Written and reviewed by Cory Cannon, Esq.
Published Updated
Construction disputes tend to raise the same questions from both sides of the contract. Property owners want to know whether they can hold a contractor to the work they paid for. Contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers want to know how to collect what they earned. This page gathers the questions we hear most often and links each one to a full, plain-English answer.
Our construction litigation practice serves both audiences: owners in disputes with their contractors, and construction businesses pursuing payment through liens, bond claims, and contract actions. We grew up around construction, and we read the paper that runs a job (pay applications, schedules of values, lien waivers) line by line. If your dispute is about the quality of the work itself rather than payment, start with our construction defect pages instead. Defective work runs on a different legal track, with its own pre-suit process and deadlines.
One theme runs through nearly every answer here: the clock. Chapter 713, Florida Statutes (the construction lien law) gives a subcontractor or supplier 45 days from first furnishing labor or materials to serve a Notice to Owner, 90 days from final furnishing to record a claim of lien, and one year from recording to file a foreclosure action. Miss one and the lien right is usually gone, no matter how clearly the money is owed. Our construction lien deadline calculator maps these dates from your project facts. Confirm the results with an attorney: trigger dates turn on details like punch-list work and final furnishing that are easy to miscount.
The most common starting points: How long does a construction lawsuit take? Should I sign a lien waiver? Who pays attorney fees in a construction dispute? That last question matters more in construction than in most areas of law. Many construction contracts, and the lien statute itself in lien actions, shift fees to the prevailing party, which changes the math for both sides before anyone files anything.
One caution before you read on: some disputes that look like contractor problems are actually insurance problems. If the real fight is with the carrier that is supposed to fund the repair (a denied, delayed, or underpaid claim) the contractor is a bystander. Those disputes run under different statutes and deadlines, and we handle them through our property insurance claims practice.
These answers reflect Florida law as we apply it. None of them substitutes for advice on your specific facts. If your question is not covered below, or an answer raises a deadline you may have already crossed, contact us for a free consultation. We will tell you plainly where you stand.