Notice of Commencement NOC

What it records and when.

Section 713.13 of the Florida Statutes requires an owner to record a notice of commencement before beginning an improvement and to post a certified copy at the job site. The notice carries a description of the property, the owner, the contractor, the surety and the lender, and it states its own expiration date; without one, it expires a year after recording. Subcontractors and suppliers use it to know whom to serve with their notices, and the recorded copy is what a title agent and a construction lender look for first.

Mortgage first.

Under Florida's priority rule, construction liens attach as of the recording of the notice of commencement, so a notice recorded before the lender's mortgage puts every contractor's lien ahead of the lender's lien. Construction lenders in Florida record the mortgage first and the notice of commencement second, and the first draw inspection often confirms the posted notice and the permit before any money moves. The order is a detail with a mortgage-sized consequence.

Where the draw inspection fits.

A first-stage inspection on a Florida job records what is on the site before the pad is poured: the permit board, the posted notice of commencement, erosion control, the cleared pad. A photo of the posted notice, with its recording date, is a small item on the report and a large one in the file if a lien dispute comes later. The Draw Inspection Field Guide lists it under stage 1.

Outside Florida.

Several other states use a similar recorded notice under their own lien laws, and the details differ: who records it, what it must contain, how long it lasts. The lien law of the state where the property sits controls, so a lender working across states keeps a checklist per state rather than one form. Cornell's Legal Information Institute has a plain-language overview of construction liens, and What is a lien waiver and when is it required for a draw? covers the waivers collected as the job pays out.