A materialman or laborer, either of whom is in privity with the owner, or a contractor who complies with the provisions of this part shall, subject to the limitations thereof, have a lien on the real property improved for any money that is owed to him or her for labor, services, materials, or other items required by, or furnished in accordance with, the direct contract and for unpaid finance charges due under the lienor’s contract. A materialman or laborer, in privity with the owner, or a contractor shall also have a lien on the owner’s real property for any money that is owed to him or her for labor, services, or materials furnished to improve public property if the improvements to the public property are a condition of the permit to improve the owner’s real property. No lien under this section shall be acquired until a claim of lien is recorded. A lienor who, as a subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, laborer, or materialman not in privity with the owner, commences to furnish labor, services, or material to an improvement and who thereafter becomes in privity with the owner shall have a lien for any money that is owed to him or her for the labor, services, or materials furnished after he or she becomes in privity with the owner. A lienor may record one claim of lien to cover both his or her work done in privity with the owner and not in privity with the owner. No lienor under this section shall be required to serve a notice to owner as provided in s. 713.06(2). A lienor, except a laborer or materialman, who is in privity with the owner and claims a lien under this section shall furnish the contractor’s affidavit required in s. 713.06(3)(d). A contractor may claim a lien for any labor, services, or materials furnished by another lienor for which he or she is obligated to pay the lienor, regardless of the right of the lienor to claim a lien; but, if the lienor claims a valid lien, the contractor shall not recover the amount of the lien recovered by the lienor, and the amount of the contractor’s claim of lien may be reduced accordingly by court order. No person shall have a lien under this section except those lienors specified in it, as their designations are defined in s. 713.01.
Fla. Stat. § 713.05
Liens of persons in privity
Known as the Construction Lien Law
The act spans §§ 713.001 to 713.37 (46 sections).
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Skinner Logsdon Construction & Equipment, Inc. v. First United Church of Jesus Christ (1991)
Most recently applied in Grant v. Davis (In Re CJW Ltd.) (September 1994)
History.--s. 1, ch. 63-135; s. 3, ch. 65-456; s. 2, ch. 67-210; s. 35, ch. 67-254; s. 4, ch. 77-353; s. 3, ch. 80-97; s. 1, ch. 96-383; s. 1763, ch. 97-102
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Florida statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.