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Terms Used In Florida Statutes 713.14

  • Contract: means an agreement for improving real property, written or unwritten, express or implied, and includes extras or change orders. See Florida Statutes 713.01
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • contractor: includes an architect, landscape architect, or engineer who improves real property pursuant to a design-build contract authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Materialman: means any person who furnishes materials under contract to the owner, contractor, subcontractor, or sub-subcontractor on the site of the improvement or for direct delivery to the site of the improvement or, for specially fabricated materials, off the site of the improvement for the particular improvement, and who performs no labor in the installation thereof. See Florida Statutes 713.01
  • materials: means performance or furnishing by the lienor or by another for him or her. See Florida Statutes 713.01
  • Owner: means a person who is the owner of any legal or equitable interest in real property, which interest can be sold by legal process, and who enters into a contract for the improvement of the real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
  • person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
  • Sub-subcontractor: means a person other than a materialman or laborer who enters into a contract with a subcontractor for the performance of any part of such subcontractor's contract, including the removal of solid waste from the real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
  • Subcontractor: means a person other than a materialman or laborer who enters into a contract with a contractor for the performance of any part of such contractor's contract, including the removal of solid waste from the real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01

(1) Any owner, contractor, subcontractor, or sub-subcontractor, in making any payment under, or properly applicable to, any contract to one with whom she or he has a running account, or with whom she or he has more than one contract, or to whom she or he is otherwise indebted, shall designate the contract under which the payment is made or the items of account to which it is to be applied. If she or he shall fail to do so or shall make a false designation, she or he shall be liable to anyone suffering a loss in consequence for the amount of the loss.
(2) When a payment for materials is made to a subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, or materialman, the subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, or materialman shall demand of the person making the payment a designation of the account and the items of account to which the payment is to apply. In any case in which a lien is claimed for materials furnished by a subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, or materialman, it is a defense to the claim, to the extent of the payment made, to prove that a payment made by the owner to the contractor for the materials has been paid over to the subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, or materialman, and to prove also that when such payment was received by such subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, or materialman she or he did not demand a designation of the account and of the items of account to which the payment was to be applied or, receiving a designation of its application to the account for the materials, she or he failed to apply the payment in accordance therewith. This subsection is cumulative to any other defenses available to the person paying the materialman, subcontractor, or sub-subcontractor.