Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 713 > Part I - Construction Liens

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Aggregate: means the amounts reported for owners of unclaimed property of less than $50 or where there is no name for the individual or entity listed on the holder's records, regardless of the amount to be reported. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Apparent owner: means the person whose name appears on the records of the holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Architect: means a person or firm that is authorized to practice architecture pursuant to chapter 481 or a general contractor who provides architectural services under a design-build contract authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Business association: means any corporation (other than a public corporation), joint stock company, investment company, business trust, partnership, limited liability company, or association of two or more individuals for business purposes, whether for profit or not for profit. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Claim of lien: means the claim recorded as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Claimant: means the person on whose behalf a claim is filed. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Commencement of the improvement: means the time of filing for record of the notice of commencement provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• Contract price: means the amount agreed upon by the contracting parties for performing all labor and services and furnishing all materials covered by their contract and must be increased or diminished by the price of extras or change orders, or by any amounts attributable to changes in the scope of the work or defects in workmanship or materials or any other breaches of the contract; but no penalty or liquidated damages between the owner and a contractor diminishes the contract price as to any other lienor. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• 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
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Direct contract: means a contract between the owner and any other person. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Domicile: means the state of incorporation for a corporation incorporated under the laws of a state, or, for an unincorporated business association, the state where the business association is organized. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Due diligence: means the use of reasonable and prudent methods under particular circumstances to locate apparent owners of inactive accounts using the taxpayer identification number or social security number, if known, which may include, but are not limited to, using a nationwide database, cross-indexing with other records of the holder, mailing to the last known address unless the last known address is known to be inaccurate, or engaging a licensed agency or company capable of conducting such search and providing updated addresses. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Engineer: means a person or firm that is authorized to practice engineering pursuant to chapter 471 or a general contractor who provides engineering services under a design-build contract authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Extras or change orders: means labor, services, or materials for improving real property authorized by the owner and added to or deleted from labor, services, or materials covered by a previous contract between the same parties. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Final furnishing: means the last date that the lienor furnishes labor, services, or materials. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Financial organization: means a state or federal savings association, savings and loan association, bank, trust company, international bank agency, cooperative bank, building and loan association, or credit union. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• furnish: when used in connection with the words "labor" or "services" or "materials" means performance or furnishing by the lienor or by another for him or her. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Furnish materials: means supply materials which are incorporated in the improvement including normal wastage in construction operations; or specially fabricated materials for incorporation in the improvement, not including any design work, submittals, or the like preliminary to actual fabrication of the materials; or supply materials used for the construction and not remaining in the improvement, subject to diminution by the salvage value of such materials; and includes supplying rental equipment, but does not include supplying handtools. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Health care provider: means any state-licensed entity that provides and receives payment for health care services. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Holder: means a person, wherever organized or domiciled, who is:
  (a) In possession of property belonging to another;
  (b) A trustee in case of a trust; or
  (c) Indebted to another on an obligation. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Improve: means build, erect, place, make, alter, remove, repair, or demolish any improvement over, upon, connected with, or beneath the surface of real property, or excavate any land, or furnish materials for any of these purposes, or perform any labor or services upon the improvements, including the furnishing of carpet or rugs or appliances that are permanently affixed to the real property and final construction cleanup to prepare a structure for occupancy; or perform any labor or services or furnish any materials in grading, seeding, sodding, or planting for landscaping purposes, including the furnishing of trees, shrubs, bushes, or plants that are planted on the real property, or in equipping any improvement with fixtures or permanent apparatus or provide any solid-waste collection or disposal on the site of the improvement. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Improvement: means any building, structure, construction, demolition, excavation, solid-waste removal, landscaping, or any part thereof existing, built, erected, placed, made, or done on land or other real property for its permanent benefit. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Insurance company: means an association, corporation, or fraternal or mutual benefit organization, whether for profit or not for profit, which is engaged in providing insurance coverage. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Intangible property: includes , by way of illustration and not limitation:
  (a) Moneys, checks, drafts, deposits, interest, dividends, and income. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Laborer: means any person other than an architect, landscape architect, engineer, surveyor and mapper, and the like who, under properly authorized contract, personally performs on the site of the improvement labor or services for improving real property and does not furnish materials or labor service of others. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• last known address: includes any partial description of the location of the apparent owner sufficient to establish the apparent owner was a resident of this state at the time of last contact with the apparent owner or at the time the property became due and payable. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Lender: means any person who loans money to an owner for construction of an improvement to real property, who secures that loan by recording a mortgage on the real property, and who periodically disburses portions of the proceeds of that loan for the payment of the improvement. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Lienor: means a person who is:
  (a) A contractor;
  (b) A subcontractor;
  (c) A sub-subcontractor;
  (d) A laborer;
  (e) A materialman who contracts with the owner, a contractor, a subcontractor, or a sub-subcontractor; or
  (f) A professional lienor under…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Lienor giving notice: means any lienor, except a contractor, who has duly and timely served a notice to the owner and, if required, to the contractor and subcontractor, as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Managed care payor: means a health care plan that has a defined system of selecting and limiting health care providers as evidenced by a managed care contract with the health care providers. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Notice of commencement: means the notice recorded as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• oath: includes affirmations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• 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
• Owner: means a depositor in the case of a deposit, a beneficiary in the case of a trust or a deposit in trust, or a payee in the case of other intangible property, or a person having a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this chapter or his or her legal representative. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• 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
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• posting: means placing the document referred to on the site of the improvement in a conspicuous place at the front of the site and in a manner that protects the document from the weather. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Real property: means the land that is improved and the improvements thereon, including fixtures, except any such property owned by the state or any county, municipality, school board, or governmental agency, commission, or political subdivision. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Site of the improvement: means the real property which is being improved and on which labor or services are performed or materials furnished in furtherance of the operations of improving such real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• 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
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust instrument: means a trust instrument as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: means any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States of America. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01