Tag Archives: advice of counsel

QUICK NOTE: USE COUNSEL WHEN PREPARING A NOTICE OF NONPAYMENT

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If you are a subcontractor or supplier working on a private construction project, you always want to pull up the Notice of Commencement from the public records to see if there is a payment bond in place.  If there is not, you know you have to preserve your construction lien rights as to the real property (the project).  If there is, you know you will have to preserve your rights against the payment bond.

In an earlier posting, I discussed statutory changes changes to notices of nonpayment that were to take effect as of October 1, 2019.   A notice of nonpayment must be served by the unpaid claimant within 90 days of its final furnishing to preserve payment bond rights (for amounts above 10% retainage).   These changes have gone into effect and are important for a claimant to know in order to preserve rights against an unconditional payment bond issued per Florida Statute s. 713.23.   (If you are unsure about your rights relative to a payment bond, please work with counsel to ensure your rights are protected!)  The notice of nonpayment is a statutory form that will need to be notarized by the claimant.  The claimant should sign/notarize because the notice of nonpayment is reflecting amounts owed including retainage, the amount paid, and the approximate amount of money associated with to-be-performed work.

One of the recent statutory changes is that:

A claimant who serves a fraudulent notice of nonpayment forfeits his or her rights under the bond. A notice of nonpayment is fraudulent if the claimant has willfully exaggerated the amount unpaid, willfully included a claim for work not performed or materials not furnished for the subject improvement, or prepared the notice with such willful and gross negligence as to amount to a willful exaggeration.

It is uncertain how this will be applied to notices of nonpayment other than this mimics language relative to a “fraudulent lien.”  One of the defenses to a fraudulent lien is known as the advice of counsel defense.  It logically makes sense that this advice of counsel defense will also apply to the preparation of notices of nonpayment.  For this important reason, a claimant should work with counsel and have its counsel prepare the notice of nonpayment with the relevant accounting information, whether it be a payment application(s), a change order log, an accounting summary, or potential change orders and issued back-charges.  This will facilitate a discussion as to amounts to include and will support an advice of counsel defense.  No different than a lienor using a lawyer to prepare a lien (and I would encourage all lienors to utilize counsel for lien preparation), a claimant should use a lawyer to prepare a notice of nonpayment.

Please let me know if you need assistance with preserving payment bond rights

Please contact David Adelstein at dadelstein@gmail.com or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.

 

QUICK NOTE: FRAUDULENT NOTICE OF NONPAYMENT

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There is a defense to construction liens raised by owners known as the fraudulent lien defense.  A party can assert a fraudulent lien as an affirmative defense or as an affirmative claim.  This is embodied in Florida Statute s. 713.31.

Recently, with respect to payment bond claims, there is also a defense relating to a party’s fraudulent notice of nonpayment.  This fraudulent notice of nonpayment defense mimics the fraudulent lien defense and provides:

A lienor who serves a fraudulent notice of nonpayment forfeits his or her rights under the bond. A notice of nonpayment is fraudulent if the lienor has willfully exaggerated the amount unpaid, willfully included a claim for work not performed or materials not furnished for the subject improvement, or prepared the notice with such willful and gross negligence as to amount to a willful exaggeration. However, a minor mistake or error in a notice of nonpayment, or a good faith dispute as to the amount unpaid, does not constitute a willful exaggeration that operates to defeat an otherwise valid claim against the bond. The service of a fraudulent notice of nonpayment is a complete defense to the lienor’s claim against the bond.

Fla. Stat. s. 713.23(1)(d); 255.05(2)(a)(2).

It can be expected that any party required to serve a notice of nonpayment will receive as an affirmative defense to a payment bond lawsuit that the notice of nonpayment was fraudulent.  There has not been a case as of yet to apply a standard to this defense so it is presumed that the standard will be fairly consistent with the standard applied to fraudulent liens.  Nonetheless, even if the standard is challenging, this will be an expected defense where notices of nonpayment will be challenged as being fraudulent.    Also, a claimant that is not required to serve a notice of nonpayment to preserve its payment bond rights will not have to deal with this notice of nonpayment defense.

If you need to serve a notice of nonpayment to preserve payment bond rights or, alternatively, are the recipient of a notice of nonpayment, it is prudent to consult with counsel to ensure your rights are appropriately preserved and protected.   When dealing with fraudulent liens, a lienor can rely on advice of counsel if the lien is prepared by counsel.   Presumably, a claimant that serves a notice of nonpayment should be able to rely on advice of counsel too if the notice of nonpayment was prepared by counsel.

 

Please contact David Adelstein at dadelstein@gmail.com or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.