Construction Contract Review Checklist

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

Checklist
Published September 26, 2026
Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
Applies to: Condominiums · HOAs · Cooperatives

A construction contract is not a longer vendor contract. It carries lien exposure, licensure consequences, retainage, warranty periods and a payment process that can leave an association paying twice for the same work. Use this checklist on the proposed agreement, with the engineer's or architect's specification open beside it, before the board votes to sign.

Download the PDFThe PDF is a designed, printable copy for the board packet, the bulletin board or your meeting portfolio. On screen, you can tick the boxes below; nothing you tick is saved or sent anywhere.

Work through the sections in order. The citation under an item shows where the requirement comes from. Read this together with our guidance on engineering and construction contracts and, once work begins, the Major Project Oversight Checklist.

The contractor and the license

Verify the contractor's license number, classification and active status directly with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, not from the proposal.Check the classification against the actual work. A general contractor's license does not carry roofing, and a roofing license does not carry structural concrete.
Confirm the licensed qualifier is the entity signing the contract, and that the qualifier has not been removed from the business.A common pattern is a licensed individual qualifying a company they no longer work for. The board finds out when the permit is refused.
Understand what unlicensed status does and does not do for the association.A contract entered into by an unlicensed contractor is unenforceable in law or in equity by the unlicensed contractor, and no lien or bond claim exists in its favor. That is a defense, not a repair. The association is still left with unfinished or defective work and no solvent party to fix it.§ 489.128
Check whether the expenditure crosses the competitive bid threshold, and confirm the bids are in the file before the vote.Architect and engineer services are exempt from the bidding sections. The construction work itself is not.Condominium and cooperative 5% of the total annual budget including reserves; HOA 10%. § 718.3026(1); § 719.3026(1); § 720.3055(1)

Scope, drawings and specification

Confirm the contract incorporates the engineer's or architect's specification and drawings by title, date and revision number."Per plans and specs" without identifying which revision is how a contractor prices an earlier, cheaper version.
Read the contractor's scope line by line against the specification and list every deviation, exclusion and qualification in writing.
Confirm the order of precedence clause puts the specification above the contractor's proposal where the two conflict.Most contractor forms put their own proposal on top. That single line can delete half the engineer's requirements.
Confirm who is responsible for permits, engineering, testing, dumpsters, temporary power and water, and protection of landscaping and vehicles.

Price, allowances and change orders

Identify the price type: stipulated lump sum, unit price, cost plus with a guaranteed maximum, or time and materials. Write it in one sentence you can read aloud.Boards routinely believe they signed a lump sum when the form is cost plus with no cap.
List every allowance and every unit price, and confirm the quantity each assumes.Allowances for concrete spall repair and rotten sheathing are where the number the board approved becomes the number the association pays.
Confirm what happens when actual quantities run above or below the allowance, and that credits flow back to the association, not only charges out.
Require change orders to be in writing and signed before the work is performed, with no exception for verbal field direction.
Set a dollar threshold above which a change order needs board approval rather than manager or owner's representative approval, and put the number in the contract.
Confirm the contract requires the contractor to notify the association of a differing or hidden condition before proceeding, with a stated number of days, and to stop work on that item until directed.Hidden conditions behind stucco and under decks are normal on Southwest Florida buildings. The clause that matters is the one that makes the contractor tell you before spending your money.

Schedule, delay and liquidated damages

Confirm the contract states a commencement date and a substantial completion date, not a number of days from an unstated trigger.
Confirm liquidated damages, if any, are a genuine estimate of the association's loss and are stated per day.A liquidated damages figure set far above actual loss is attacked as a penalty and may not be enforced. A figure the board cannot explain is worth less than one it can.
Confirm the contractor's remedy for delay caused by the association is an extension of time, and negotiate hard before agreeing to pay delay damages.
If the work follows a milestone inspection, confirm the schedule meets the statutory commencement requirement for phase two repairs.Repairs required by a phase two milestone inspection report must commence within 365 days of the report — § 553.899

Payments, retainage and lien releases

Confirm payment applications are submitted on a schedule of values approved before the first application.
Confirm no payment is due until the engineer or architect of record certifies the work covered by the application.
Confirm the retainage percentage and when it is reduced or released, and tie release of final retainage to close-out documents rather than to a date.
Require a conditional waiver and release upon progress payment from the contractor with each application, and unconditional releases for the prior payment.§ 713.20(4)
Require releases from every subcontractor and supplier who has served a notice to owner, not only from the general contractor.A release from the contractor does not release the lien rights of a subcontractor the contractor has not paid.
Do not sign or accept a release form that departs from the statutory forms, and do not let a contractor demand one from a lienor.A person may not require a lienor to furnish a waiver or release different from the forms in § 713.20(4) or (5)
Do not accept a lien waiver signed in advance of the work.A right to claim a lien may not be waived in advance; it may be waived only to the extent of labor, services or materials already furnished — § 713.20(2)
Require the waiver and release upon final payment before the final check is released.§ 713.20(5)

Notice of commencement, notices to owner and the pay-twice risk

Record the notice of commencement before work starts and post a certified copy at the job site.§ 713.13
Furnish the contractor with a copy of the recorded notice of commencement and keep the recording information with the project file.
Track the effective period of the notice of commencement and amend it before it expires if the job runs long.The statutory warning is blunt: payments made after the notice of commencement expires are improper payments and can result in paying twice for the same improvements.§ 713.13
Open a file the day the contract is signed and log every notice to owner as it arrives, with the date of service.A lienor other than a laborer must serve a notice to owner before commencing or not later than 45 days after commencing to furnish labor, services or materials — § 713.06(2)
Before each payment, check the notice to owner log and confirm you hold a release from every lienor on it covering the period being paid.This is the whole of the pay-twice protection. An association that pays the contractor in full without collecting lienor releases can be liened by an unpaid subcontractor and end up paying the same money twice.
Require the contractor's final payment affidavit before final payment, listing every unpaid lienor and the amount owed.§ 713.06(3)(d)
Consider requiring a payment bond, and if one is furnished, confirm it is recorded with the notice of commencement and that lienors are directed to it.A payment bond that is not properly recorded and referenced does not give the association the protection the board thinks it bought.§ 713.23

Warranty, insurance, bonds and indemnity

Confirm the contractor's warranty period, what it covers, and that it runs from substantial completion of the whole project rather than from each building.
Require assignment of manufacturer and material warranties to the association at close-out, together with the registration documents the manufacturer requires.A roofing manufacturer's warranty is often void unless the manufacturer inspected and the association registered it. Ask for the certificate, not the brochure.
Confirm the warranty obligations survive final payment and are not released by the final lien release.
Obtain certificates of insurance and additional insured endorsements for general liability, and confirm coverage for completed operations for the length of the warranty period.
Confirm workers' compensation coverage for the contractor and every subcontractor on site.
Confirm the indemnity in the association's favor carries a monetary limitation that bears a reasonable commercial relationship to the contract and is not less than $1 million per occurrence.This applies to private construction contracts, not only to public projects. An indemnification provision in a construction contract that lacks the required limitation is unenforceable, so an association that accepts a bare indemnity clause may have no indemnity at all.§ 725.06(1)
Strike any clause requiring the association to indemnify the contractor for the contractor's own negligence.

Close-out

Obtain the closed permit and the certificate of completion or occupancy from the building department, and confirm every inspection was passed rather than merely scheduled.
Obtain the contractor's final payment affidavit and the waiver and release upon final payment from the contractor and every lienor of record.§ 713.06(3)(d); § 713.20(5)
Obtain as-built drawings, the operations and maintenance manuals, and the assigned manufacturer warranties.
Confirm no notice of commencement remains open and no claim of lien is recorded against the property before the final check clears.
File the contract, change orders, payment applications, releases, certifications and warranties in the official records and calendar the warranty expiration dates.§ 718.111(12); § 719.104(2); § 720.303(4)

Statutes and authorities referenced

§ 489.128, Fla. Stat. (contracts of unlicensed contractors unenforceable by the contractor)
§ 713.06, Fla. Stat. (notice to owner; contractor's final payment affidavit)
§ 713.13, Fla. Stat. (notice of commencement)
§ 713.20, Fla. Stat. (waiver and release of lien; statutory forms)
§ 713.23, Fla. Stat. (payment bond)
§ 725.06, Fla. Stat. (indemnification in construction contracts)
§ 553.899, Fla. Stat. (milestone inspections; commencement of phase two repairs)
§ 718.3026(1), § 719.3026(1), § 720.3055(1), Fla. Stat. (competitive bidding thresholds)
§ 718.111(12), § 719.104(2), § 720.303(4), Fla. Stat. (official records)

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes drafts and negotiates construction contracts for Southwest Florida associations undertaking roofing, concrete restoration, structural and milestone-driven repairs, and advises boards on lien exposure and payment controls during the job. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Construction page.

About this article. This article is published by Hamilton Mikes, P.A. for general educational purposes. It is not legal advice, it is not a legal opinion, and it is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer who has reviewed your association's governing documents and the facts of your situation. Reading it, downloading it, or corresponding with the firm about it does not create an attorney-client relationship. No such relationship arises until the firm and the client have signed a written engagement agreement. Please do not send confidential or time-sensitive information to the firm until a conflicts check has been completed and an engagement is confirmed in writing; information sent before that point may not be treated as privileged.

Scope and currency. This article addresses Florida law as applied to Florida community associations, and the firm is licensed to practice in Florida only. Nothing here should be taken as a statement of the law of any other jurisdiction. Florida's community association statutes have been amended in every regular session since 2021, and subsection numbering has moved more than once in that period. Each article states the edition of the Florida Statutes it was written against. The law may have changed after that date, an appellate court may have construed a provision differently, and an administrative rule or a local ordinance may impose requirements this article does not address.

Your governing documents control. Much of what governs a Florida association is not in the statutes at all. Declarations, articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules, plats and recorded amendments differ from community to community, and on many questions they set the rule while the statute sets only a floor or a default. A procedure that is correct in one association may be a breach of the documents in the association next door. No general article can tell you which is which for your community.

Why general information is not advice. Legal questions are resolved by applying the law to particular facts as a judge, jury, arbitrator or hearing officer finds them. An outcome that appears clear in the abstract frequently turns on the documents, the chronology, the board's own prior conduct, and the procedural posture, none of which an article can anticipate. A lawyer supplies what information cannot: the judgment to identify which facts matter, the experience to know how a court or the Division is likely to treat them, the ability to choose among the courses of action actually available, and the advocacy to carry the association's position through negotiation, hearing or trial.

The standard of care, and the protection the statute attaches to counsel. A director of a Florida community association is held to the standard in section 617.0830, Florida Statutes: to act in good faith, in a manner the director reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the corporation, and to discharge the duties of the office with the care an ordinary prudent person in a like position would reasonably believe appropriate under similar circumstances. That standard is measured against the decision the board actually faced, on the record actually before it. The same statute supplies the protection that goes with the duty. Under section 617.0830(4) and (5)(b), a director who has no knowledge making reliance unwarranted is entitled to rely on information, opinions, reports and statements prepared or presented by legal counsel retained by the association as to matters the director reasonably believes are within counsel's professional competence. The Legislature has written the prudent course into the statute. A board that obtains advice on its own documents and its own facts, and acts on that advice, is standing on ground the statute expressly protects. Nothing on this website confers that protection. General information, however carefully prepared, is not advice on your declaration, your amendments, your board's history or your dispute, and a director who relies on it in place of counsel forgoes a statutory protection that was available for the asking.

Personal exposure is real. Service on an association board is usually uncompensated, but volunteer status is not itself immunity. Under section 617.0834, Florida Statutes, a director or an officer is not personally liable in monetary damages for a statement, vote, decision, or failure to act in that role unless two things are both true: the director or officer breached or failed to perform the duties of the office, and that breach was a violation of the criminal law, a transaction from which the director or officer derived an improper personal benefit, conscious disregard or willful misconduct in a proceeding brought by or in the right of the corporation, or recklessness or bad faith in a proceeding brought by anyone else. That protection turns on how the director acted, not on whether the director was paid. Chapters 718, 719 and 720 add consequences of their own, including removal from office, civil penalties assessed against the individual for certain willful and knowing violations, and in defined circumstances criminal liability. Whether any of that reaches a particular director depends entirely on the facts and on the director's conduct. The practical point is narrower and more useful: the decisions that generate this exposure — levying an assessment, enforcing a covenant, denying a transfer, withholding a record, entering a unit, terminating a contract, signing for construction work — are precisely the decisions on which general information is least adequate, and on which counsel costs least relative to what is at stake.

No guarantee; prior results. The firm makes no representation or warranty that the information in this article is complete, current or applicable to any particular matter, and disclaims liability to any person for any action taken or not taken in reliance on it. Any description of prior results does not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter; every case turns on its own facts, documents and record.

Do not act on this article alone. If your association faces a decision of consequence, obtain advice from a Florida-licensed attorney who has read your governing documents and the relevant record before the board votes, signs, sends or forecloses. Hamilton Mikes, P.A. represents community associations throughout Southwest Florida and can be reached at 239-594-7227.

Construction Contract Review Checklist: What a Board Reads Before Signing for Roofing, Concrete or Building Repairs