In 2003, the Florida Legislature, with the stated goals of reducing the amount of construction-defect litigation and protecting the rights of property owners, created a mandatory pre-litigation alternative dispute resolution proceeding by enacting Chapter 558 of the Florida statutes.
Pursuant to Chapter 558, before a property owner can file a lawsuit for construction defects, the owner must first provide written notice of the defects to the responsible parties (contractor, subcontractor, supplier or design professional as applicable) and give them an opportunity to investigate and to resolve the claims. This notice and cure process has had mixed results in its real-world application, and as a result the Legislature has continued to tweak Chapter 558 through various amendments since it was first enacted.
