The Ticking Clock of Construction Payments
In construction law, deadlines are everything. Miss a deadline by 24 hours, and you lose your legal right to force payment. But to know your deadline, you have to know exactly when the clock starts ticking.
Almost every preliminary notice deadline is tied to a specific trigger event: the date of 'First Furnishing.' First furnishing is the exact, legally recognized date you first provided physical labor or delivered materials to the project site.
Why The First Furnishing Date Dictates Your Survival
The moment you step on the job site with your tools to perform billable work, or the moment your supply truck drops off a load of lumber, the clock starts. If you calculate this date incorrectly, you will miss your statutory window.
- In Florida, your Notice to Owner must be physically received within 45 days of your first furnishing.
- In California, your 20-Day Preliminary Notice must be sent within 20 days of your first furnishing.
- In Oregon, your Notice of Right to a Lien must be mailed within 8 business days of your first furnishing.
What DOES NOT Count as First Furnishing
Contractors frequently panic and miscalculate their deadlines because they confuse administrative tasks with actual furnishing. The law looks for physical, permanent improvement to the real property.
Legal Distinctions: Signing a contract, attending a pre-construction meeting, dropping off temporary tools, or drawing up architectural plans off-site generally DO NOT count as 'first furnishing' for tradesmen. The trigger is physical labor on the site or physical delivery of materials.
Special Rules: Off-Site Fabrication & Drop Shipping
There are massive legal exceptions to the rule. If you are a custom millworker or structural steel fabricator, your 'first furnishing' might actually begin the day you start fabricating the custom materials in your off-site shop, because those materials cannot be easily sold to another buyer.
For material suppliers, if you drop-ship materials directly to the job site via a third-party courier, your first furnishing date is the day those materials are physically delivered to the site, not the day they left your warehouse.
Common Mistakes with First Furnishing Dates
- Using the Invoice Date: Your invoice date has absolutely nothing to do with your first furnishing date. Do not base legal deadlines on accounting software.
- Using the Contract Signature Date: Signing the paper does not start the clock. Swinging the hammer starts the clock.
- Resetting the Clock for Pauses: If you work for a week, get delayed by rain for two months, and come back, your first furnishing date does NOT reset. It is still the very first day you showed up.