Foran Glennon shareholder Sean Ravenel discussed how Florida legislature’s grace period for the state’s statute of repose (“SOR”) law related to construction defect litigation will end in July 2024 with Law360.
In the article titled, “The Clock Is Ticking For Fla. Construction Defect Claims,” Sean explained that July 1, 2024 is the last day for Florida property owners to file lawsuits for latent defects based on the design, planning or construction of an improvement to their property built ten or fewer years ago. Previously, those same property owners had until April of 2026 to discover and file suit for these defects, however, a new seven-year SOR law took effect in Florida on April 13, 2023, which replaced the before 10-year SOR law.
While a short grace period allowing owners to file claims that could have been brought under the old SOR was inserted into the law, the new law will bar many claims that would otherwise have been valid unless they are filed by the July 1, 2024 date.
Sean gives a final warning to those property owners and their representatives to double-check their current statute of repose deadlines as soon as possible and discusses the other impacts of the changes to the law involving the time limits for bringing a construction defect claim, such as new triggering events, a heightened standard of “materiality” and other clarifying language.
Read the full Law360 article here.
Sean focuses his practice on insurance and subrogation litigation, representing corporate and private clients in matters arising from negligence, construction defect, product and material failures, breach of contract, boiler and machinery failures as well as other losses. He handles losses from the date of loss through trial and appeal.