Florida’s New Legislation Provides More Protection for Contractors and Design Professionals

On April 13, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into legislation SB 360, a invoice to make important modifications to the state’s building defect claims course of. The brand new legislation, which works into impact instantly, ought to present some further protections  to these within the building trade by shorting the time interval for bringing design and building defect claims, clarifying the appliance of those time durations on multi-building initiatives, and including  a “materiality” requirement to statutory claims for violation of Florida’s Constructing Code in accordance with Fla. Stat. § 554.84.

How does this affect Florida Contractors?

• Shortened time interval. The time interval for bringing “identified” claims stays 4 years however the time interval is now deemed to have begun upon the sooner of varied potential triggering occasions, slightly than upon the prevalence of the final occasion, as was beforehand the case.  Additional, the statute of repose (which serves as an absolute deadline for bringing claims, and usually can’t be tolled or prolonged by lack of discover) reduces the time interval for bringing a declare for design or building defects from 10 years to 7 years after the completion of the venture. In most situations, it will imply that constructing house owners can be barred from bringing defect claims 7 years after the date of the venture’s completion, even when the proprietor didn’t know or have cause to know of the defect.                                   
• Multi-building initiatives. The brand new legislation will make clear the appliance of time durations on multi-building initiatives. Because of this for initiatives consisting of a number of buildings, every constructing will now be thought of a separate venture for the needs of the statute of limitations. Accordingly, every constructing can be handled as a separate “enchancment” for functions of figuring out the time interval for bringing claims.
• “Materiality” requirement. The brand new legislation provides a “materiality” requirement to statutory claims for violation of Florida’s Constructing Code. Because of this a claimant should show {that a} constructing code violation was a cloth consider inflicting the alleged defect. This transformation is meant to forestall claims based mostly on minor or insignificant code violations that don’t really affect the security or habitability of the constructing.   A code violation will solely be deemed materials if it “could fairly outcome, or has resulted, in bodily hurt to an individual or important harm to the efficiency of a constructing or its techniques.”

Take-Away

The passing of SB 360 marks an effort by Florida’s legislature to create a extra workable framework for limiting doubtlessly stale claims and hopefully will reduce down on litigation whether or not older claims may even be maintained.  The materiality requirement for constructing code violations is useful as a result of it requires claimants to show a extra significant degree of severity to assist their claims.  Whereas there’ll possible be disputes as as to whether a specific violation is “materials” below the statute, the brand new language ought to serve to preclude claims based mostly on technical violations involving restricted damages.

As all the time, it is strongly recommended that these concerned within the building trade in Florida search authorized counsel for any questions referring to this new laws.  Please be happy to achieve out to me if I could also be of help: matthew.beclastro@henlaw.com.