By the Mountain Cove Homes team · Miami, Florida
Most advice about reading a new construction purchase agreement in Florida makes the same mistake. It treats the document as if the law filled it in, when in truth the law supplies four or five clauses and the builder supplies the rest.
Knowing which is which changes how you read. Statutory clauses are not negotiable and usually not worth arguing about. Everything else is a drafting choice someone made, and drafting choices can be discussed.
One clarification first, because the two documents get confused constantly. A purchase agreement for a home a builder is constructing and will sell you is not a construction contract for a custom build, and the trade-offs in fixed-price versus cost-plus contracts belong to that other document.
The full sequence around this one is in how buying pre-construction actually works, and what the finished house costs to keep is in the full cost of owning a home in Miami-Dade. What your deposit is protected by is in the reservation and the deposit.
The Clauses Florida Actually Requires
Start here, because these are the ones you can check against a public source rather than an opinion.
Flood disclosure came first in 2024 and was amended in 2025. A seller must complete and provide a flood disclosure to a purchaser of residential real property at or before the time the sales contract is executed, in a form the statute prints in full.
The form asks about the seller’s own knowledge and claims history, which on a house nobody has lived in is usually a short set of answers. That is exactly why it gets skimmed.
What it does not tell you is your flood zone or your premium. Both, and what the disclosure actually reaches, are in flood insurance in Miami-Dade.
Association disclosure comes next, and it carries a cancellation right. Where the property is governed by covenants requiring association membership, the contract must contain, in conspicuous type, a clause stating that if the disclosure summary was not provided before execution, this contract is voidable by buyer by delivering to seller or seller’s agent or representative written notice of the buyer’s intention to cancel within 3 days after receipt of the disclosure summary or prior to closing, whichever occurs first.
Three calendar days, not business days. The statute contains no weekend or holiday exclusion, the right may not be waived, and it terminates at closing.
Energy information is the quietest, and on pre-construction it may do no work at all. The duty runs to a prospective purchaser of real property with a building for occupancy located thereon, who must be given information notifying them of the option for an energy-efficiency rating at or before execution of the contract.
Read both halves. There has to be a building on the land for the clause to bite, and even then it notifies you of an option — it does not require the builder to obtain a rating, and it prescribes no penalty for omission.
Two more clauses belong on this list. The escrow legend under §501.1375 must appear in conspicuous type in any contract for a one-family or two-family dwelling, and inside a community development district the contract for the initial sale of a parcel must carry a boldfaced disclosure immediately above the space reserved for your signature.
The Chapter 558 Notice, and Why It Is Weaker Than It Looks
Florida’s construction defect statute has a pre-suit notice and cure procedure, and there is a contract notice attached to it — but not to your document. The notice duty reaches any written contract for improvement of real property entered into between an owner and a contractor, or between an owner and a design professional, which is the custom-build contract rather than a purchase agreement with a builder-seller.
The duty is soft even where it applies. The same subsection provides that the failure to include in the contract the notice provided in this subsection does not subject the contracting owner, contractor, or design professional to any penalty, because its purpose is to promote awareness rather than to punish.
What can still reach you is the opposite move. The chapter applies unless a claimant and a potential defendant have agreed in writing to opt out of the requirements of this section, and the parties may also agree in writing to pre-action mediation or otherwise alter the notice procedure.
So the absence of a Chapter 558 notice in your purchase agreement means nothing. The presence of an opt-out or an arbitration clause means a great deal, and that is the clause worth finding.
The Deadline the Contract Does Not Set, and the One It Must
Buyers usually search the agreement for a completion date and find something soft. That is not an oversight in drafting.
Florida imposes no statutory deadline by which a builder must finish a home sold under a purchase agreement. Completion dates, delay clauses, force-majeure language and outside dates are contract terms, full stop.
There is a statutory start-work clock in Florida, and it is worth knowing mainly so you do not rely on it here. It binds a contractor who takes more than ten percent up front on a contract for repair, restoration, improvement, or construction to residential real property, requiring permit applications within thirty days and work started within ninety days of permit issuance, subject to just cause.
That describes work performed on the payer’s own property — the custom-build contract again, not a purchase agreement for a house the builder is constructing on land it owns. The distinction this article opened with keeps mattering.
Which leaves the practical instruction. Since the law will not give you a completion date, the contract has to, and a date with no consequence attached is not a date. Look for what happens when it passes: does anything change, does any right open, or does the clause merely extend itself.
Specification Changes, Allowances and Substitutions
This is where the money moves after signing, and it is entirely contractual.
Three questions cover most of it. Who may substitute a specified material, on what standard, and does the buyer get notice or merely a result. A substitution clause that permits materials “of equal or better quality” in the builder’s sole judgment is a very different instrument from one requiring written buyer approval.
Allowances deserve the same treatment. An allowance is a budget placeholder, and the contract should say what happens on both sides of it — what you owe when you exceed it, and whether you are credited when you come in under. Many forms are silent on the second half.
Change orders are the third. Ask whether they must be written, whether they may be refused, and whether they extend the completion date automatically. The last one is where a schedule quietly becomes elastic.
The Clock the Contract Cannot Move
One deadline in this transaction is not in your agreement at all, and no clause can lengthen it.
Florida measures construction defect deadlines from a date on a public certificate, not from your closing and not from your warranty. Four years to bring an action, with an outer limit of seven, and repairs performed under warranty do not extend either. The mechanics are in what a certificate of occupancy means.
The consequence for the contract in front of you is the part that belongs here. A builder warranty and a limitations period are different instruments, measured from different events, and a generous warranty does not enlarge the statutory window.
So read the warranty clause for what it gives you inside its own term — scope, exclusions, who performs the repair, how a claim is made — and not as an extension of anything.
The Cancellation Windows, and How Unequal They Are
Worth setting side by side, because the same buyer shopping a house and a condominium is operating under two different regimes.
A condominium purchase from a developer is voidable within 15 days after the date of execution of this agreement by the buyer, and receipt by buyer of all of the items required to be delivered by the developer under the disclosure statute. The right also reopens for fifteen days after receipt of any amendment that materially alters the offering adversely to the buyer.
Chapter 718 then forecloses the obvious response. Any purported waiver of those voidability rights is of no effect, and the right terminates at closing.
Resale condominiums run a third clock, voidable within 7 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, after the date of execution of this agreement by the buyer. If you have read older material saying three, that figure was extended.
Against fifteen days and seven days, a single-family house gets three — and only where the association disclosure was late. Nothing in the deposit statute or the purchase statutes creates a general right to cancel a house contract. What the deposit statute protects, and what it does not, is in the reservation and the deposit.
What the Contract Alone Decides
Everything below is a drafting choice, which means everything below is a question rather than a fact. That is not a weakness in the document; it is where the negotiation actually is.
Assignment is first. Whether you may transfer the contract before closing, on what conditions, and at what fee, is entirely contractual, and a blanket prohibition is common in new construction for reasons that have nothing to do with you.
Financing is second. A financing contingency is a contract term, not a statutory right, and its value lies in its details — how long you have, what counts as a denial, and whether the deposit is returned or forfeited when it is invoked.
Escalation is third, and it is the clause most likely to have grown teeth since 2021. Ask what triggers an increase, whether it is capped, whether you may terminate instead of paying, and what happens to your deposit if you do.
Dispute resolution is fourth and quietest. An arbitration clause, a venue clause, a jury waiver and a fee-shifting provision each change what a disagreement costs you, long before anyone disagrees.
Liens, and Why the Contract Has to Solve a Problem the Statute Does Not
Construction liens attach to the property, not to the person who owed the money. A materialman, laborer, subcontractor or sub-subcontractor who complies with the statute has a lien on the real property improved for any money that is owed to him or her for labor, services, or materials furnished.
Timing is what creates the buyer’s exposure. Liens of this kind attach and take priority as of the time of recordation of the notice of commencement where one was recorded, and take priority over any conveyance not recorded before the lien attached — which includes your deed.
The statute gives that owner a warning system. Every lienor except a laborer must, as a prerequisite to perfecting a lien, serve a notice on the owner setting forth the lienor’s name and address, a description sufficient for identification of the real property, and the nature of the services or materials furnished, before commencing or within forty-five days of commencing.
But that notice runs to the owner during construction, which is the builder, not the future buyer. So the Notice to Owner that protects an owner is one you will never receive.
The statute’s other safeguard is likewise aimed elsewhere. The contractor must give the owner a final payment affidavit stating whether all lienors who timely served notice have been paid in full, and the owner shall retain the final payment due under the direct contract that shall not be disbursed until the contractor’s affidavit has been furnished. Again, the owner in that sentence is the developer.
Chapter 713 imposes no duty on a developer-seller to hand a retail buyer lien releases at closing. That protection is contractual and comes from what your title insurer requires. Which is the honest reason to read the title paragraph of the purchase agreement rather than skim it.
New Construction Purchase Agreement in Florida: Clauses That Deserve a Second Read
A completion date with no consequence attached to passing it.
A substitution clause that lets materials change at the builder’s sole discretion with no notice to you.
An arbitration or opt-out clause that removes Chapter 558 without saying so in those words.
An allowance schedule that charges you for overages and is silent about credits.
A title and lien paragraph that assigns the owner’s policy and the search to someone whose interests are not yours, without saying who bears the cost of a defect found later.
A flood disclosure handed over after signature rather than at or before it. The statute sets that timing for a reason.
Frequently Asked Questions
What disclosures are legally required in a Florida new construction contract?
A flood disclosure in the statutory form, delivered at or before contract execution; a homeowners’ association disclosure summary before signing where the property is in a mandatory association; and information notifying the buyer of the option for a building energy-efficiency rating.
Can you cancel a new construction purchase agreement in Florida?
Only where your contract or a specific statute gives you the right. A late association disclosure creates a three-day cancellation window, and a condominium purchase from a developer is voidable within fifteen days, but there is no general cooling-off period on a single-family contract.
Does Florida law set a deadline for the builder to finish your home?
No. Completion dates are contractual. The only related statutory duty requires a contractor who received more than ten percent up front to apply for permits within thirty days and start work within ninety days after permits are issued, subject to just cause.
How long do you have to bring a construction defect claim?
Four years, running from the earliest of the temporary certificate of occupancy, certificate of occupancy, certificate of completion or abandonment, or from discovery for a latent defect. No action may be commenced more than seven years after that earliest date.
Does a builder warranty extend your legal deadline?
No. Correction or repair of completed work, whether performed under warranty or otherwise, does not extend the period within which an action must be commenced where the work was permitted and a certificate was issued.
Can a construction lien affect you after you buy a new home?
Yes. Liens attach as of recordation of the notice of commencement and take priority over conveyances recorded afterward, including your deed. Protection against that comes from your title work and the contract, not from a statutory duty owed to you.
A purchase agreement is not a test of trust. It is a written record of who carries which risk, and reading it that way makes the conversation with the sales office shorter, not longer.
About Mountain Cove Homes. Mountain Cove Homes is a boutique home builder based in Miami, Florida, building single-family homes and townhomes in small communities across Miami-Dade County — including Golden Park and other communities currently selling. Its personnel have been constructing homes in South Florida since the early 1980s. More about how the company works and where it builds.
This article is general information about property taxes, insurance and community assessments in Florida. It is not tax, legal, insurance or mortgage advice. Figures and statutes change, and the amounts that apply to a specific property depend on that property. Have your own attorney review an agreement, and verify your own numbers with your lender, before you sign anything.
For additional legal disclaimers please see the legal information document.
Talk to Mountain Cove Homes
Mountain Cove Homes is a boutique home builder in Miami, Florida, building single-family homes and townhomes in small communities across Miami-Dade County — most of them with no HOA and no CDD tax. If you want to walk through lot availability, pricing, and what is included at this stage of construction, we will give you the numbers directly.
Office 4878 Southwest 74th Court, Miami, FL 33155 786.458.1805 [email protected]
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