Notice of Commencement Template: How to File a Notice of Commencement

A notice of commencement is one of those construction documents nobody thinks about until a payment dispute forces them to. It is a short, formal filing that a property owner records at the start of a construction project. It names everyone involved, describes the property, and sets the clock running on lien rights for every contractor, subcontractor, and supplier on the job.

Miss it or fill it out wrong, and the consequences land on the owner: inspections get held up, and payments made too early can leave you paying for the same work twice. This guide covers what the document does, who files it, what belongs in it, and the state rules that trip people up.

What Is a Notice of Commencement?

A notice of commencement is a recorded document that announces the legal start of a construction project. The property owner signs it, usually has it notarized, and files it with the county recorder or clerk in the county where the property is located. Many states also require a copy to be posted at the job site.

Think of it as the opening entry in the public record for a project. It tells anyone who checks the title, a lender, a title company, or a subcontractor deciding whether to take the work, that construction is underway and who the key players are. It also fixes the date that lien priority is measured from, which becomes critical if the money runs out before the job is done.

The document is closely tied to mechanics lien rules. A mechanics lien lets an unpaid contractor put a claim against the property itself. The notice of commencement is what opens that window in the states that use it, so the two documents work as a pair.

Which States Require a Notice of Commencement?

This is not a nationwide requirement. Only a handful of states build their lien system around it, and each defines it differently.

• Florida has the most demanding rules. Under Florida Statute 713.13, an owner must record a notice of commencement before, or shortly after, work begins on most projects over $2,500, and the building department can refuse to schedule the first inspection until it is recorded and posted at the site.
• Ohio uses a notice of commencement under Revised Code 1311.04 for many commercial projects. It has to be posted on the site and given to subcontractors on request.
• Georgia treats the notice of commencement as optional but consequential. Filing one shortens the window subcontractors have to send their own preliminary notices.
• Iowa and a few others use similar mechanisms under different names.

If your project sits in a state that does not use this document, do not assume lien rights are automatic. Most of those states protect subcontractors through a preliminary notice or a notice to owner instead. The rule that matters is the one for the state where the dirt is, not where your company is registered.

What Information Goes in a Notice of Commencement?

The exact fields come from your state statute, and county recorders reject forms that leave required items blank. A standard notice of commencement includes:

• Legal description of the property. Not just the street address. Use the description from the deed or tax records, including lot and block or the metes-and-bounds language.
• Property address and tax parcel number, so the filing can be matched to the right property.
• Owner information: full legal name, address, and interest in the property (fee simple owner, leaseholder, and so on).
• General contractor's name and address. The primary contractor performing or coordinating the work.
• Surety information, if a payment bond covers the project, including the bond amount and the surety's contact details.
• Lender information, if construction is financed, so draw requests can be verified.
• A designated person for service of documents. Someone the owner names to receive notices and other papers, which keeps the paperwork from getting lost.
• Expiration date, if you want something other than the statutory default.

The signature block usually has to be notarized. In Florida the form also needs specific statutory warning language, and leaving it off can make the notice defective even if every other field is correct.

How to File a Notice of Commencement: Step by Step

Step 1: Confirm your state requires one and pull the right form. Search the county recorder's site for the current template. Statutory language changes, and an outdated form can be rejected or, worse, accepted but unenforceable.

Step 2: Gather the project details. You need the legal description from the deed, the general contractor's information, and lender or surety details if either applies. Getting the legal description wrong is the single most common reason a notice fails to protect the property it names.

Step 3: Fill out every required field. Blank fields on a statutory form are not optional. If a section does not apply, such as the surety block on an unbonded job, write "N/A" rather than leaving it empty.

Step 4: Sign and notarize. The owner signs in front of a notary. If a company owns the property, the person signing must have authority to bind the entity.

Step 5: Record it with the county. File the original with the recorder or clerk in the county where the property sits and pay the recording fee. Timing matters. In Florida, recording before the first inspection is effectively mandatory.

Step 6: Post a certified copy at the job site. Several states require the recorded notice to be posted where work is happening. Keep a copy in your project file too.

Step 7: Amend it if the project changes. If the contractor changes, financing changes, or the job runs past the expiration date, record an amended notice so the public record stays accurate.

How It Connects to the Rest of Your Construction Paperwork

A notice of commencement does not stand alone. It anchors a small stack of documents that govern who gets paid and in what order.

Your construction contract sets the scope, price, and schedule between the owner and the general contractor. The notice of commencement then opens the lien window that backs up those payment terms. As work proceeds and each contractor gets paid, they sign a lien waiver giving up their right to lien for the amount received. If the scope shifts mid-project, a change order records the adjustment so nobody argues about it later.

On residential jobs the notice of commencement often sits alongside a home improvement contract, which carries its own disclosures and cancellation rights. Together these documents form the paper trail that keeps a project from turning into a lien fight.

Notice of Commencement vs. Notice to Owner

These two documents get confused constantly, partly because both mention lien rights and both circulate at the front end of a project. They serve opposite roles.

The notice of commencement is filed by the owner. It is a broadcast to the world: here is the project, here is who is building it, and here is when the lien window opens. Everyone downstream relies on it.

A notice to owner, sometimes called a preliminary notice or a 20-day notice depending on the state, moves in the other direction. It is sent by a subcontractor or supplier who has no direct contract with the owner. Because the owner may not even know a particular sub is on the job, the sub sends this notice to say, in effect, "I am furnishing labor or materials, and if I am not paid I intend to lien the property." In many states, a sub who never sends the notice to owner loses lien rights entirely, no matter how much they are owed.

The connection between the two is practical. Subcontractors and suppliers pull the recorded notice of commencement to find the owner's name, address, and designated contact, then use those details to serve their own notice to owner. A missing or vague notice of commencement makes that harder for everyone, which is one more reason to get it right the first time.

What Happens After You Record It

Recording is not the finish line. Once the notice of commencement is on file, a few things follow.

Subcontractors and suppliers begin sending their preliminary notices, and those start landing at the address you listed. The designated person for service exists precisely so those documents reach someone who will act on them rather than disappearing into a general mailbox. If you named yourself and then go quiet for a month, you can miss a notice that mattered.

Lenders and title companies check the record before releasing funds. On a financed build, the loan draws often depend on the notice being recorded and the title staying clean. A defective or late notice can freeze a draw at the worst possible time, mid-framing, when the crew still expects to be paid.

Finally, the clock is now running. In Florida the notice is good for one year unless you wrote a different date into it, and work has to begin within 90 days or the notice is void. On a long project, put the expiration date on your calendar the day you record, so an amended notice goes in before there is any gap in coverage.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using the street address instead of the legal description. A notice tied to the wrong or incomplete property description may not protect the property at all. Copy the description straight from the deed.

Recording it too late. In Florida a notice recorded after the first inspection, or after payments have already gone out, leaves a gap. Payments made before a valid notice is recorded can be treated as improper, and the owner can end up paying twice.

Letting it expire mid-project. A notice that lapses one year in, on an eighteen-month build, leaves a stretch of work unprotected. Track the expiration and file an amendment before it hits.

Skipping the notarization or statutory warning. A technically defective notice can be as useless as no notice at all. Follow the form language exactly.

Assuming one filing covers multiple properties. Each parcel generally needs its own notice. A single filing does not stretch across separate lots.

Forgetting to post it on site. Recording and posting are separate requirements in states like Florida and Ohio. Doing one and skipping the other leaves you exposed.

When You Need a Notice of Commencement

You should record one whenever your state requires it and you are the owner starting a construction or improvement project above the statutory threshold. In practice that means:

• New construction of a home or commercial building
• Major renovations that require a permit and exceed your state's dollar floor
• Owner-financed projects where the lender wants proof of recording before the first draw
• Any bonded job where the surety details need to be on the public record

For small repairs under the threshold, or in a state that does not use this document, you likely do not need one. When in doubt, the county recorder or a construction attorney can confirm the threshold for your project.

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Generate Your Notice of Commencement with Contractable

A notice of commencement is short, but the fields are unforgiving: the legal description, the statutory language, and the recording deadline all have to be right, or the document does not do its job. Contractable builds a clean, state-aware notice of commencement from a few details about your project, so you can record it with confidence and keep your lien rights intact. No legal background required.