Legal Question in Construction Law in Florida

The good thing in your favor is the Statute of Frauds state home improvement contracts must be in writing. So if you did not authorize them to proceed and they began without your permission, under this senario you have a good reason not to pay. The down side is; 1. an case can be made that you received services and goods with out paying; but, this will be a difficult argument for the contractor to make if you did not have a contract and did not authorize them to proceed. Also, this does not stop a contractor from filing a lien against your property. Because a contractor files a lien, it does not mean it is a valid lien. It does cloud your title until it is removed. There are different ways to have a lien removed once it is filed, but the most common involve either the person whom filed the lien to file a satisfaction of lien or a petition being filed with the court to have the lien removed.

Because the process of filing a lien is not a lawsuit against you, you cannot counter sue this action. If a lien is wrongly filed against you, in most cases you can have your attorney fees paid by the lienor if you need to file a petition to have the lien removed. Liens are only good for 1 year in FL and there are ways to shorten that time frame, but they are not automatically removed from the title on your property.

Hopefully this helps, but if you find yourself in the need of legal assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.