A Notice to Owner is a routine document. It arrives by certified mail, it looks official, and it alarms almost every Florida property owner who receives one for the first time. It is not a lien. It is not a lawsuit. It does not mean you owe anyone money or that anything on your project has gone wrong.
Under Section 713.06, Florida Statutes, a Notice to Owner (usually shortened to NTO) is how a subcontractor or material supplier tells you they are furnishing labor or materials to your property and intend to preserve their right to payment. Florida’s construction lien law requires them to send it. On a project of any size, several will arrive.
This page explains the NTO from both sides: what to do if you received one, and what the 45-day deadline means if you are a subcontractor or supplier deciding whether you have to send one. We handle Florida construction payment disputes for both audiences through our construction litigation practice.
Key points
- A Notice to Owner is a routine preliminary notice, not a lien and not a lawsuit. It does not mean you owe anyone money today.
- Subcontractors and suppliers who lack a direct contract with the owner must serve an NTO before they start work or within 45 days of first furnishing labor or materials, or they lose the right to lien.
- An owner who pays the contractor in full without collecting lien releases and the contractor’s final payment affidavit can be forced to pay a second time for the same work.
- Missing the 45-day deadline is a complete defense to the lien: a trap for the sender and a shield for the owner.
- The deadlines run from the dates work was first and last furnished. Run yours through our construction lien deadline calculator and confirm them with counsel before you rely on either.
What a Notice to Owner Is, and What It Is Not
Florida lets people who improve your property without a contract with you place a lien on it if they go unpaid. A lien is a recorded claim against the property itself: it can block a sale or refinance and, if enforced, end in a court-ordered foreclosure sale. The legal term for having a direct contract with someone is privity. Your general contractor is in privity with you. The plumbing sub, the framing crew, and the supplier who delivered the trusses usually are not.
That gap is what the NTO fills. The legislature’s concern was surprise: an owner should not learn that a supplier exists for the first time when a lien hits the county records. So the statute requires anyone without a direct contract with the owner to identify themselves early, in writing, so the owner can make sure the money flowing to the contractor actually reaches them.
The statute is explicit about what the document is not. A Notice to Owner “is not a lien, cloud, or encumbrance on the real property.” It is a prerequisite: a step the sender must take to keep the option of a lien alive later. It is not a bill, not a default notice, and not a comment on your contractor’s honesty. Contractors on well-run jobs generate NTOs from their subs and suppliers as a matter of course.
Who Must Send One, and Who Is Exempt
The NTO requirement applies to lienors who are not in privity with the owner: subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and material suppliers. Section 713.06(2)(a) makes service of the notice a prerequisite to perfecting a lien and recording a claim of lien. Depending on where the sender sits in the chain, copies must also go to the contractor or the subcontractor above them.
Two groups do not send NTOs. A contractor in direct contract with the owner does not, because the owner already knows who they are: their lien rights arise from the contract itself. And laborers (individual wage earners) are expressly excepted by the statute.
For everyone else, the rule is unforgiving. In the statute’s words, failure to serve the notice, or to serve it on time, “is a complete defense to enforcement of a lien by any person.” A supplier who delivered $80,000 in materials but never sent an NTO has no lien, no matter how clearly the debt is owed. The unpaid contract claim against the customer who ordered the materials survives, but the claim against the property does not.
The Deadlines, Precisely
Every clock in the lien statute runs from facts on the ground: the date labor or materials were first furnished, the date of final furnishing, the date a document was recorded. These are the general rules; terminated contracts, amended claims of lien, and bonded projects change the math.
| Step | Statute | The clock |
|---|---|---|
| Notice to Owner | 713.06(2)(a) | Before first furnishing labor, services, or materials, or within 45 days after, and in every case before the owner disburses final payment after receiving the contractor’s final payment affidavit |
| Service-by-mail rule | 713.18 | Registered or certified mail counts as served on the date of mailing only if mailed within 40 days of first furnishing, with the mail log the statute requires |
| Claim of Lien | 713.08(5) | Recorded no later than 90 days after the lienor’s final furnishing |
| Lien foreclosure suit | 713.22(1) | Within 1 year after the claim of lien is recorded, or the lien expires |
| After a Notice of Contest of Lien | 713.22(2) | The 1-year window shrinks to 60 days from service of the notice |
| After a show-cause summons | 713.21(4) | 20 days to show cause why the lien should not be enforced or discharged |
“First furnishing” and “final furnishing” sound simple and are litigated constantly: punch-list visits, warranty work, and remobilizations all raise fact questions about when the clock started or stopped. Our construction lien deadline calculator will run the arithmetic from your dates, but the dates themselves are legal conclusions. On a deadline this consequential, have a lawyer confirm both before you rely on either.
If You Received an NTO: The Owner’s Playbook
The notice exists to let you protect yourself. The danger is not the NTO: it is filing it away and forgetting it.
Here is the trap the statute is built around. Florida law credits an owner only for proper payments. If you pay your contractor in full, and your contractor fails to pay a subcontractor who served an NTO, that subcontractor can still lien your property, and you can end up paying twice for the same work. “I already paid the contractor” is not a defense unless your payments followed the procedure in Section 713.06(3).
The playbook, in order:
- Keep every NTO. Log the sender, the date received, and what they furnish. This list is your map of who can lien the property.
- Require releases before each draw. Before every progress payment, collect partial lien waivers (signed statements giving up lien rights through a stated date or amount) from your contractor and from each NTO sender, covering the period being paid. Waiver forms have their own traps; see our answer on whether to sign a lien waiver.
- Consider joint checks. A check payable jointly to the contractor and an NTO sender ensures the money reaches the person who can lien.
- Do not release final payment without the final payment affidavit. Section 713.06(3)(d) requires the contractor to give you a sworn affidavit listing any unpaid lienors before final payment. Pair it with final releases from everyone on your NTO list. Final payment made without the affidavit is not a proper payment.
- If a lien is recorded anyway, act. Do not wait. A Notice of Contest of Lien cuts the lienor’s time to sue to 60 days. A show-cause summons under 713.21(4) gives them 20 days. The lien can be transferred to a cash deposit or surety bond under 713.24 to clear the title while the fight proceeds. And an untimely or unserved NTO is a complete defense.
If You Are the Sub or Supplier: Sending the NTO
Sending the notice is not optional and not rude. It is the statutory prerequisite to your lien, and your customer’s general contractor expects it. The judgment call is not whether to send: it is how early.
Serve before you start or within 45 days of first furnishing. Do not aim for day 45. Under Section 713.18, mailing counts as service on the date of mailing only if you mail within 40 days of first furnishing and keep a compliant mail log; after that, the notice must actually be received in time. The owner’s name and address come from the recorded Notice of Commencement, the document the owner records before work begins identifying the property, the owner, and the contractor. Best practice on every job: send the NTO as soon as you sign the subcontract or take the order, and run your claim-of-lien and foreclosure dates through the lien deadline calculator the same day.
Check the Notice of Commencement for an attached payment bond. If the contractor furnished a bond under Section 713.23, the property is exempt from your lien and your claim runs against the bond instead, with its own notice chain. You must serve a notice to the contractor before beginning or within 45 days of beginning to furnish (a timely NTO served on the contractor satisfies this), then serve a sworn notice of nonpayment on the contractor, with a copy to the surety, no later than 90 days after your final furnishing. Suit on the bond must be filed within 1 year.
One more reason precision pays: under Section 713.29, the prevailing party in a lien or bond enforcement action recovers its attorney fees. Clean paperwork makes you the likely prevailing party. Sloppy paperwork can make you the one paying the other side’s lawyer.
The Post-Storm NTO Wave
After a major storm (Ian in 2022, Helene and Milton in 2024), Tampa Bay rebuilds at once. Roofers subcontract crews, dry-out companies rent equipment, and suppliers extend credit across thousands of jobs. Every one of those subs and suppliers is supposed to send an NTO, so owners doing storm repairs often receive several within weeks of signing a single contract. That volume is the system working, not a sign your restoration contractor is in trouble. The playbook above applies unchanged: log the notices, match releases to payments, and hold final payment until the affidavit and final releases are in hand.
If the real problem underneath the paperwork is that your insurance carrier has not paid enough to fund the repairs the notices relate to, that is a different dispute with a different set of deadlines. Our property insurance claims practice handles underpaid and delayed storm claims against carriers.
Where We Come In
I am a Florida attorney with a family history in construction going back generations, and it shows in how I work: I read Notices of Commencement, pay applications, releases, and lien paperwork the way job sites actually produce them, and I check the dates against the documents rather than taking anyone’s word for the timeline.
For owners, I review Notices to Owner, payment records, and lien waivers to identify notice requirements, payment obligations, and potential claims. We serve owners throughout Tampa Bay, including Tampa and Bradenton.
For subcontractors and suppliers, our construction lien practice handles notice compliance, claims of lien, foreclosure, and payment bond claims. Whichever side of the notice you are on, contact us for a free consultation before a deadline decides the question for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Notice to Owner a lien on my property?
No. Section 713.06, Florida Statutes, says expressly that a Notice to Owner is not a lien, cloud, or encumbrance on the property. It is a preliminary notice that preserves the sender's right to record a lien later if they go unpaid. It does not appear in your title records and does not mean you owe the sender anything today.
Do I have to send a Notice to Owner if I contracted directly with the owner?
No. The NTO requirement applies to lienors who lack a direct contract (privity) with the owner - subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and material suppliers. A contractor hired directly by the owner does not send one, and individual laborers are also exempt. The subs and suppliers working under a direct contractor still must send their own.
What happens if a subcontractor misses the 45-day NTO deadline?
The lien is gone. Under Section 713.06(2)(a), failure to serve the notice on time is a complete defense to enforcement of a lien by any person. The subcontractor keeps its breach-of-contract claim against whoever hired it, but it loses the right to claim against the owner's property. For owners, an untimely NTO is one of the first defenses to check when a lien is recorded.
Do I need to respond to a Notice to Owner?
No response is required, and the sender is not asking you for money. But do not discard it. Log every NTO you receive, require lien releases from each sender before you make progress payments, and collect the contractor's final payment affidavit plus final releases before releasing final payment. Those steps are what protect you from paying twice for the same work.
How long do I have to record a claim of lien after sending the Notice to Owner?
The Notice to Owner and the claim of lien run on separate clocks. Serving the NTO before you start or within 45 days of first furnishing keeps your lien rights alive. The claim of lien itself must then be recorded no later than 90 days after your final furnishing under Section 713.08(5), Florida Statutes. First-furnishing and final-furnishing dates are frequently disputed, so confirm both before you rely on them.
What is a Notice of Commencement, and how does it relate to the Notice to Owner?
A Notice of Commencement is the document an owner records before work begins under Section 713.13, Florida Statutes, identifying the property, the owner, and the contractor. Subcontractors and suppliers use it to find the owner's name and address for their NTO and to check whether the job carries a payment bond. If a bond is attached under Section 713.23, the property is exempt from liens and the claim runs against the bond on its own notice schedule.
Does a Notice to Owner expire?
The NTO itself does not lapse on a set date, but the lien rights it preserves do. After serving the notice, the sender still has to record a claim of lien within 90 days of final furnishing and file suit to enforce it within one year of recording, or the lien expires. In practice, an old NTO with no claim of lien behind it has no continuing effect on your property.