Regardless of your place in the long chain from lender to owner to contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, you have the right to timely payment when money is owed to you during a construction project in Florida. When you are not paid, you have the right to legal recourse.
At Daniel W. Uhlfelder, P.A., we often represent clients who must rely on a construction lien to ensure that they receive payment for goods or services.
What is a construction lien?
In many states, construction liens are known as mechanic’s liens, but they all follow the same general concept. If the person contractually responsible for paying you does not render that payment to you after you have supplied services or materials in a construction project, you have a right to file a claim against the property until it is paid.
The owner of the property likely has a construction loan, and may not be able to convert this to a traditional loan when the project is complete if there are construction liens. So, even if the owner is not the one who signed your contract, through careful contracts and paperwork, the owner is likely to be able to identify where the process broke down in order to avoid paying twice for your services or materials.
Why are construction liens so complex?
According to the Florida Bar Journal, it is not just a perception that construction lien law is complicated in this state. It encompasses nearly 30,000 words: the length of a short novel. The goal of this massive legislation is to protect everyone upstream and downstream in the project, which may involve hundreds of people and companies and hundreds of millions of dollars, given the size of many Florida construction projects.
More information about construction liens and other construction disputes and litigation is available on our webpage.