Florida Construction Lien Law on the Contractor Exam: The Deadlines and Where to Find Them

The official Business & Finance outline has no area called lien law. Lien material turns up inside several areas: contracts under Managing Administrative Duties, receivables and payables under Conducting Accounting Functions, and Chapter 713 by name under Complying with Government Regulations. That spread is why it feels like it's everywhere on test day. Our practice bank weights it as its own domain because it's one skill, a deadline lookup, wherever the outline files it.

On Contract Administration, the outline is dominated by project contracts and the AIA documents, but the Contractors Manual is on that reference list too, so a lien lookup you rehearsed for Business & Finance works there without changes. The exam math is what makes speed matter: Business & Finance gives you 120 questions in 390 minutes, about 3.25 minutes each, and a lien question you answer from a tab in forty seconds banks time for the accounting problems that need it.

Neither 2026 reference list includes Chapter 713 as a standalone book. The Business & Finance list names three items plus three AIA documents: Florida Statutes Chapter 455 (the one statute chapter listed on its own, and the only item the list allows as a bound printed PDF), Builder's Guide to Accounting, and the Contractors Manual. The General, Building and Residential list for Contract Administration and Project Management also includes the Contractors Manual and no separate 713.

So the lien law you'll use on exam day is whatever your edition of the Contractors Manual carries. Our Contractors Manual guide covers what the book reprints; before you tab, open your own copy and confirm it has the Part I sections listed below at their official numbers. You may have seen searches for "section 13 lien law" or a course that points you to a numbered section of a book. Book chapter numbers change between editions, so check your edition and tab by section number, which the statute keeps stable.

The markup rules are the same as for every other reference: underlining in pen or highlighter is allowed, handwritten or typed notes are not, movable tabs like sticky flags are not, and permanent tabs may carry only normal headings. A tab reading "713.08 Claim of lien" is a heading; one reading "90 days after final furnishing" is a note, and notes aren't allowed.

Every deadline below is from the 2026 text of Chapter 713. Learn the order of events cold, and let the book supply the exact number and the exceptions.

• Notice of commencement, s.713.13: the owner or the owner's authorized agent records it before actually commencing the improvement and posts a certified copy or a notarized statement at the site. If work doesn't start within 90 days of recording, the notice is void (713.13(2)). Unless the notice states otherwise, it stops being effective 1 year after recording (713.13(6)).
• First inspection, s.713.135(1)(e): when the direct contract is greater than $5,000, a copy of the recorded notice goes to the permitting authority before the first inspection, or later inspections stop. The permit card warning puts it plainly: record and post the notice before the first inspection.
• Notice to owner, s.713.06(2)(a): every lienor not in privity with the owner, except laborers, serves it before starting or within 45 days after starting to furnish, and in any event before the owner disburses final payment after receiving the contractor's affidavit. Failing to serve it, or serving it late, is a complete defense to enforcement of the lien.
• Contractor's final payment affidavit, s.713.06(3)(d)1.: when final payment comes due, the contractor gives the owner a sworn affidavit that its lienors who served notice are paid, or lists who isn't. It must be delivered at least 5 days before the contractor sues to enforce its lien.
• Claim of lien, s.713.08(5): recorded any time during the work or afterward, but not later than 90 days after the lienor's final furnishing. If the original contract is terminated, the deadline is 90 days after termination or 90 days after final furnishing, whichever comes first.
• Service of the claim, s.713.08(4)(c): a copy goes to the owner before recording or within 15 days after. Missing that makes the lien voidable to the extent the failure prejudiced someone.
• Duration, s.713.22(1): the lien lasts 1 year after recording (or after recording an amended claim showing a later final furnishing date) unless a suit to enforce it is filed within that year.
• Notice of contest, s.713.22(2): the owner can serve one, and the lienor then has 60 days from service to sue or the lien is extinguished automatically.

Some questions come from the owner's side and ask what protects the owner. Those answers sit in the same chapter, a few sections over.

• Small jobs, s.713.02(5): an improvement with a direct contract price of $2,500 or less is exempt from Part I except s.713.05, which covers lienors in privity with the owner.
• Contract notice, s.713.015: a direct contract greater than $2,500 for work on a one- to four-unit residential property must carry the statutory lien law warning to the owner, in the type size and placement the section specifies.
• Proper payments, s.713.06(3): an owner who pays according to this subsection, collecting releases and the contractor's final payment affidavit, is protected against paying twice. The owner owes nothing to a lienor, other than a laborer, who hasn't served a notice to owner by the time of a payment.
• Notice of termination, s.713.132: ends the notice of commencement early. The termination date it states can't be earlier than 30 days after it's recorded, and it has to be served on the lienors the section lists.
• Waivers, s.713.20: a lien right can't be waived in advance, only for work already furnished. The section supplies the progress-payment and final-payment waiver forms, and a lienor paid by check may condition the waiver on the check clearing.
• Show-cause order, s.713.21(4): any interested party can ask the circuit court to order the lienor to show cause within 20 days why the lien shouldn't be enforced or cancelled.

When the contractor furnishes a payment bond under s.713.23, the owner is exempt from the rest of Part I for that direct contract (713.02(6)), and subs and suppliers claim against the bond instead of the property. The bond has its own clock, and it's easy to confuse with the lien clock because two of the numbers match.

• Notice to the contractor: a lienor not in privity with the contractor, other than a laborer, serves written notice, before or within 45 days after beginning to furnish, that it will look to the bond. A timely notice to owner served on the contractor satisfies this.
• Notice of nonpayment: served under oath on the contractor, with a copy to the surety, no later than 90 days after the lienor's final furnishing.
• Suit on the bond: within 1 year, measured the way 713.23(1)(e) spells out. Read that paragraph once with a highlighter in hand; the measuring point is where bond questions get tricky.

Most lien questions test whether you started the right clock, picked the right party, or remembered an exception. The examples below are ours, written to show the pattern; none is an exam question.

Which clock. A tile supplier first delivers to a house on March 3 and makes its last delivery on June 20. The notice to owner runs from the first delivery and the claim of lien from the last one. Candidates who run both from the same date lose the point.

Final furnishing. A drywall sub finishes on August 1, gets called back on September 10 to patch its own dings, and wants to count 90 days from the callback. Section 713.01 defines final furnishing as the last date the lienor furnishes labor, services, or materials, and excludes correcting deficiencies in work already performed. The certificate of occupancy doesn't move the date either.

Who must serve. A laborer and a material supplier to a subcontractor are both unpaid on the same job. The supplier needed a notice to owner; the laborer is exempt. Privity decides the answer, and the definitions in 713.01 settle who counts as what.

Weekend math. Under s.713.011, when the last day of a Part I time period lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or listed holiday, the period runs to the end of the next business day.

Tab the handful of sections that answer most questions, in statute order: 713.01 (definitions), 713.06 (notice to owner and proper payments), 713.08 (claim of lien), 713.13 (notice of commencement), 713.20 (waivers), 713.22 (duration and notice of contest), and 713.23 (payment bond). Highlight the deadline sentence inside each one so your eye lands on it after the flip.

Then drill the lookups rather than rereading the chapter. Answer lien questions against the clock, look up every miss in your own tabbed book, and track whether your time per lookup is falling. Once you can get from question to highlighted sentence in under a minute, move that study time to the accounting problems. If you're not sure where you stand on Business & Finance overall, the free readiness quiz takes a few minutes and shows which outline areas need the work.