Video Summary
Can I terminate a Notice of Commencement? Before answering the question, I’d like to first talk about a Notice of Commencement and why we have notices of commencement. They are an integral part of the construction lien law in Florida. And it’s the owner’s responsibility to record this Notice of Commencement before starting construction. In fact, in order to get a building permit, you must have a Notice of Commencement recorded.
The Notice of Commencement gives everyone who works on the property the name of the owner of the property so that they can give them a notice to owner that they are working on the property. It also gives the contractors name and address so that they sub contractor can also give notice to the contractor that he is giving notice to the owner that he’s working on it. So this all ties into the owner then, having the responsibility to obtain a waiver from anyone that is working on the property that has given notice to owner.
So in order to terminate your Notice of Commencement, you obtain an affidavit from your contractor that says he has completed all the work or he has been paid for his services and he has paid all of his subcontractors and material men. So at that point you are then in a position to terminate the Notice of Commencement and you can rely upon the contractor’s final affidavit.
There are some other circumstances whenever you may want to terminate your Notice of Commencement in the event that you started construction or you filed a Notice of Commencement and then you got a mortgage. Now you have a problem because the liens revert back to the Notice of Commencement, so now you have a mortgage and the lender won’t close on it because you can’t give them clear title or first lien position because the liens revert make to the Notice of Commencement.
So there is a process whereby you can terminate the Notice of Commencement and then later file a new one. I don’t have enough time to talk about whenever a contractor goes bad and you terminate his services, on how to file a Notice of Recommencement after a termination of a contractor.
If you have any questions about Notice of Commencements, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. Thank you.