Florida Payment Bond Claim — The Notice of Nonpayment Is Sworn, Has a Floor as Well as a Ceiling, and Forfeits the Claim If the Number Is Wrong (Fla. Stat. § 255.05, 2026)
✓ Verified against Florida statutes · Reviewed September 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Florida mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
45 days — Notice to Owner (NTO)
Mechanics Lien
90 days — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
1 year — From filing
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On Florida Public Work the Bond Is Recorded, and That Helps
A Florida subcontractor arriving at a county courthouse or a school district job carries instincts built on private work: the Notice to Owner under Chapter 713, the claim of lien recorded within 90 days, the cloud on title that makes a lender ask questions. None of that applies. Public property in Florida is not subject to a Chapter 713 mechanics lien, and there is no title to cloud. What exists instead is a bond. Section 255.05 requires a person entering into a formal contract for the construction of a public building or public work to execute and record a payment and performance bond, and § 255.05(1)(d) sets the exemptions: a state contract for $100,000 or less is exempt, and a local public entity may exempt a contract for $200,000 or less . That second threshold is discretionary, which means a mid-size municipal contract may or may not carry a bond depending on what the entity decided at award. The word doing quiet work in the statute is recorded . Section 255.05(1)(a) requires the bond to be recorded in the public records of the county where the improvement is located. Most states leave a lower-tier claimant asking a prime contractor it has never met for a copy of a bond the prime has no incentive to produce. In Florida the surety’s identity and the bond’s terms sit in the county record, obtainable without anyone’s cooperation. Pulling that certified copy in week one…
When a Bond Exists, and When There Is Nothing to Claim Against
The local-entity row is the one that catches people. A $150,000 job for a small city sits inside the range a public entity is permitted to exempt, so two apparently identical municipal contracts in neighboring counties can carry different answers. Because the bond is recorded when it exists, the county record also resolves the negative case: a search that turns up nothing is meaningful information, and it is better learned in week one than in month five after two notices have been perfected against a bond that was never issued.
Two Notices, Not One
Florida splits the bond claim into two documents served at different points in the job, and the first one is due while the work is still going well. The first notice is a mobilization document. It is served when nothing has gone wrong, which is exactly why it gets skipped — there is no dispute to prompt it, only a date. A claimant that waits for a payment problem to start researching its rights will find the 45-day window closed before the first invoice ever went late. The second notice has a shape most states do not use. It carries a floor as well as a ceiling. Contractors trained on outer-limit deadlines treat early service as free insurance; in Florida a notice of nonpayment served on day 20 of the job falls outside the window the statute describes, and earliness does not cure it. The first month and a half of a Florida public job is a period for the notice to contractor and nothing else.
Every § 255.05 Deadline in One Table
The Mechanics Lien Management State System runs the notice-to-contractor window and both ends of the notice-of-nonpayment window from the project record, and carries the federal Miller Act track alongside them for crews running military, VA, and federal courthouse work in the same year. The underlying text sits at Florida lien statutes , with the private-work calculator on the Florida mechanics lien hub . The last two rows are a different statute entirely. Federal funding does not make a job federal — what matters is who signed the prime contract. A Florida Department of Transportation project built with federal highway dollars is § 255.05 work. A project let by the Army Corps of Engineers, the VA, or GSA is Miller Act work under 40 U.S.C. § 3133, where a second-tier claimant has 90 days from last furnishing and suit lies no sooner than 90 days and no later than one year after last furnishing, in federal district court.
The Sworn Number Is the Risk
Most states let a claimant state a balance in an ordinary letter. Florida requires an oath, and then attaches a penalty to it that is disproportionate to the ordinary instinct behind an inflated demand. Read that against how a contested balance normally gets stated. The standard approach to a disputed change order is to include it, state the number high, and leave room to negotiate down. Applied to a sworn notice of nonpayment, that approach puts the entire claim on the table to win an argument about part of it. The surety reads the notice with counsel and compares it to the pay applications, and the gap between the sworn figure and the documented one is the first thing it looks for. The disciplined version is not complicated. Swear to the undisputed balance. Allow the credits and payments already known. Identify contested extras as contested rather than folding them into the sworn total, and pursue them through the contract’s claims process rather than through the bond notice. A claimant that overstates by twenty percent for leverage is risking one hundred percent of the claim to gain it — and unlike a missed deadline, this is a failure the claimant creates on purpose.
Generate the Florida Notices From One Project Record
Florida Bond Claim & Notice Generator Produce the § 255.05(2)(a)2 notice to contractor inside the 45-day mobilization window, and the sworn notice of nonpayment for service on the contractor and the surety — from one project record, with the 45-day floor, the 90-day ceiling, and the § 255.05(10) one-year suit date tracked from your own last furnishing. Pair it with the property search tool to locate the recorded bond and confirm the contracting entity, the bond claim hub for how Florida compares to the other Little Miller Act states, mechanics lien vs. bond claim for choosing the right remedy before the clocks start, and the mechanics lien deadlines by state pillar for crews running both public and private work. When a surety disputes the sworn figure or denies the claim, connect with a Florida construction attorney through the Mechanics Lien Management network.
Run Both Florida Notice Windows Automatically
The Mechanics Lien Management lien generator produces the 45-day notice to contractor and the sworn notice of nonpayment from one project record, and the Mechanics Lien Management deadline calculator tracks the 45-day floor, the 90-day ceiling, and the one-year suit date. Miss the deadline and you lose your bond rights entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you file a mechanics lien on a public project in Florida?
No. Public property in Florida is not subject to a Chapter 713 mechanics lien, which is why Fla. Stat. § 255.05 exists. The statute requires a person entering into a formal contract for the construction of a public building or public work to execute and record a payment and performance bond, and that bond takes the place of the lien. An unpaid subcontractor or supplier on a Florida public job has a claim against the contractor and its surety rather than against the building. Section 255.05(1)(d) exempts a state contract for $100,000 or less, and permits a local public entity to exempt a contract for $200,000 or less, so a smaller public job may carry no bond at all.
How many notices does a Florida payment bond claim require?
Two, and they are separate documents with separate deadlines. A claimant who is not in privity with the contractor must first serve the contractor with a written notice that the claimant intends to look to the bond for protection, either before commencing or not later than 45 days after commencing to furnish labor, services, or materials. The claimant must then serve a notice of nonpayment on the contractor, with a copy on the surety. Sending only the notice of nonpayment is the most common way a Florida bond claim fails, because the first notice is a condition of the claim and its window closes 45 days into the job.
What is the deadline for a Florida notice of nonpayment?
It has both a floor and a ceiling. Under § 255.05(2)(a)2 the notice of nonpayment may be served during the progress of the work or thereafter, but it may not be served earlier than 45 days after the claimant's first furnishing of labor, services, or materials, and no later than 90 days after the final furnishing. Most states impose only an outer limit, so the floor is the provision that surprises people. A claimant who serves a notice of nonpayment three weeks into the job has served it outside the statutory window, and an early notice is not made valid by being early.
Does a Florida notice of nonpayment have to be under oath?
Yes. Section 255.05(2)(a)2 requires that the notice of nonpayment be under oath, which makes it a sworn document rather than a demand letter. The practical consequence is that the amount stated is a sworn number. A contractor's standard collections letter, an emailed statement of account, or a past-due invoice forwarded to the surety does not satisfy the statute no matter how clearly it states the balance. The notice must be served on the contractor, with a copy of the notice of nonpayment served on the surety.
What happens if a Florida notice of nonpayment overstates the amount owed?
The claimant can lose the bond claim entirely. Section 255.05(2)(a)2 provides that a claimant who serves a fraudulent notice of nonpayment forfeits his or her rights under the bond. A notice is fraudulent where the claimant willfully exaggerated the amount unpaid, or willfully included a claim for work not performed or materials not furnished. This is why rounding a disputed change order into the sworn figure is a different order of risk in Florida than in states where the notice is unsworn. The safer practice is to state the undisputed balance and address contested extras separately.
How long does a Florida claimant have to sue on the payment bond?
Section 255.05(10) requires that an action be instituted against the contractor or the surety on the payment bond within 1 year after the performance of the labor or completion of delivery of the materials or supplies. The trigger is the claimant's own work rather than completion or acceptance of the public improvement, which means a Florida claimant can calendar the suit deadline from its own job records on the day it demobilizes. An action for recovery of retainage is carved out of the general rule and carries its own timing conditions.
How do you get a copy of the payment bond on a Florida public job?
From the county, not from the contractor. Section 255.05(1)(a) requires the bond to be executed and recorded in the public records of the county where the improvement is located. That makes Florida unusual and it is a genuine advantage for claimants: the surety's identity and the bond's terms are a matter of public record, so a claimant can obtain a certified copy without depending on a prime contractor who has already stopped returning calls. Pulling the recorded bond early gives the claimant the surety's name and address, which is the information the notice of nonpayment must reach.