Notice of Termination of Notice of Commencement: Filing and Recording

To file a Notice of Termination of a Notice of Commencement in Florida, you prepare a sworn notice that repeats the original filing’s key information, attach your contractor’s final payment affidavit, serve a copy on every known lienor before recording, and then record the document with the county clerk where the property sits. The termination date you write into the notice has to be at least 30 days after the recording date, so the filing does not cut off lien rights immediately.

The framework below comes from Section 713.132 of Florida’s construction lien law. Other states handle expired or completed construction notices differently, and many do not use a formal termination document at all. If your property is outside Florida, confirm the local procedure with your county recorder or a construction attorney before relying on these steps.

When Filing Makes Sense

A Notice of Commencement is typically effective for one year after recording unless you wrote a different duration on the original form.¹ If your project finished in five months, the remaining seven months still leave the door open for subcontractors or suppliers to record liens tied to that project. A Notice of Termination closes that window early.

The second common trigger is a sale or refinance. An open Notice of Commencement appears as a title exception, and most lenders will not close until the notice is either expired or terminated. The third is a contractor change: when a job stalls and you need to bring in a replacement under a new Notice of Commencement, the original one has to come off first.

What the Notice Must Contain

The termination has to repeat the core identifying information from your original Notice of Commencement: the property owner’s name, the contractor’s name and address, and the legal description of the property.¹ Pull the legal description from your deed rather than using the street address, because the recording office matches the termination to the original filing on that basis.

Beyond the identifying information, the notice has to include:

The official records reference numbers and recording date the county placed on the original Notice of Commencement. Counties use either a book and page number or an instrument number; copy whatever the recorded document shows.¹
A specific termination date, which cannot be earlier than 30 days after you record the notice.¹
A statement describing whether the termination covers all of the property in the original notice or only part of it.
A statement that all lienors have been paid in full.
A statement that you have served the notice on every lienor with a direct contract with you or who served a Notice to Owner before recording, and that you will serve any lienor who serves a Notice to Owner afterward.

You sign and swear to the notice before a notary. Many county clerks post an official form on their website or keep paper copies at the recorder’s counter.

The Contractor’s Final Payment Affidavit

You cannot record the Notice of Termination without attaching the contractor’s final payment affidavit. The affidavit is a sworn statement from your general contractor confirming that every subcontractor and supplier who served a Notice to Owner has been paid in full, or listing by name each unpaid lienor and the amount still owed.² A fraudulent affidavit exposes both the owner and the contractor to liability for damages a lienor suffers as a result.³

You are entitled to rely on the contractor’s affidavit for payment purposes, with one important carve-out: you cannot rely on it with respect to any lienor who has already served you a Notice to Owner. For those parties, you have direct notice and a separate obligation to confirm payment yourself before recording the termination.¹ That is where most problems come up in practice. If a subcontractor sent you a Notice to Owner six months back and your contractor swears everyone is paid, but that subcontractor was not, the termination is vulnerable to challenge.

Serve Lienors Before You Record

The sequence matters. You must serve a copy of the Notice of Termination on all known lienors before you record it.³ Known lienors are anyone with a direct contract with you and anyone who served a Notice to Owner before you record. The notice itself has to contain a sworn statement that you have already completed this service.

The one exception is a lienor who has already signed a waiver and release of lien upon final payment; you do not need to serve that party.¹ For everyone else, serve first and record second. The statute does not require a specific delivery method, but using one that generates proof of receipt protects you if the termination is later challenged.

A second service obligation starts after recording. If a lienor who worked under the original Notice of Commencement serves a Notice to Owner after your termination is recorded, you have to serve that lienor a copy of the recorded Notice of Termination. The termination does not take effect against that lienor until 30 days after you serve them.³

Recording the Notice

Once you have served the known lienors and have the signed, notarized notice together with the contractor’s affidavit, take the package to the recorder’s office or clerk of court in the county where the property is located. Many counties accept electronic filings.

Check that the recording reference numbers on your Notice of Termination match the numbers on the original Notice of Commencement exactly. A mismatch can stop the recording office from linking the two documents, which defeats the point of the filing. If you do not have the numbers handy, look up the original Notice of Commencement in the county’s official records before you prepare the termination.

The 30-Day Effective Date

Recording does not end lien rights the same day. The termination date you state in the notice has to fall at least 30 days after the recording date.¹ That window gives subcontractors and suppliers a final chance to record any lien claims they have been preparing. Without it, an owner could record a termination and immediately cut off a lienor who was days from filing.

The upside for owners is that lien deadlines accelerate sharply. Instead of running from the Notice of Commencement’s natural expiration date, which could be months away, the window compresses to 30 days from the recording of the termination.

Partial Terminations

The termination does not have to cover the entire property described in the original Notice of Commencement. You can terminate the notice for a specific portion while leaving it active elsewhere.¹ This matters for phased developments where one building or section is complete and ready for sale while construction continues on the same parcel. The notice has to clearly describe the portion being terminated, and the payment and service requirements still apply to every lienor who worked on that portion.

Fraud and Liability

False statements in the notice or the attached affidavit are not just a paperwork problem. An owner or contractor who knowingly makes a fraudulent statement in either document is personally liable for the damages a lienor suffers because of that filing.³ A lienor whose rights were cut off by a termination built on a false payment affidavit has a direct cause of action against the owner, the contractor, or both. Because the document is sworn, false statements also carry the general legal risks that come with lying under oath.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 713.132 – Notice of Termination
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 713.06 – Liens; Extent of Lien and Manner of Perfecting
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 713.132 – Notice of Termination