Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>I have multiple lanes in place on some Burger King’s in Florida and I received a notice from Celine’s this morning that my deadline was only one days and it look like they were bonding around the liens is that possible ????I just want to make sure that I’m still covered and that I don’t need to do something else.
I have multiple lanes in place on some Burger King’s in Florida and I received a notice from Celine’s this morning that my deadline was only one days and it look like they were bonding around the liens is that possible ????I just want to make sure that I’m still covered and that I don’t need to do something else.
I just want to make sure that I’m still covered and that I don’t need to do something else. I want to make sure that the lien stays intact and also find out how long I have to file a lawsuit before I lose my rights ?
1 reply
May 7, 2018
That's a good question. First, I'll reference Florida's applicable lien deadlines. First, the deadline to file a lien is 90 days from a claimant's last furnishing. Next, once a lien is filed and in place, a claimant will face another deadline - a deadline to "enforce" or "foreclose" their lien. A Florida mechanics lien must be enforced within 1 year of the time that the lien claim was filed. Granted the timeframe may be shortened if the owner files a Notice of Contest of Lien (shortens enforcement deadline to 60 days), or if a summons and complaint to show cause is filed and served (shortens enforcement deadline to a mere 20 days). If a filed mechanics lien is not enforced prior to the lien's enforcement deadline, it will no longer remain valid and enforceable. Regarding lien being bonded off, having a lien bonded off is not necessarily a bad thing, and it won't negate the ability to recover. But it will introduce some extra requirements. In Florida, when a lien is bonded off, notice is sent to the lien claimant. A claimant must then commence a new proceeding against the bond within the same time frame that the lien had to be enforced - within 1 year of filing the mechanics lien claim (unless that time frame has been shortened as mentioned earlier in this answer). Regardless - to enforce a lien claim or to enforce a claim against a bond that has replaced the filed lien, a claimant will very likely want to hire a local construction or real estate attorney. Either enforcement action will require a court filing, and as we discuss in the following article, representing yourself isn't a great idea (if it's even allowed at all): Do You Need an Attorney to Foreclose on a Mechanics Lien?