Florida Construction Lien Law

I recieved a certified letter today from our paver subcontractor today notifiying us that a lien could be placed on our home if our general contractor fails to pay the subcontractor and it included this ominous statement, "If your contractor fails to pay subcontractor or material suppliers, or neglects to make other legally required payments, the people that are owed money may look to your property for payment, EVEN IF YOU HAVE PAID YOUR CONTRACTOR IN FULL."

This is fully covered by Florida's Construction Lien Law which can be found at this link: Florida Construction Lien Law

The good news is that you can avoid a lien and potentially paying twice by obtaining a written release from the subcontractors and/or suppliers every time you pay your contractor.

I would normally have blown this off, but it wouldn't be fun having to deal with this if you select the wrong contractor. One thing you can do to avoid a contractor with a bad reputation is to obtain their state licensure number and look up their record. If they have a past, it will come up! If they don't have a license number, beware!!!!! The Florida site to look this up can be found at: www.myfloridalicense.com.

Another good resource for regarding construction liens can be found at: http://floridaassetprotection.blogs.com