What Your Brevard Roofing Contract Has to Say Before You Sign It: Seven Checks Under Florida Law

Most "questions to ask your roofer" lists are about vibes. How long have you been in business, can I see references, do you clean up. Fine questions. None of them tell you whether the paper in front of you is legal, or what happens to your money if the job goes sideways.

Florida law is more specific than that. Several statutes dictate what a residential roofing contract must contain and how a contractor may handle your deposit. A contract missing that language is not a paperwork slip. It is a signal about who you are dealing with. This post walks through seven checks a homeowner in Rockledge, Melbourne, Merritt Island, Cocoa, or Titusville can run on any roofing contract in about ten minutes, with the statute behind each one. The first four are mandatory contract contents. The last three are about your money and your exit.

Check 1: The lien-law notice on the front page (FS 713.015)

Any direct contract over $2,500 between an owner and a contractor for work on a home of up to four units must carry a specific notice, printed in at least 12-point capitalized bold type, either on the front page or on a separate page you sign and date. The notice explains Florida's construction lien law: subcontractors and suppliers who go unpaid can enforce a claim against your property even if you paid the contractor in full, and the property could be sold to satisfy that claim.

The notice also contains the single most useful sentence in the whole document. It tells you to stipulate in the contract that before any payment is made, the contractor must provide a written release of lien from anyone who has sent you a Notice to Owner. That is not a suggestion buried in fine print. It is the state telling you how to protect yourself.

What to look for: the block of capitalized text referencing Sections 713.001 through 713.37. If a roof replacement contract in Brevard County does not have it, ask why.

Check 2: The Recovery Fund statement (FS 489.1425)

Every contract for repair, improvement, or construction on residential property over $2,500 in labor and materials must include a written statement about the Florida Homeowners' Construction Recovery Fund, followed by the Construction Industry Licensing Board's address and phone number. The board can fine a contractor up to $500 for a first omission and $1,000 per violation after that.

Why it matters to you: the fund pays homeowners who lose money on a project because of specified violations by a licensed contractor, after they obtain a judgment, award, or restitution order they cannot collect. The claim has to be filed within a year, and the fund only covers a short list of violations, mainly abandonment, financial mismanagement, and lien-law fraud. For roofing contractors, who fall under Division II licensing, the maximum payment is $30,000 per claim for contracts signed on or after July 1, 2024 (it was $15,000 for contracts signed between mid-2016 and mid-2024). That is not enough to cover a full replacement, but it is a real backstop, and it only exists for licensed contractors. An unlicensed roofer gives you no access to it at all.

What to look for: the capitalized "FLORIDA HOMEOWNERS' CONSTRUCTION RECOVERY FUND" paragraph with a Tallahassee address and phone number under it.

Check 3: The insurance notice above your signature (FS 489.147(7))

Since a 2025 amendment to FS 489.147, every contract to repair or replace a residential roof must include, in bold type of at least 14 points on the signature page, language stating that if the work is related to an insurance claim, you should contact your insurance company to verify coverage, deductibles, and policy terms before signing. By signing, you acknowledge you were advised to do that.

The notice has to be in the contract whether or not your job is an insurance claim. Its advice only kicks in if it is. It is one of three roofing-specific notices in FS 489.147; the other two are next.

Check 4: The no-inducement notice (FS 489.147(5))

The same statute bars a contractor from offering you a rebate, gift card, cash, coupon, deductible waiver, or anything else of value in exchange for letting them inspect your roof or for filing an insurance claim. The contract must include a notice that the contractor may not engage in those practices. If that notice is missing, you may void the contract within 10 days of signing it.

A contractor who violates the section faces disciplinary action and a fine of up to $10,000 per violation. If a roofer in Palm Bay or Viera has already offered to "take care of" your deductible, you do not need to read further. Walk away.

Check 5: How big is the deposit, and what does it trigger? (FS 489.126)

Florida does not cap roofing deposits. What it does is attach obligations to them. A contractor who takes an initial payment of more than 10 percent of the contract price on residential work must apply for necessary permits within 30 days of that payment and start work within 90 days after permits are issued, unless you agree in writing to longer periods or the contractor has just cause.

Separately, a contractor who has received more money than the value of work performed cannot go 90 days without doing any work, absent an agreed period in the contract.

Violations can be prosecuted criminally. The state has to show the contractor kept the money, and a failure to refund within 30 days of your written demand supports that inference. Depending on the amount, the charge ranges from a first-degree misdemeanor under $1,000 to a first-degree felony at $200,000 or more. The statute lays out the homeowner's enforcement path: a written demand sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address in the contract. If the contract has no address, the statute lets you send the demand to the contractor's licensing address on file with DBPR, but the contract address is the one the law points to first.

What to look for: the deposit amount as a percentage of contract price, a stated permit timeline, a stated start window, and a physical mailing address for the contractor in the contract itself.

Check 6: Payment schedule tied to lien releases, not to calendar dates

This one is not a required clause. It is what the required lien notice in Check 1 tells you to negotiate.

Under FS 713.06, a subcontractor or supplier who wants lien rights on your property must serve a Notice to Owner before starting or within 45 days of first furnishing labor or materials. When final payment comes due, the contractor must give you a Contractor's Final Payment Affidavit stating that everyone who served a Notice to Owner has been paid, or listing who has not and how much they are owed. The statute says the owner shall retain the final payment until that affidavit is furnished. If you pay without it, your property is exposed to the full amount of every valid lien you had notice of.

So the payment schedule you want reads: deposit at signing, progress payment on delivery of materials or dry-in against partial lien releases from the contractor and from anyone who has sent a Notice to Owner, and final payment only after the final affidavit and final releases. A contractor who resists that structure is asking you to carry a risk the state's own required notice tells you how to avoid.

Check 7: The emergency cancellation right, if a storm just happened (FS 489.147(6))

If you sign within 180 days of an event covered by a governor's state of emergency declaration and your property is inside the declared area, you may cancel a roof repair or replacement contract without penalty within 10 days of signing or by the official start date, whichever comes first. The official start date is when installation of final materials begins, a permit is issued, or a code-compliant temporary repair is made.

Contracts signed during a declaration must carry that cancellation language in at least 14-point bold type immediately before your signature line. The cancellation right itself lasts 180 days from the storm even if the declaration has already been lifted; only the printed notice depends on the declaration being active. Cancellation has to go by certified mail or another method with proof of delivery, to the address in the contract.

Hurricane season runs through November 30. If a storm comes through Brevard this fall and a crew is at your door two days later with a contract, this is the paragraph to find before you sign.

What all seven checks have in common

Every one of them works best against a licensed contractor with a real address who is willing to put terms in writing. A roofer with no license number on the contract has already taken the Recovery Fund off the table, since the fund does not pay on contracts with an unlicensed contractor, and has left you with no licensing board to complain to. The other statutes still apply to him, but you will be enforcing them in court on your own. We covered how to run the license lookup in our post onverifying a roofing contractor's license in Brevard County.

The other pattern: the statutes protect the homeowner who reads the contract. FS 713.015 tells you to demand lien releases. FS 489.126 gives you a demand-letter process. FS 489.147 gives you a 10-day void right and an emergency cancellation right. None of that works if you sign on the tailgate and file the paper in a drawer.

How we handle it

Our contracts carry the FS 713.015 lien notice, the FS 489.1425 Recovery Fund statement, and the FS 489.147 no-inducement and insurance notices, plus the emergency cancellation notice whenever a state of emergency is in effect. Our state license number CCC1335645 is on the contract. We put the permit timeline, the material spec, and the payment schedule in writing, and we provide lien releases with each draw and a final payment affidavit at the end. You can read what Brevard homeowners have said about that process on ourreviews page, see the full scope ofresidential and commercial roofing serviceswe offer, and checkfinancing optionsif you are budgeting a replacement this season. Common questions about contracts, warranties, and permits are answered on ourFAQ.

This post explains contract requirements under Florida law as we understand them; it is not legal advice. For a dispute over a signed contract, consult a Florida construction attorney.

Ready to compare contracts?

Bring us the other bid. We will walk through it with you line by line, no charge. Call(321) 487-5424orrequest an estimate online. Local Roofing Experts serves Rockledge, Cocoa, Merritt Island, Titusville, Melbourne, and all of Brevard County. Florida license #CCC1335645. Learn moreabout us.