1. Mechanic’s Liens

Florida statutes provide that the following persons are entitled to have liens on real property: a contractor; a subcontractor; a sub-subcontractor; a laborer; a materialman who contracts with the owner; and a professional lienor such as an architect, interior designer, engineer or surveyor and mapper.

If the lienor does not get paid for the work performed or materials supplied to the real property, he or she may file a claim of lien at any time during the progress of the work, but no later than 90 days after performing the improvements to the real property. The lienor may then have to file an action to foreclose the lien and look toward the sale of the real property to satisfy his or her claim.

A lienor who willfully exaggerates the amount for which the lien was claimed, or willfully and/or with gross negligence, included claims for work not performed, or is not a good faith dispute as to the amount or method of compensation, may be found to have filed a fraudulent lien. The finding of a fraudulent lien can lead to liability for limited punitive damages as well as payment of attorneys fees and cost. Therefore, one must be very careful in calculating and asserting a claim of lien.

In addition, there are also a multitude of services performed by companies that are not necessarily improvements to real property, and therefore do not fall under Florida Mechanics Lien Law. A contractor or company who performs services or sells goods to another is still afforded a legal right to payment for those good and services, even in the absence of an express written contract.

2. Unlicensed Contractors

Florida law states that contracts made by unlicensed contractors to be unenforceable. In any action filed against a contractor for injuries sustained from the contractor’s negligence, malfeasance or misfeasance, the consumer is entitled to three time the actual compensatory damages sustained in addition to attorney’s fees if the contractor is neither certified as a contractor by the state nor licensed as a contractor pursuant to the laws of the municipality or county within which he or she is conducted business.