those dates are written down on your copy.

The form, field by field

• Warning. The capitalized warning must be on the notice; it is printed verbatim in a box at the top.
• To. The owner’s name and address, exactly as on the recorded notice of commencement.
• Services or materials. A general description — “HVAC equipment, ductwork and piping labor and materials” is enough. You do not need to state a price.
• Property and order given by. The property description and the party that hired you.
• Important information for your protection. The statutory explanation to the owner, verbatim.
• Lienor, copies to, service record. Your signature, name and address; each copy recipient with its mail number; and your first furnishing, deadline and mailing dates.

A worked example

The completed example is from Summit Mechanical’s Tampa office, the mechanical subcontractor to Brightline Builders on Harbor Point Development’s Tampa medical office — the job in the notice of commencement example, recorded September 8, 2026. Summit first delivered materials on September 21, so its 45th day is November 5. It mailed the notice on October 5 — inside the 40-day window — by certified mail to the owner at the address in the notice of commencement, with copies to Brightline and to the bank’s construction loan administration, which the owner designated in item 8 to receive notices to owner. Summit has a direct contract with Brightline, so the copy to the contractor is a courtesy; a supplier to Summit would be required to send one.

Common mistakes

• Counting 45 days from the subcontract date instead of the first delivery or day on site.
• Mailing to an old address instead of the one in the notice of commencement.
• Leaving out the lender or the owner’s designee when item 8 names one.
• Rewording or shrinking the statutory warnings.
• Not keeping the mail log, tracking record or receipts.
• Assuming a bonded or public job works the same way — it has its own notice rules.

Outside Florida, most states have their own preliminary notice with different names, contents and deadlines; this form is for Florida only. For the waivers you will exchange once payments start, see the lien waiver forms and our explainer on how conditional and unconditional lien waivers work.