The Florida Notice to Owner needs to be received by the owner and the other parties going up the payment chain before the 45th day from your first work on the site.
This is the most comprehensive guide about the Notice to Owner document in Florida. Learn about how an NTO can help you get paid, why the Notice of Commencement is important, and the rules for different types of construction projects.
SunRay Construction Solutions is not a law firm. We have developed a strong relationship with law firms in each state to help our customers and we pride ourselves on our company’s accuracy and reliability. The information we present here is not legal advice, nor should you substitute what you read here for the opinion of a licensed Florida attorney.
In the state of Florida, a Notice to Owner or NTO is one of the most important collection tools available to you. If you are making improvements to a construction project but do not have a contract with the owner of the property, then to secure your lien or bond claim rights you must send a Notice to Owner (NTO).
If the 45th day falls on a weekend or legal holiday, then you can roll it to the next business day. For example, if the 45th day falls on a Saturday, it rolls over to Sunday, which then rolls to Monday. If Monday is a legal holiday, then it will finally roll to Tuesday.
Thus, you can potentially have up to 48 days for your NTO to reach the recipients. But do not wait that long.
Now that you know what a Notice to Owner is and when to send it, let us look next at the four kinds of construction projects you may work on and how NTOs apply to them.
Anything owned by the United States government, such as military bases, federal court houses, VA hospitals, and federal prisons. The Federal Government has sovereign immunity against lien claims on Federal property.
The Miller Act controls federal construction bond claims. It has no preliminary notice-to-owner requirement. If you qualify for protection under the Act – if you are a first-tier or second-tier subcontractor or supplier – then you do not need to send a preliminary notice to owner or notice to contractor to preserve your right to make a bond claim.
The remainder of this blog will cover Florida NTOs.
Sending a correctly filled out Notice to Owner Florida form secures your right to get paid for materials or labor supplied to a construction project.
The top three reasons why you may not get paid on a project are:
If you do not have a direct contract with the owner of the property, then you must send a Notice to Owner. But if you are the general contractor and have a direct contract with the owner you are not required to send a Notice to Owner (although it is still good business practice to do so). Instead, you will likely need to record a Notice of Commencement.
A Notice of Commencement, also known as a NOC, is necessary when the project value is more than $2500. The project owner records the NOC in the county where the project is located posts it on the project site before the first inspection. In practice many contractors assist owners in completing and recording the NOC to expedite the start of construction, but the NOC is always the property owner’s responsibility.
Construction must start within 90 days from recording and posting the NOC. If work does not begin within 90 days, then a new NOC needs to be recorded and posted. Although limited exceptions to the NOC recording and posting requirements exist, like for emergency work, it is still good practice to have a NOC in place because payments made after a NOC expires may be invalid.
Note: A Notice of Commencement is not required for public projects.
On public projects, if you are hired by anyone other than the general contractor, you are required to send a Notice to Owner to secure your bond claim rights.
A Notice to Owner in Florida needs to be sent to the owner of the property as well as to the other parties going up the payment chain. For example, if you are a subcontractor to the general contractor, you need to send your NTO to the general contractor and the owner.
You can use the Notice of Commencement for your project to see the full list of people you need to send your NTO to.
A Notice to Owner must be sent by certified or registered mail. It can also be hand delivered to all required parties found on the NOC.
The best business practice is to send the NTO by certified mail no later than the 40th day from first furnishing labor and/or material. For proof of mailing, the United States Postal Service (USPS) provides a standard form, PS Form 3877. By filling out this form, you will obtain proof of mailing and a detailed list of items sent.
If the post office stamps the manifest no later than the 40th day from your first furnishing of labor and/or material, then your NTO is considered legally served even if the owner and all other required recipients do not receive a copy.
SunRay has its own in-house mail department, so if you use a SunRay NTO you do not have to worry about going to the post office. You can also track your NTOs through our application after we mail them.
The NTO must include the following information:
In addition, any party that is receiving a copy must be identified. The NTO must include the statutory warning language, the sender’s name and signature, and the date of signature.
Use SunRay’s handy Project Information Sheet to write down the details about your project so that you have all your information in one place for whenever you need it.
The Notice of Commencement for the project you are working on will have a full list of all the people you need to send your Notice to Owner to. It will also contain information that you need to include in the NTO. The Notice of Commencement also contains information such as:
Even if you follow all the Florida NTO requirements, like sending your notice on time, there are still some special situations you should be aware of. We cover them below.
As we wrote above, you should send your Notice to Owner in Florida by certified mail 40 days from the first day that you provide labor or materials to a project. But you can still lose your lien rights, even if you send your NTO before the 40th day, if the general contractor gives a Final Payment Affidavit and the owner disperses the final payment. In that case you lose your right to lien the property and filing a Notice to Owner will not matter.
Some of the best practices to follow so that you have a valid Notice to Owner are:
Having a written contract will address payment and most importantly what course of action to follow in case of nonpayment. This agreement should also include the primary terms of your work, scope, and schedule. Included in your contract should be a statement that says you need to be paid within a certain number of days of issuing your invoice. If your contract also says that the prevailing party is entitled to recover his or legal fees, then you can recover them if you sue them.
Develop a process in your office to gather all the information you need to send your NTO correctly and on time. Obtain a copy of the Notice of Commencement or bond. If there is not a Notice of Commencement, then obtain a copy of the master permit. Most of the required recipients that need to receive the Notice to Owner can be found on the NOC, bond, or master permit.
This is another place where using SunRay’s Project Information Sheet can help you organize information about your construction project, so you have easily accessible details all in one place.
It is important to keep track of all your pre-lien document deadlines, because if you miss even one you will lose your Florida lien rights. SunRay has developed an easy-to-use deadline calculator for you to calculate how many days you have left to send important construction documents.
By signing up to use the SunRay Application, you will also get regular deadline reminders for documents that need to be sent or filed.
As soon as you have a verbal or written agreement you should send your Notice to Owner. Although the last day that you should send the notice is Day 40, you can send it even earlier. Do not wait until the last minute.
By sending your NTO early you keep your lien rights intact, and when you use SunRay you can track the status of the delivery and know whenever it reaches the recipients.
