MyFloridaCode.com

[This is not legal advice and is provided for discussion and exchange of
ideas purposes only]
 
In my opinion, your customer needs to see a construction lawyer who
specializes in defending against liens. The Florida Lien law is one of
the most complicated legal messes there is and on top of that, it
changes at least slightly almost every year-- and then case law modifies
(er, interprets) the statutory changes.  I know this because this is in
my practice area even though I am not up in your part of the state.
 
If your customer does not know of such a lawyer, the Florida Bar has a
list of Board Certified Construction Lawyers on its website (
www.flabar.org) which is a good place to  start looking.  Normally,
$42,000 falls into what we call the litigation hell of enough money lost
to hurt but not enough to be cost-effective to litigate over. However,
because the lien law has a number of provisions that provide for
attorneys fees, the inability of unlicensed contractors (and designers)
to charge and keep moneys from their work (subs below are sometimes
protected), it makes sense to your customer to buy a couple hours of the
right lawyer's time for the lawyer to construct a timeline of events and
do an analysis of what kind of position your customer is in and what her
options may be.
 
Hope this was a little bit helpful.
 
Good luck (to your customer) and best regards,
 
Robert
 
Robert S. Fine, Esq., AIA
Environmental, Land Development, Accessibility,
Building and Life Safety Codes Law
Board Certified in Construction Law
Greenberg Traurig, PA
1221 Brickell Avenue
Miami, Florida 33131
Tel: (305) 579-0826
Fax:(305) 961-5826
E-Mail:  FineR at gtlaw.com

________________________________

From: codetalk-bounces at myfloridacode.com
[mailto:codetalk-bounces at myfloridacode.com] On Behalf Of Dave Mahoney
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:39 PM
To: codetalk at myfloridacode.com
Subject: [Florida Code Talk] Liesn/ Notice of commencement/



I have a question that I know someone can answer for me. I did take the
class on Florida Lien Laws but that was a couple of years ago and I
cannot remember everything so before I begin to research this I am sure
one of you Ladies or Gentleman may have a better memory than me. 

 

 Here is the Scenario

 

Just recently I have started doing many different jobs for a wonderful
customer. Before I Started working for her  she hired a Design Company
to remodel 2 of her bathrooms for a job total of $ 42,000.00. I've seen
the work that they had done and the job came out really nice. Here is
her problem. She told me today that she had paid the design company in
full on May 15th when the job was completed. She received a phone call
today from one of the sub contractors that said that they were not paid.
First I looked at her invoice and did not see a license number. A red
Flag went up. I asked her if she had paid each different Contractor
separately. She did not. Apparently the design 

Company is acting as a contractor. Red flag came up again. I asked her
if there was a permit pulled. Her answer was no I didn't want my taxes
to go up. My next question was did you sign a notice of commencement. No
she did not. I KNOW STUPID, STUPID, STUPID that is why she should hire a
contractor. I then asked if she had received any registered letters from
suppliers or Sub contractors introducing themselves before they had
started any work . The 3 Ways I know are registered letter , A letter
handed to her, or a letter posted at the job. She told me that yes she
did receive 2 registered letters at first but they were only from 2 of
the subs out of approximately 5. My question is this. What exactly has
this woman gotten herself into? I would hate to see her have to pay for
this again. I would also hate to see the subs not get paid. Should she
see a lawyer? Can a Designer act as a contractor? How can people educate
themselves to hire a contractor?

 

 

 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tax Advice Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS under Circular 230, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments), unless otherwise specifically stated, was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (1) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (2) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any matters addressed herein.
 
    The information contained in this transmission may contain privileged and confidential information. It is intended only for the use of the person(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or duplication of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. To reply to our email administrator directly, please send an email to mailto:postmaster at gtlaw.com.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

http://www.gtlaw.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://myfloridacode.com/pipermail/codetalk/attachments/20090819/0df101f9/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 30102 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
Url : http://myfloridacode.com/pipermail/codetalk/attachments/20090819/0df101f9/attachment.jpe