How Much Deposit Can a Contractor Ask For in Florida?

Is there a legal limit on contractor deposits in Florida?

No. Florida does not set a maximum deposit for home construction or remodeling the way some states do. California, for example, caps a home-improvement down payment at 10 percent of the price or $1,000, whichever is less. Florida has no equivalent number. A contractor can ask for 10 percent, 30 percent, or half the job up front, and agreeing to it is legal.

The 10 percent figure that comes up so often in Florida is not a limit on the deposit. It is the point at which the law starts paying attention. Under section 489.126 of the Florida Statutes, once your initial payment is more than 10 percent of the contract price, the contractor picks up specific legal obligations tied to that money. Below that line, those particular duties do not attach.

The practical takeaway is that the size of a deposit is a negotiation, not a legal cap, and the risk sits with you. Money you pay before work starts is money you are trusting the contractor to earn. The rest of this page is about what the law requires once that trust is extended, and what you can do if it is broken.

It also helps to know how deposits usually work in practice. For a small job, a contractor may ask for little or nothing until the work is done. For a large remodel or new construction, a deposit that covers materials and getting a crew started is normal, and paying something up front is not a red flag on its own. The warning signs are a demand for most or all of the money before anything begins, pressure to pay in cash or to a personal account, and reluctance to put the schedule and the milestones in writing.

What a contractor must do after taking a large deposit

Once a contractor takes an initial payment of more than 10 percent of the contract price for residential repair, restoration, improvement, or construction, two deadlines start running. The contractor must apply for any permits the job needs within 30 days of your payment, and must start the work within 90 days after those permits are issued.

There is also a floor on stopping. After being paid, a contractor may not fail or refuse to perform the work for any 90-day period without just cause, unless you have both agreed in writing to a longer gap.

"Just cause" is the part that gets argued. A genuine permit backlog at the county, a materials delay outside the contractor's control, or your own failure to make a decision the job is waiting on can all be just cause. A contractor who simply took a better job and stopped answering the phone does not have it. The statute does not spell out every situation, which is where the specific facts, and sometimes a judge, come in.

What happens if a contractor takes your money and disappears

Florida treats this as more than a contract dispute. The mechanism starts with a written demand. If you send the contractor a letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, and they do not apply your money to the project or refund it within 30 days, the law treats that failure as evidence that they intended to defraud you.

From there it can be prosecuted as theft, and the level of the charge scales with the amount of money involved. Taking less than $1,000 and not performing is a first-degree misdemeanor. From $1,000 to just under $20,000 it is a third-degree felony. From $20,000 to just under $200,000 it is a second-degree felony. At $200,000 or more it is a first-degree felony.

This criminal exposure applies whether or not the contractor was licensed. It is one of the few tools that reaches an unlicensed operator, who cannot be disciplined by the licensing board because they hold no license to lose.

In practice, these cases turn on documentation. A signed contract, proof of what you paid, the certified-mail demand with its return receipt, and a record of what work was or was not done are what let a prosecutor or a judge see the pattern. Cash handed over with no receipt and promises made only by phone are much harder to act on, which is one reason a written contract and traceable payments matter more than most people expect at the moment they hand over a deposit.

Your options as a homeowner

Start with the certified-mail demand described above. Even if you never go to court, it is the step the statute is built around: it puts the contractor on a 30-day clock, and the return receipt becomes your evidence. Keep it factual and specific about the amount paid and the work that was promised.

You can file a complaint with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the DBPR, against a licensed contractor. Abandoning a project is its own ground for discipline, and a project may be presumed abandoned when the contractor fails to work without just cause for 90 consecutive days. The board can fine, suspend, or revoke a license. What it will not do is get your money back for you, because discipline is separate from repayment.

To recover the money itself, you generally need a judgment: a decision from a court, an arbitration award, or a restitution order from the Construction Industry Licensing Board. If the contractor was licensed and you have exhausted any bond or insurance, that judgment can open the door to the Florida Homeowners' Construction Recovery Fund, which reimburses homeowners for certain losses. You have to file with the fund within one year after your case concludes.

The fund has limits. For contracts entered on or after July 1, 2024, it pays at most $100,000 per claim and $2 million in total against a single general, building, or residential (Division I) contractor, and $30,000 per claim and $600,000 in total against a specialty (Division II) contractor, and it does not cover attorney fees, court costs, or interest.

Because a large up-front deposit puts your money at risk before any work is done, some homeowners and contractors use milestone-based escrow arrangements, where the funds are committed but release only as work is approved, as an alternative to a large traditional deposit.

When it is worth hiring a lawyer

For a small deposit, a certified-mail demand, a DBPR complaint, and small claims court may be all you need, and none of those require an attorney. Florida small claims court handles disputes up to a set dollar limit and is designed for people to use on their own.

A lawyer earns their fee when the numbers get serious or the path gets technical: deposits large enough to be in felony territory, a contractor who has assets or a license worth pursuing, construction liens filed against your property, or any situation where you want to protect your access to the Recovery Fund, which depends on getting the judgment right. If a criminal case is in play, the state attorney handles the prosecution, not you, though your certified-mail demand and records are what make that case possible.