We, the undersigned, are demanding urgent reform of Florida’s contractor oversight system. Bad actors in the construction industry are exploiting loopholes that destroy families, bankrupt homeowners, and drag innocent professionals into costly lawsuits.

This is not an isolated problem,  it is a systemic failure.

 
The Problems

• DBPR Moves Too Slowly

Investigations and license actions take months sometimes longer, while contractors continue pulling permits and harming more people.

• Clerks of Court Don’t Verify Documents

Notices of Commencement and liens are recorded without verification, allowing fraudulent re-recordings, harassment of property owners, and slander of title. 

• “After-the-Fact” Lawsuits by Unlicensed Contractors

Contractors who relinquish, lose, or have their licenses revoked can still come back months later and sue for money they claim wasn’t collected while licensed.
This weaponizes the court system against homeowners, realtors, and title companies long after the contractor lost the legal right to build. 

• Permit Abuse

Contractors can pull 100 permits in one year, fail to complete them, then pull another 100 the next year. There is no oversight tying permit volume to actual project completion.

• No Job-Specific Bond Requirement

Contractors can collect huge deposits with no financial security for homeowners or subcontractors. Every job should require a bond.

• No Automatic License Suspension for Repeat Offenders

Even after multiple lawsuits against a contractor, licenses remain active. This allows misconduct to continue unchecked.

• Lawsuits with no liens, and no Limits

Florida law is supposed to give homeowners certainty: if a contractor claims they’re owed money, they must file a lien within 90 days and enforce it within 1 year. That’s the point of the lien system — to set deadlines and protect buyers, homeowners, and title companies from endless uncertainty.

But here’s the loophole: even if a contractor misses those deadlines, they can still sue under Florida’s 5-year statute of limitations for contracts. That means a family can buy a home, close with a clean title, and then get hit with a lawsuit months (or years) later for money a contractor claims they were owed.

This defeats the whole purpose of lien law. If no lien was filed on time, the claim should be dead.

The Reforms We Demand

• Faster DBPR Enforcement

Immediate suspensions when probable cause is found until the resolve 

• Clerk of Court Verification

Require validation of liens and Notices of Commencement before recording. Fraudulent recording of documents should be a crime. 

• End After-the-Fact Lawsuits

Once a contractor’s license is suspended, revoked, or relinquished, they must lose the right to file or maintain payment claims in court. If they didn’t secure payment while licensed, they cannot weaponize the courts afterward.

• Permit Accountability

Tie the number of permits a contractor can pull to their completion record. No new permits if existing projects remain incomplete.

• Job-Specific Bonds

Require a bond on every permitted job to protect homeowners and subcontractors.

• Automatic License Suspension

After a threshold of lawsuits AGAINST a contractor,  suspend the license until issues are resolved. 

• Close the lien loophole 

If a contractor fails to timely file a lien, they cannot decide months later to bring a contract lawsuit for the same unpaid balance. Homeowners, buyers, and title companies should be able to rely on the absence of a lien as final closure after the lien rights have expired. 

Why It Matters
People are losing their homes, subcontractors aren’t being paid and having to shut down business, other local professionals are being dragged into lawsuits they should never face. Fraud thrives in Florida because our systems allow it, DBPR is too slow, the clerks don’t verify filings, and contractors can still use the courts even after losing their licenses and rights, with no real punishment. 

This must stop.

By signing this petition, we are calling on Florida lawmakers and regulators to enact serious reforms in the upcoming legislative session.

 

Florida deserves a system that protects homeowners, not one that shields fraud.