Construction Claim Rules in Florida

Statutory interest rate

7.87% per year for the quarter beginning October 1, 2026 (8.06% for July 1 to September 30, 2026)

The Chief Financial Officer sets the rate on December 1, March 1, June 1 and September 1 each year for the quarter beginning the following January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1, by averaging the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discount rate for the preceding 12 months and adding 400 basis points. A judgment keeps the rate in effect when it was entered until January 1, then adjusts annually. Recent quarters have run between roughly 8% and 9.5%.

Compounding: Not specified by the statute; treat as simple interest.

Citation: Fla. Stat. § 55.03

Source: https://www.myfloridacfo.com/division/aa/audits-reports/judgment-interest-rates

Last checked: 2026-09-17

The CFO publishes the rate per annum, the daily rate as a percentage and the daily decimal for each quarter. For the quarter beginning October 1, 2026 the daily decimal is .00021562. Check the CFO's page for later quarters.

Accrual: breach of contract claim

Measured as of the breach date, but courts have equitable discretion to pick a different trigger date

Repair/replacement damages are typically measured as of the breach date, but Florida courts (e.g., Broward County v. Finlayson) recognize an equitable exception letting the court choose a different date, such as substantial completion, when that produces a fairer result.

Citation: Broward County v. Finlayson, 555 So. 2d 1211 (Fla. 1990); Argonaut Ins. Co. v. May Plumbing Co., 474 So. 2d 212 (Fla. 1985)

Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/1985/65738-0.html

The link goes to Argonaut, the seminal case both decisions rely on. The accrual date can move with the facts, because the court has equitable discretion over the measuring date.

Accrual: property damage / tort claim

From date of loss ('loss theory'), once a verdict liquidates the damages amount

Under Florida's 'loss theory,' once a verdict fixes damages as of a prior date, prejudgment interest follows from that date as a matter of law, not judicial discretion. The Florida Supreme Court reasoned the loss itself is a wrongful deprivation of the plaintiff's property from that date forward.

Citation: Argonaut Ins. Co. v. May Plumbing Co., 474 So. 2d 212 (Fla. 1985)

Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/1985/65738-0.html

This case-law rule applies to property damage/tort claims; personal-injury awards are excluded per the same opinion.

Actual Cash Value rule

Broad evidence rule (with a statutory wrinkle on labor)

Common-law broad evidence rule generally, but Fla. Stat. §627.7011 adds specific requirements when a replacement-cost policy's ACV valuation depreciates labor costs.

Citation: New York Central Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. Diaks, 69 So. 2d 786 (Fla. 1954); Fla. Stat. § 627.7011

Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/1954/69-so-2d-786-0.html

The party name is spelled Diaks in the Florida Supreme Court's reporter. The link goes to the full opinion.

ACV statute or regulation

No insurance-code statute defines ACV or restricts labor depreciation, the rule comes from case law.

Florida has no statute that defines actual cash value or restricts depreciation of labor; the controlling authority is case law. In Goff v. State Farm Florida Insurance Co., 999 So. 2d 684 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008), the Second District held that where a policy leaves ACV undefined, an insurer may depreciate labor along with materials and contractor overhead and profit: because "labor was included within that definition, it was proper to depreciate both materials and labor when calculating the loss." The Florida Supreme Court's decision in Trinidad v. Florida Peninsula Insurance Co., 121 So. 3d 433 (Fla. 2013), is often cited for this proposition but does not hold it. Trinidad concerned a replacement-cost policy and held the opposite on payment: that overhead and profit must be included in a replacement-cost payment and may not be withheld merely because the insured has not yet incurred them, where a general contractor is reasonably likely to be needed, relying on Goff as a premise without disturbing it. Florida Statute 627.7011 governs how and when replacement cost benefits are paid and does not define ACV or address labor depreciation.

Citation: Goff v. State Farm Fla. Ins. Co., 999 So. 2d 684 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008); Trinidad v. Fla. Peninsula Ins. Co., 121 So. 3d 433 (Fla. 2013); Fla. Stat. 627.7011

Source: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/627.7011

Recoverable depreciation holdback

Florida statute regulates payout timing directly: total losses get full RCV with no depreciation holdback and partial losses get remaining funds paid as repair work is performed.

Florida Statute 627.7011(3) requires that on a dwelling policy providing replacement cost coverage, the insurer must initially pay at least the ACV of the loss, less any deductible and must then pay the remaining amounts necessary to complete repairs as work is performed and expenses are incurred. If a total loss of the dwelling occurs, the insurer must pay the full replacement cost coverage without reservation or holdback of any depreciation in value. A separate exception allows the insurer to withhold the roof portion at ACV until it receives reasonable proof the policyholder paid the roof deductible.

Citation: Fla. Stat. 627.7011(3)

Source: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/627.7011

“No damages for delay” clause enforceability

Generally enforceable, with an active-interference/bad-faith exception

Florida courts will not enforce a no-damages-for-delay clause in the face of governmental fraud, bad faith or active interference with performance. In Sarasota County v. Southern Underground Industries, Inc., the county issued a stop work order after a neighbour complained of drilling vibration, then kept the suspension in place for another 71 days after an engineer reported the damage was cosmetic and the vibration was within limits. The Second District affirmed an award of $638,794.10 to the contractor, holding the county's protracted efforts to appease the homeowner amounted to bad faith and active interference. It also struck the county's liquidated damages award because the county showed no loss from the delay in final acceptance.

Citation: Sarasota County v. Southern Underground Indus., Inc., 333 So. 3d 285 (Fla. 2d DCA 2022) (No. 2D20-2491)

Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-district-court-of-appeal/2158971.html

Construction contract filing deadline

5 years for an action founded on a written instrument

Florida's limitations statute sets a 5-year period for a legal or equitable action on a contract, obligation, or liability founded on a written instrument, which covers an ordinary written construction contract claim. Two deadlines sit in front of that one on most construction claims. A mechanic's lien and a payment bond claim each run on their own, far shorter clock, counted from last furnishing rather than from breach and missing either one removes the security while leaving the contract claim alive but unsecured. Check those dates first. Accrual is the other half of the question: the period runs from breach, which on a payment dispute is usually the date payment came due rather than the date the work was done.

Citation: Fla. Stat. § 95.11(2)(b)

Source: https://codes.findlaw.com/fl/title-viii-limitations/fl-st-sect-95-11/

State unemployment insurance (SUTA)

Florida's new-employer reemployment tax rate is 2.7% on the first $7,000 in wages per employee.

New employers pay a flat 2.7% rate for their first 10 quarters of liability. After that period, experience-rated employers pay anywhere from 0.1% (the statutory floor) to 5.4% (the statutory ceiling) depending on their benefit-charge history. The taxable wage base is $7,000 per employee per year, one of the lowest in the country and unchanged for many years.

Citation: Florida Reemployment Assistance Program Law, Florida Department of Revenue

Source: https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/rt_rate.aspx

Last checked: 2026-08-26

Florida's wage base has stayed at $7,000 for many years. Reconfirm the rate and the base each year on the Department of Revenue page.

Workers' compensation rating

Florida uses NCCI advisory rates rather than its own rating bureau.

Workers' compensation loss costs and classifications in Florida are developed by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) and filed with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) for approval each year. Individual carriers then apply their own loss-cost multipliers on top of the approved NCCI figures. This is the standard advisory-rate structure used by most states, not an independent state bureau or monopolistic fund.

Citation: NCCI Florida State Advisory Forum, Florida Office of Insurance Regulation

Source: https://www.ncci.com/Articles/Documents/II_StateAdvisoryForumState_FL_2025.pdf

Prevailing wage law

Florida has no state prevailing-wage law, having repealed its version in 1979.

Florida's Little Davis-Bacon Act was repealed by the state legislature in 1979 and has not been reinstated. Public construction contracts let by Florida state or local government agencies are not subject to a state-mandated prevailing wage, only the federal Davis-Bacon Act applies and only when federal funds are involved. Contractors should not assume a state prevailing-wage rate applies on purely state or locally funded work.

Citation: Repealed; U.S. Department of Labor state prevailing wage summary

Source: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/prevailing-wages

Comparative / contributory negligence rule

Modified comparative fault, recovery barred above 50% fault (51% bar)

Recovery is reduced in proportion to fault and barred once the worker is more than 50% at fault. A worker exactly 50% at fault still recovers half. Changed from pure comparative by H.B. 837 effective 24 Mar 2023. Medical negligence actions under ch. 766 remain excluded.

Citation: Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) (bar, added by ch. 2023-15, eff. 24 Mar. 2023); § 768.81(2) (proportional reduction); § 768.81(3), (3)(a) (apportionment, nonparty fault must be pleaded and proved)

Source: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/768.81

Verified against: statute text of Fla. Stat. s 768.81 as published by the Florida Senate for 2025, subsections (2), (3), (3)(a) and (6)

Non-economic damages cap

No general cap on non-economic damages

Most states cap non-economic damages only in medical malpractice actions, which does not reach a third-party construction claim. Economic losses, medical bills, lost wages, future earning capacity, are not capped by these statutes.

OSHA plan

Federal OSHA (no state plan)

Florida has no OSHA-approved state plan; both public and private employers fall under federal OSHA jurisdiction. Under federal jurisdiction the citation is issued by an OSHA area office and contested before the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Federal OSHA does not cover state and local government employees, so a public employee injured on a public job falls outside it. Reporting deadlines are a work-related fatality within 8 hours, an inpatient hospitalisation, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours. For a construction claim the inspection file matters more than the citation: photographs, measurements, witness statements and the inspector's narrative are usually obtainable and are often the best contemporaneous record of the site.

Citation: 29 U.S.C. § 667 (State Plan roster)

Source: https://www.osha.gov/stateplans

Weight of an OSHA violation in a negligence case

Florida's high court has not addressed this directly, but its official civil jury instructions establish that OSHA violations constitute some evidence of negligence, not negligence per se.

The Florida Supreme Court's Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases confirm that OSHA violations are treated as some evidence of a party's negligence for the jury to weigh, consistent with the majority 'evidence, not per se' rule used by most states.

Citation: In re Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases-Report No. 09-01, 35 So. 3d 666, 687-88 (Fla. 2010).

Source: https://storage.googleapis.com/jnl-bcls-j-bclr-files/journals/1/articles/232/63a30c0a100a2.pdf

Third-party contribution against the employer

Qualifying statutory employers get substantial immunity in Florida; non-statutory-employer third parties are reached via premises liability, negligent activity, retained control, negligent undertaking, dangerous-instrumentality, products, or vehicle theories.

Whether a defendant qualifies as a statutory employer is the threshold question before any of the other third-party theories apply.

Citation: Fla. Stat. ch. 440; Jones v. Gulf Coast Newspapers, Inc., 595 So.2d 90 (Fla. 1992).

Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/1094589.html

Injury-severity gate on contribution claims

Immunity can be pierced only via the narrow statutory intentional-tort exception, which requires more than ordinary negligence or a safety-rule violation.

Fla. Stat. ch. 440 generally gives employers and qualifying statutory employers substantial immunity. The statutory intentional-tort exception is narrow and requires more than ordinary negligence or safety-rule violations. In practice exclusivity takes the direct employer off the tort table entirely, whatever the OSHA file shows. The claim runs against the other parties on the site: the general contractor, the owner, another subcontractor, an equipment manufacturer. The employer or its carrier then asserts a lien against whatever the worker recovers from those parties, so the figure the worker actually keeps is the recovery less the lien, the fee and the costs. Whether the lien is reduced for the cost of obtaining the recovery is a separate state question worth asking early, because it moves the net more than most people expect.

Citation: Fla. Stat. ch. 440; Jones v. Gulf Coast Newspapers, Inc., 595 So.2d 90 (Fla. 1992).

Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/1094589.html

Distinctive state doctrine

Vertical/horizontal statutory-employer immunity (see thirdPartyContribution) (the standout Florida-specific mechanism)

See thirdPartyContribution above; this is treated as both the contribution rule and the distinctive doctrine for Florida since the two are the same mechanism.

Citation: Fla. Stat. §§ 440.10, 440.11

Source: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/440.11