How to Overcome Coronavirus Florida Lien Rights Challenges

COVID-19 is shutting down county recording offices throughout Florida, so how do you protect lien rights to get paid on construction projects?

Join this webinar to learn:

• Why timing is particularly sensitive with lien rights
• What unexpected challenges county office closures cause
• How to overcome these challenges and get paid

Full Transcript 

Seth:
Hello everyone, this is Seth bloom. I’m the senior director of attorney services at level set and I’m happy to be with you today and have another great webinar scheduled for us. Today we have Reese Henderson who will be speaking from Jacksonville, Florida. He’s a partner at Gray Robinson and they practice all over the state of Florida, including some parts of Georgia. So Reese, I’ll turn it over to you and I look forward to you having a great webinar today.

Reese:
Thanks. Thanks Seth. Appreciate that. And good afternoon everybody since it’s now noon and I’m going to go ahead and share my screen so that you guys can see the see that the presentation is Seth said I’m a construction attorney here in Jacksonville been board certified since 2006 in construction law. And I’m part of a firm Gray Robinson. We have offices throughout the state of Florida and I’m also admitted in Georgia. I’m very familiar with filing claims of lien and litigating those claims of lien in Florida and also in Georgia. And so there’s some nuances in and in today’s seminar is not about Georgia law. But you know, today’s seminar is also not a basic lien law seminar that we will cover some of the basics just so that you have some context for when I get into the problems with perfecting your lien rights, given the COVID 19 a situation that everybody’s dealing with.

Reese:
And of course, because of COVID 19, you’re seeing me from my home office. This isn’t the office I’m normally working out of. So that’s why if the lighting is a little off you know, I apologize. But so what we’re going to cover today is you know, as, as you probably anybody who’s ever had to file a lien in any state knows there are strict time deadlines that apply. And that’s also true in Florida. And but because of the closures of some offices in Florida, because of the, the pandemic and because of the stay at home orders that have been issued, and several of the clerk’s offices throughout the state have a actually closed. So that creates some unique challenges. So we’re going to talk about that a little bit and and what you can do to go ahead and get your liens recorded, not withstanding that because that if you don’t get your lien recorded timely, then you quickly lose your lien rights.

Reese:
And in Florida, as in many other States, your lien rights are your best Avenue for recovery because at the end of the day, if you are a subcontractor or your material supplier and you’re looking to your customer to pay, many times they don’t have the wherewithal to pay if they’re not paid by their customers. So your lien puts you in line to get paid directly by the owner and that that’s a position that you want to be in because nine times out of 10, it’s the owner who has the money. So so what we’ll do just some basic overview of floater construction, lien law and, and just so that you have some context for the different deadlines that apply in the actions you have to take. So we’re going to cover who can lien what you can lien for, a what notices are required to protect your lien rights.

Reese:
And then finally, when can you file your lien? So let’s cover some of those basics with a, first of all who can lien? Well, a general contractor that or in fact anybody who has a direct contract with the owner has the right to file lien under chapter 713 and the Florida statutes. So a licensed general contractor. It could also be a material supplier if the owner buys materials direct, which sometimes happens on projects, the owner wants to save the contractors markup on tile for example. So they’ll buy the tile directly from the tile distributor. So if that’s the case and uthe distributor delivers the tile and credit and the owner doesn’t pay, then the tile distributor can have a lien,uas a direct privity, a lien or with the owner. Unext in line, our subcontractors, these are people who don’t have a direct contract with the owner, better have a contract with the general contractor who has a contract with the owner.

Reese:
Below that tier you have sub sub contractors and then below that tier you have a material or equipment supplier to any of any of the other parties at any tier. So what this means in, in, in very simple terms is that if you are a sub sub sub contractor, you do not have any rights. In Florida. If you’re a material supplier to a sub sub subcontractor, you do not have lien rights. In Florida, the material person to the subcontractor is, is as far down as it goes. So you need to, if you’re thinking about filing lien, you need to look at how many tiers are between you and the owner because depending on what tier you are, you may or may not have lien rights. So that’s covers the waterfront of who has lien rights. Now, what can you leave for in Florida, the key standard is that it has to be labor services or materials that are actually incorporated into the, into the project.

Reese:
Now there are exceptions for especially fabricated materials and things of that nature and for materials that are stored that you know, and that sort of thing. But but by and large, you’re talking about materials that have actually been incorporated into the project. So you can incorporate for those labor services and materials. You can, you can lien for equipment rental. If your equipment rental company, you can lien for construction management. If you’re overseeing the construction and you’re in your daily ops or observing the work that’s ongoing, that that is a legal service. Now, what can you not lien for? Again, this is just a very quick overview, but one of the common things that we do see problems with are people wanting to lien for things like delay damages or lost profits. That is not something, a delay. Damages are not for an improvement to real property. They do not improve the, it’s not, it’s not services that you provided that improve the property. It’s simply damages that, that are out of your pocket that that’s not something you can lien for. So before I continue to I want to stop there and just give Seth an opportunity is deceived. We have any questions so far. Okay.

Seth:
We don’t have any questions so far, but it’s a good point to stop right now and ask and encourage people if they do have any questions while you have received her. Find Florida attorney board certified in construction. Maybe Reese. The one thing I was thinking of is, you know, as I work with construction lawyers all across the country you do have board certification in Florida and you don’t necessarily have to have it to practice construction law. So maybe you could kind of give us a little bit of a background on what it means to be a construction lawyer, a board certified.

Reese:
Sure. So starting in the mid two thousands, I think 2005 would have been the first class. They that they had this. And actually even before that for other types of law, the Florida bar has always had roles that says that you restrict who can advertise themselves as a specialist. Because the idea is you don’t want an attorney who is a Jack of all trades, master of none to hold him or herself out as an expert. You know, for example, in personal injury law, if they’ve handled one personal injury case in the last 10 years, you know, that that’s, that’s basically a false advertising concern. So it used to be the case that nobody could advertise themselves as a specialist. And then, you know, the bar kind of the, the members of the bar kind of pushed back against that and said, well, some of us actually do know what we’re talking about and do have specialized experience and, and training and that there should be some way that we could you know, truthfully advertise that to the public.

Reese:
So the Florida bar started providing for board certification. So they set up a committee, you know, whether it’s, you know, personal injury law, whether it’s business law, whether it’s a construction. In my case, they set up a committee of, of attorneys who were experienced in this area and they came up with a list of criteria, how many years you have to practice in the area. You know, they, they create an exam that you have to take that tests your knowledge in that area. And then and then they publish these criteria. And so you submit an application showing that you have the number of years of experience you, you sit for the exam, which is given every year in may except this year for obvious reasons. And and if you pass there, there’s a peer review component of that to where you’re required to provide a list of attorneys that, who’ve worked with you, who can attest to your knowledge and experience and, and ethics and professionalism. And if you pass that review, and if you pass the exam, then you become board certified. And there are, the last I heard, you know, there was in excess of 80,000, let’s say, attorneys in Florida. Maybe it may even be up above 100,000 at this point. In of that number, there are a couple hundred at most who were board certified construction law. So it’s a very tiny number of the overall bar that is board certified instructions. That’s board certified. You know, and that’s probably a longer answer than you were looking for.

Seth:
Well that’s fine. And I, you know, in Louisiana, I believe the only specialization certification we have is in patent law. But it would be nice and I think it’s especially the way the American legal law school system works. I think board certification is a great thing. But that’s another topic. We do have another question.

Reese:
You have a lot of things out there, a lot of, a lot of competing information. You have best lawyers, you know, super lawyers, you know, all these kinds of lists of lawyers. And I, I, I find my net, my name on this list too. But truthfully, I, you know, those are of limited benefit or limited value from, or I think because it doesn’t really tell you anything other than that attorney knows a lot of other attorneys because the secret to super lawyers or best lawyers is that, you know, it’s, it’s voted upon. So whoever gets the most votes gets on the list. So does that mean, so a good lawyer, you know, I don’t know, but uh…

Seth:
Cheerleading contests. But Patricia has a question for you on, on point. She says, can you lien for damage or missing equipment, rental equipment. Can you lien for a damaged, missing or rental equipment?

Reese:
I, I, you know, the short answer is no. I mean, I, I actually litigated that in a case and the owner of the equipment, you know, included in their lien repairs to their equipment. And you know, and, and let me just say this, that there’s not a case that comes out and says that in so many words. But when you look at the statute, it’s talking about your, you know, it’s an improvement, real property. Well if there’s damage to your machine, that’s not really, that’s not a benefit to the owner of the property. That’s a damage to your machine. So that’s something that whether your customer who’s renting the equipment pays for the insurance or whether you carry the insurance for your customer, that’s really something that somebody’s insurance ought to be paying for. That should not be part of a construction lien. That’s a good question though, because that, that has come up. Okay. Any other questions before we continue? Okay.

Seth:
I think we’re okay right now. If you want to continue, I’ll let you know if anything else comes up.

Reese:
And again, if you think any of any other questions, I, we, we encourage questions. That’s what we’re here for. So let’s move on then to the next phase of this, which is what notices are required. Florida makes it very easy for people to comply because the rule is very simple. You’re required to serve if you’re not, if you’re not somebody who has a direct contract with the owner. So if you’re not the general contractor, or if you’re not somebody who sold materials or some other services directly to the owner, then you must serve a notice to owner. And the timing of that is, is when 45 days of when you first started furnishing labor services or materials to the property, that’s it. If you serve it on the 46th day, you’re out of luck. You never, you never get the chance to serve that notice again.

Reese:
Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. So it’s a very important deadline to follow. And and, and the one secret about the Florida lien law is you know, technically speaking there’s no, you know, once you have a contract for the, for the job, in theory, you could serve a notice to owner immediately. Now, what I recommend that no, but there’s no, there’s no date in the statute that says it’s too early to serve one. But, but you can be too late. So as soon as that you can you know, the moment you mobilize that crew to the job, you know, your accounts receivable department ought to be preparing and serving that notice to owner. So how do you do that? Well, in Florida they have something called a notice of commencement that is recorded in the public records. Usually by the contractor must be signed by the owner and it lists the owner’s name and address the contractor’s statement address.

Reese:
If there’s a lender list, the lender’s name and address, if it’s a bonded project, it’ll list the surety’s name and address. And that’s a whole other discussion about filing bond claims. But by the way, the notice requirement is, is basically the same except that you’re sending the notice to the contractor instead of the owner. But but all that pertinent information is on the notice of commencement. That is the gold standard. That is what you want. Now, some people are busy, they don’t have time to go to. You know, you can, most most counties in Florida, you can pull up the notice of commencement online on the clerk of court’s website on there because they list or their public records on their website. You can fold them up that way. Some people are busy, they don’t have time to do that. So you have companies like Levelset who will do that for you.

Reese:
But that’s the information that you need to get in order to send that notice to the correct place. If you send those to the address listed for the owner on that notice of commencement and the owner signs it, it doesn’t matter if the address is incorrect, you are covered because you did everything that was asked of you. And if the owner screwed up and put the wrong address on, that falls on the owner, it doesn’t fall on you. So that’s why that’s a very important document. Now, one thing I have seen in my practice of material suppliers, there are many tiers down and many times they’re supplying material to a sub sub contractor or maybe a subcontractor. They don’t, they don’t, the customer, their customer doesn’t necessarily know who the general contractor is or doesn’t necessarily know, you know, the name of the project or the owner because some of these projects are huge.

Reese:
You know, they just know that somebody called them up and wanted some rock, for example, a C. So if you, if you are, if you find yourself in that position, I strongly encourage you, if you’re going to protect your lien rights to get that information, push your customer for it because your customer needs to ask the question up the chain. You know, they need to ask their customer, you know, to get, get a copy of that notice of commencement so that you have the information you need to protect your lien rights. So, all right, that’s, that’s my little plug for material suppliers. So that’s the only notice requirement under Florida law. Before you file your lien assuming that you’ve served, you notice to owner properly you then have 90 days after your final furnishing. That means the last date you were on the job to record your lien. Now, that doesn’t include punch list work. That doesn’t include warranty work. This is the last actual work that you’re doing to complete the project. And to use a legal buzzword it’s basically substantial completion is effectively when that clock starts running on your 90 day to file your claim of lien. So again, without rushing too far ahead, let me open it back up for a, for any further questions.

Seth:
Yeah, Reese, that was good timing. Chris is asking, can you file a lien before the last day of furnishing or maybe it’s finishing?

Reese:
So well, yes, you can because sometimes what happens is you know, you’re not getting paid. You know, you’re, you’re a third of the way through the job and you’re, you haven’t received the first payment. You know, you still have two more, three more months worth of work to do. But you, but you’re, you’re owed money now, so yeah, you can file that lien at any time while you’re working on the project. Now, you know, you kind of, you run into some practical considerations. If you file a lien in the middle of the project, you might make somebody mad, but maybe you need to do it. Maybe, maybe you need to and that’s a good time to consult with your attorney and see, you know what the right strategy would be to try to get yourself paid. But legally, yes, you can file it any time before or you know, while you’re working. And then within 90 days after your last work on the project

Seth:
And Patty asked, does the 90 days apply when contracted directly with the owner?

Reese:
Yes. That’s the shortest answer for me. You’ll ever get. There you go. We’ll let you move on. Okay. All right. So now we get to the process for filing a lien and there’s basically two requirements. You have to prepare and sign lien and then you have to record it. So the first part is you have to prepare to claim the lien and the statutory form. And if you don’t know what that is yeah, call Levelset, call an attorney people who are in the habit of doing this, have the forms and get those to you. But it’s important to use the, the statutory form. You fill it out, you know your name, the customer’s name, the owner’s name, the legal, legal description, the project. And by the way, all that information again, is on the notice of commencement. So not only do you use that notice of commencement for your notice to owner, you also use it for filling out the information on lien form.

Reese:
So with that information, you’ll, you’ll fill that out. And then to record a lien on somebody’s property under Florida law, you are required to swear to the truth of what you put in your lien because you’re putting a lien on somebody’s property. And if that lien is false, it’s a slander of title. So under Florida law, you have to swear to the truth that you, you did in fact do that work. And you are in fact out of this money and so to, to have something a sworn to it has to be notarized. Well with a lot of offices closed, how you get something notarized with the, you know, the current situation with Kevin 19, you know, a lot of attorney’s offices are closed or working with skeleton crews. A lot of banks are closed. That where you would get to find a notary typically maybe your employees are working from home and they’re not immediately available because some people have notaries on staff, but maybe they’re working from home.

Reese:
So, you know, how do you get something notarized under our, our state’s, you know, stay at home procedures. Well we’ll get to that in just a minute. That’s the next slide. The second process, part of the process is recording the claim of lien in the public records. Now for most counties in Florida, the clerk of the circuit court is the, also the, what’s referred to as the County recorder. That’s the office that maintains the public records. And if you wanted to go inspect the public records, you’d go to the courthouse, you’d find the clerk’s office in the courthouse, or you’d find that recording department and you’d ask to see the you know, the official records and you could pull out the books and to actually look at the documents that are recorded at least back when we used to record them in actual books.

Reese:
There’s two exceptions that I’m aware of. Orange County, it’s a different office. It’s the controller in Broward County. It’s there’s an actual separate office that’s the County recorder’s office. So you can Google that and find it online. But those, those are the two process. So let’s talk about these obstacles and how you overcome them. Given the COVID 19 situation. So how do you get heady, get something notarized given COVID 19, well, effective January 1st coincidentally in Florida, they have approved something called a remote online notarization. And what this is, is that you can get on a zoom call basically with a notary just like we’re doing for this webinar. And you don’t have to be physically players in the state of Florida. You know, you just have to be able to connect through a video link with the notary and you have to obviously have to have a, a laptop or a PC that will run a browser that, that, that the notary’s system supports.

Reese:
And then you must have a us state issued driver’s license or ID card and you have to be able to show that on the screen to your to your person notarizing your document and they can and their software that allows them to remotely notarize your documents. So not every notary is set for this, but again, you know, go to good old fashioned Google, look it up there. There are plenty of vendors out there that provide the service and you know, for a small fee or they’ll, they’ll be happy to, to remotely notarize your document for you. So that’s, that’s an option that has only been in effect since January 1st and just in time for the COVID pandemic. So that the, the timing on that is it’s fortuitous.

Seth:
We’re getting a few other questions. So before we get too loaded up, I’ll, I’ll stop. Yeah. We have one from Colleen, she’s asking can you still file a lien if the owner paid the mechanical contractor but you haven’t been paid?

Reese:
Okay. So I’m going to make an assumption that the mechanical contractor is the person’s customer and that the mechanical contractor didn’t pay downstream. I’m assuming that’s the case. Well, yes. If your customer has been paid but they haven’t paid you, yes, you can still file your lien because that’s kind of the purpose. The point of a lien is that if you don’t get paid by your customer, you know, your customer, it’s gone with the money, pays somebody else’s stead, you know, whatever. Then you, then you protect yourself by filing, filing, liens. So the answer to that is yes. Yes.

Seth:
Okay. And one more, and this is kind of in between the last two topics as far as deadlines for a filing liens. A Wheeler asks if there’s any exceptions because of COVID 19.

Reese:
No, there’s not. And that’s, that’s what’s really important in, you know, we’ll get into how you work around it. But under Florida law, the deadlines are very strict. They, the, the Florida law is, is forgiving for things like if you made a mistake on the lien, you know, in terms of somebody whose name or address or you know you know, something like that. You know, if there’s a, if there’s a mistake on the claim of lien that doesn’t cause prejudice to the owner, then it’s kind of a no harm, no foul situation. But the, the timing, the timing is strictly construed. So there are no exceptions. It’s 90 days. And you know, now where it can become a little bit unclear is what was the last day of, of furnishing, you know, there, there can be some dispute about that because you know what the owner may characterize as punchlist, you might say, Oh no, that was change order work, you know, so that was additional substantive work that I was doing to complete my contract. And so you can have a fact dispute as to what was that last day that started the 90 day clock. But as long as everybody understands and agrees on what starts the 90 day clock, then it’s, then it’s a fixed 90 day period.

Seth:
Okay. And one more. I have an NOC filed with the courthouse. How long to file a lien on the property?

Reese:
Okay. I’m not sure what they mean by NOC. That’s usually an abbreviation for a notice of commencement. The,

Seth:
Maybe Ann can clear that up for us and we’ll come back to it.

Reese:
Okay. Yeah, she, she needed more clarification as to what she means by an NOC that I’m happy to be happy to address it. So. All right. So let’s move on then to the COVID. 19 challenge clerk’s office closures. So there a series of orders. The Florida Supreme court beginning in March started canceling jury trials. At first it was through March, then it’s through April. Now they’ve all been canceled through the end of may. As a result of that, the chief judges of the various circuits in Florida, there’s, 15 judicial circuits or something like that. They started entering orders, closing courthouses. And so for example, in Duvall County if you want to record something at the clerk of courts referring department, you have to clear a COVID 19 screening process and assuming you have your temperature checked and you check out, okay, and you can go into the courthouse, go straight to room 10 46 and drop your documents into a Dropbox.

Reese:
And the clerk of court will record that in due course along with everything to get in the mail. And otherwise if you’re in orange County or your lien, if your project is an orange County, you need to file your lien in orange County. The official records recording office is closed. So you don’t have the option of going into the office and their webpage directs you to the recording department which requires the use of an e-recording vendor. So much like you have vendors who do the remote online notarization you have vendors who provide E recording services and again, you have to have a subscription or license with them, pay them for their service, and then they will e-record your documents for you. And we’ll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. The Miami day clerk at court, again, they have limited their office is closed and you can only record the Broward County recorder again, it’s only through be recording or by mail.

Reese:
And that’s the address that they tell you to address the mail to. And and then as an exception to all the above. And I didn’t, by the way, all 67 counties in Florida to see what their policies were. But you’re certainly welcome to check if you have a different County, but Hillsborough, for whatever reason, the clerk’s office is still open from nine to four. So maybe they have some secret vaccine for COVID that the rest of us don’t have. I’m not sure what that’s about, but but if you’re, if your lien’s in, in Hillsborough County, you can go, go recorded in person, still.

Seth:
Reese, I just want to let you know Ann had cleared that up a little bit. She says, yes, I’m talking about the notice of commencement. Are you saying that the notice of commencement has to be filed within 90 days of completion or I have to lien on the property in 90 days for nonpayment.

Reese:
So the notice of commencement is reported at the very beginning of the project and that’s typically it has to be signed by. The owner typically is reported by the contractor. Well it has to be filed at 90 days after the end of the project is the claim of lien itself. It’s a document called claim of lien and a has to be filled out. That’s the document has to be filed within 90 days of the end of the project or, or your last date of work. So, so that’s, that’s what I’m referring to as far as the 90 day deadline. So so let’s talk about e-recording. It sounds great, right? You know, you get online and you find somebody through Google, you pay your subscription fee, you send in their document, they, e-record it. Well, that isn’t exactly what it sounds like. What it means is that instead of putting something into the mail to the clerk’s office, you’re basically, you’re, you’re in effect emailing it to the clerk’s office.

Reese:
It’s not sent through email, but the net effect is the same because it does not automatically, your document is not automatically recorded electronically. That’s not how it works. Instead, the clerk’s office receives your document electronically through the software, but the clerk’s office employee, it still gets printed out, put in a stack, and the clerk’s office employee still has to physically record that document, just like any other document that they’re getting in the mail, getting in through FedEx or to getting in through a Dropbox that’s left out in the hallway for people to use during COVID 19. So that doesn’t guarantee you that your liens be recorded timely. So let’s say for example, you send your lien, you know, you’re at day 88 and you send that lien by FedEx to the clerk’s office. It arrives, you send it over, you know, overnight, you know, priority overnight gets the clerk’s office on the 89th day and you must figure, all right, I got it there at day 89 I’m good.

Reese:
Well, not necessarily because what happens with these clerk’s offices is that they get it on day 89 but they already have 500 things to record ahead of your document. So they, they, some of these counties run six, seven days behind on their recording. So even if you get it there on day 89, it may not be recorded until day 97. So just because you physically get it to the clerk’s office doesn’t mean it’s reported that day. And so that’s the problem with the recording is you’re in the same boat as if you mailed it in or as is, if you FedEx it in so that you know that that’s a very serious problem. And same thing with mail. You know, you send it in by mail, maybe it gets there on time, you know, first of all, it might get lost in the mail. If it doesn’t get lost in the mail, it’s still sitting in stack with everything else. So you know, that’s a very serious problem. And again, there, there’s no do overs. There’s no there’s no forgiveness for not recording by the 90th day. It’s a, it’s an absolute fixed deadline. So so let’s talk about, well let me stop there. Are there any other questions before I continue?

Seth:
One of the questions we did have was about something you had covered a moment ago, and I’m not sure if you know this, but Michelle had asked do you know any other States that are extending lien rights due to COVID? Is that something that’s happening in other jurisdictions?

Reese:
So I’m, the chief judge in Georgia was entering some orders that were pretty broadly worded that were extending deadlines, including statute of limitations and everything else. I, I’ll be very candid, I haven’t studied that order in great detail. It’s certainly possible. And so if you have a question about that, you know, I’d be happy to talk to somebody and, and look into that, you know, more closely. But but it definitely not the case in Florida.

Seth:
And, and we’re at about the 30 minute point Reese, so you just take your time to wind down as, as, as much as you want. We still have a full audience here and then we’ll take some more questions at the end. But we’re on your time table.

Reese:
The good news is this, this is a fairly short seminar. This is designed just to talk about these, these unique issues and then if we have any other questions, happy to, to, to address this. So, so what’s the solution? What do you, what do you do to overcome this? So if your clerk’s office is still open, if you happen to be in Hillsborough County, your projects and Hillsborough County, that’s where you need to file your lien. You know, put a strap on your N95 mask and go in and do five minute recording. And that’s, that’s the way, if you go in and physically present your document for a recording, virtually every clerk’s offices will allow you to do a five minute recording, and it means they record it while you wait and that guarantees you that you recorded on time, assuming you’re there within the 90 days, the next best thing or so you could do the Dropbox, you know, that way you at least know it got to the courthouse.

Reese:
You didn’t put it in the mail, you physically drove it and put it in a box. So you know the clerk has it. Well that’s the next best thing. You can do a recording and of course you’re going to need somebody with a software, probably a law firm, perhaps another vendor to upload your document or the last resort, you can use FedEx or ups. I do not recommend the mail for, for reasons that are obvious than we’ve talked about. But regardless of which method you use, other than the five minute recording, if you put it in the Dropbox, if you record, if you FedEx it in you must, you must, you must call. And follow up, call the clerk’s office, ask them to pull your document out of the pile, be polite, be be appreciative, be, you know, smother them with kindness because they have the ability to make or break your lien.

Reese:
But we have found that, that if you ask nicely, they’re more than happy to pull your document out of the stack, especially if you explain to them that you’re up against a deadline. So you know that that’s the best way is, you know, send it in and then follow up. If sent, the earlier, the better, you know, if you can get it on there on day 84, then you, then you’ve got more margin for error. You know, don’t wait until day 89, but you know, send it in as soon as you can and then ask the, you know, call the clerk and ask for the recording department and ask one of the ladies there too, to pull your document out and make sure it gets recorded and tell them, you know, it has to be recorded by Friday, you know, tell them that. And and usually they’re more than happy to help. So that’s really it. Any further questions?

Seth:
Well, I think we had one question. But I think you answered it, Chris. It was basically just what if that particular County doesn’t have the filing. And I think you answered some of the options there that someone can do. But other than that, it’d be, want to expand on that? I think you covered it though.

Reese:
Yeah. Again, it’s a, it’s in-person recording or it’s a, you know, you can FedEx it in basically, and you can call and follow up. And unfortunately, you know, the, the, we’re still stuck with ’em to some extent, 20th century technology in the 21st century. I think we’ll probably eventually get to the point where you can electronically record documents. You know, the, the, when it comes to the circuit courts, the civil cases in Florida, we do have electronic filing. And you, you, you file a pleading in a lawsuit, for example, it’s electronically filed. You know, you no longer have to take things physically to the courthouse. And unless you’re, you know, somebody’s pro se you don’t have it unless you don’t have an attorney and you’re representing yourself. The courts offices don’t accept physical documents anymore. So so I think we’re going to get there with you know, the official documents and visual recording documents as well. We’re just not there yet. Okay.

Seth:
Well, Reese, I don’t think we have any other questions here today, but I wanted to thank you so much. And again, this is Reese Henderson he’s a lawyer in Jacksonville, Florida and he practices all over Florida so he can answer any questions in Florida as well as he’s works somewhat in Georgia and is licensed there as well. So thank you so much Reese. And I’ll let you end with some closing remarks and hopefully we can we can do this again some time. And like I said, Reese is an excellent person to call or answer any questions, and he can help you answer questions in our expert center. But he’s allowed to say, because he’s board certified that he is a specialist construction law, which is a no, no, if you’re not board certified.

Reese:
That’s exactly right. So if you have any follow up questions my, my contact information is available on the Levelset website. It is also at our website. You can see on the screen is my email address, reese.henderson@gray-robinson.com. That’s G-R-A-Y. And you know, feel free to shoot me an email. And you know, I represent a lot of clients where all I do is typically, you know, we do have the occasional lien, but I’ll get the occasional question and it’s just like Reese, can you look at this contract revision, Reese, what do I need to do to, to, you know, or can you write me a letter on this? So yeah, I know, I know some folks are, you know, concerned about, you know, they have a limited budget for, for legal services and you know, we certainly do everything we can to keep it affordable for folks. So if anything, is there any, any way I can be of assistance? Don’t hesitate to reach out. And Seth, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks very much.

Seth:
All right. Thanks again everyone. Have a great day and stay safe.