One Contractor, Four Risks: Why a Single GC on Your Rental Renovation Is Riskier Than Owners Think

Palm Beach Gardens Owner Guide · Renovation Risk · Palm Beach County, FL

By Jean Taveras, Broker-Owner, Atlis Property Management  ·  Updated September 2026

A make-ready in Palm Beach Gardens usually starts the same way. The tenant moves out, the walk-through finds more than expected, and someone recommends a contractor who will handle everything. One bid, one contract, one phone number. The trade calls it one throat to choke.

The phrase is comforting; the structure is not. A single contract stacks four kinds of risk onto one party, and Florida lien law makes your property the collateral. Here they are in order, with the structure that keeps any one from stopping the job. See our maintenance and project coordination page.

The Four Risks You Concentrate in One Contract

1. Payment: You Can Pay in Full and Still Get Liened

Florida puts the warning in the contract. F.S. 713.015(1) requires a capitalized lien-law notice on most residential direct contracts over $2,500: unpaid subs and suppliers “may look to your property for payment,” and that holds “even if you have already paid your contractor in full.” One GC does not shield you from that.

The exposure is bounded by what the owner did. Under F.S. 713.06(3)(h), an owner who properly retained what the statute requires but made improper payments is liable “only to the extent of the retentions and the improper payments.” The defense is a written lien release at every draw from every party that served a Notice to Owner. Those parties get 45 days from first furnishing under 713.06(2)(a); late service is a complete defense.

2. Schedule: One Crew, One Queue, One Vacant Rental

A GC is a sequencing service, and the sequence runs on their capacity, not yours. The 2025 AGC/NCCER Workforce Survey found 78 percent of responding firms had at least one project delayed in the prior twelve months; those respondents skew commercial, so read it as an industry-wide signal. A renovation schedule is a vacancy schedule.

3. Price: No Competitive Discovery After Signature

Your only pricing leverage is before signing. After that, every surprise behind a wall is a sole-source negotiation with the party holding your job. We quote vendors to the owner first and never mark them up, at 10 percent coordination on projects over $1,000, listed on our pricing page. One lump sum leaves nothing to shop later.

4. Continuity: If the Contractor Walks, the Paperwork Restarts

There is no reliable published abandonment rate for residential contractors, and we will not invent one. What exists is federal survival data: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Business Employment Dynamics series reports that of construction establishments opening in the year ended March 2022, only 63.8 percent were operating three years later. We use it as a proxy for continuity risk.

When a contractor leaves, Florida adds a step. F.S. 713.13(5)(a) states that in order to change contractors, a new notice of commencement or notice of recommencement must be executed and recorded. Under F.S. 713.13(2) the notice is void if work never starts within 90 days of recording; under 713.13(1)(c) later payments are improper.

How to Structure the Job So One Failure Does Not Stop Everything

The goal is not five contractors instead of one. It is a structure in which any single failure is survivable.

Get the Notice of Commencement Right Before Anyone Starts

Start with the number most articles get wrong. The duty to file the Notice of Commencement with the permitting authority before the first inspection applies when the direct contract exceeds $5,000 — F.S. 713.135(1)(e), not $2,500.

Pay Against Releases, Not Against Invoices

Every Notice to Owner goes on a list, and nobody draws until every name on it has signed a release.

Break the Scope Into Blocks You Can Re-Bid

Most make-readies can be split. Roofing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and paint are separable scopes with separable licenses. Blocks keep a competitive number in front of you, stop one failure from freezing the others, and cap what sits with any one party. That is the model we run through maintenance and project coordination.

Plan the Handoff Before You Need It

Assume at signature that you may replace this contractor mid-job. That changes what you ask for: scope in blocks, progress in photographs, and draws that never run ahead of the work.

These are the clocks that decide how long a lien can hang over the property.

One point cuts across all four. If a contractor is unlicensed for the scope, F.S. 489.128 makes the contract unenforceable and leaves that contractor no lien or bond claim — but 489.128(3) preserves the rights of everyone else, so the licensed subs keep their liens.

Common Mistakes Palm Beach Gardens Owners Make

Treating One Throat to Choke as a Risk Strategy

Single accountability is a convenience, not a risk control. The property stays collateral for parties you never contracted with.

Letting the Notice of Commencement Expire

A permitting delay can push a job past the notice window. Payments after expiration are improper under F.S. 713.13(1)(c).

Replacing the Contractor Without Re-Recording

The instinct is to get someone in by Monday. F.S. 713.13(5)(a) requires a new or recommencement notice first.

Throwing Away Notices to Owner

A Notice to Owner is not a collection letter. File them and you have a payee roster; discard them and releases have nothing to run on.

When to Adjust: Triggers That Change the Plan

Who This Is For

The Out-of-State Owner Managing a Make-Ready Remotely

You are buying someone else’s reporting. Phase the scope, require photos at each draw, and put releases in the contract.

The First-Time Landlord Converting a Former Home

A rental adds vacancy cost and different permit questions. Record and post the notice correctly; price the schedule in lost rent.

The Investor Renovating Against a Lease-Up Deadline

Your constraint is calendar, not cost. Separable scopes let you replace a failing trade without renegotiating the job.

The Owner Whose Contractor Has Already Stopped Answering

Do not send another payment. Document the work, list every Notice to Owner, and handle the recommencement notice first.

“The owners who get hurt usually did not pick a bad contractor. They paid every draw on time, never collected a release, and had nothing in the file when a sub came looking. No draw goes out here until the releases are in hand.”

— Jean Taveras, Broker-Owner, Atlis Property Management · FL Broker CQ1071712

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