Estate and Succession Planning
Dean Mead’s Estate and Succession Planning Department is one of the largest and most respected groups of estate planning attorneys in Florida. We are frequently…
Amendment to Section 558.004 Corrects Ruling in Gindel v. Centex Homes
Effective July 1, 2019, a notice of claim served under Chapter 558, Florida Statutes, will no longer serve to toll the statute of repose that applies to actions founded on a construction defect.
In Gindel v. Centex Homes, 267 So. 3d 403 (4th DCA 2018), which we wrote about in a “Final Judgment” article published last year, the Fourth DCA held that service of a presuit notice of construction defect is considered an “action” that satisfies the 10-year statute of repose. We had some concerns about the potential consequences of that decision, noting that, “[w]hen put into practice, the holding in Gindel may have the undesirable effect of extending a builder’s potential liability for construction defects for a much longer period of time than the Legislature envisioned.”
The Florida Legislature apparently had similar concerns. In response to Gindel, the Legislature added subsection (1)(d) to Fla. Stat. § 558.004, which now provides that “[a] notice of claim served pursuant to this chapter shall not toll any statute of repose period under chapter 95.”
The addition of subsection (1)(d) closes the door on a case that, in our view, unnecessarily prolonged a builder or contractor’s potential liability for construction defects.
