Create your Notice of Commencement, submit it electronically for recording in the Official Records of Hillsborough County, and receive the recorded document back through your Swift-E Recording account — no trip to the courthouse.
Whether the project is in Tampa, Plant City, Temple Terrace, Brandon, Riverview, Valrico, or elsewhere in Hillsborough County, the NOC is recorded at the county level.
Already have an NOC? Upload it and submit it for recording.
Use Swift-E Recording’s free NOC Generator to prepare your document, or upload a Notice of Commencement you’ve already completed.
Review your Notice of Commencement and submit it electronically to the Hillsborough County Clerk through Swift-E Recording.
Hillsborough County accepts Notices of Commencement through electronic recording vendors.
Once Hillsborough County records the document, your recorded NOC is returned to your Swift-E account, ready for your permit file and job site.
Use a Good Scanner: Scan your signed and notarized NOC using an actual document scanner whenever possible. Cell-phone photos and photos converted to PDF can contain glare, shadows, blur, crooked pages, or cut-off text that may result in recording problems.
Florida’s Construction Lien Law places important requirements on Notices of Commencement.
Before submitting, review your Notice of Commencement carefully.
Make sure it includes:
Florida Statute §713.13 identifies the information required in a Notice of Commencement.
Florida recording requirements call for the name and post-office address of the natural person who prepared the document or under whose supervision it was prepared.
Do not list only a company name.
Example:
Prepared By:
Jane Smith
123 Main Street
Tampa, FL 33602
Blurry text, shadows, glare, crooked pages, and cut-off margins can cause recording problems even when the NOC is otherwise complete.
Best practice: Use an actual document scanner and review every page before uploading.
Florida’s statutory NOC form calls for property information sufficient to identify the real property, including the legal description, street address, and tax folio number if available.
Review the property information carefully before submitting.
The Notice of Commencement must be properly signed and notarized.
For an individual owner, the owner signs the document. If the owner is an entity or another authorized legal capacity applies, the signatory should sign in the appropriate capacity shown on the statutory form.
Make sure the notarial section is complete and legible.
Check that the owner’s and contractor’s names and addresses are complete and consistent with the permit information.
The permitting authority is required to compare key NOC information with the building permit application.
Leave:
These spaces are required by Florida Statute §695.26 and reserved for the Clerk’s recording information.
The Notice of Commencement is recorded in Hillsborough County Official Records, regardless of which local building department issued the permit.
After recording, the required NOC documentation is provided to the appropriate permitting authority before the applicable inspection.
Florida law permits the required proof to include a certified copy of the recorded NOC, certain official recording information, or other documentation specified in §713.135.
Based on Swift-E Recording’s recent Hillsborough County submissions, NOC recordings are typically completed the same business day.
Hillsborough is one of the faster counties Swift-E currently processes.
Actual turnaround can vary depending on the time of submission, county workload, weekends, holidays, document quality, and whether the submission requires correction.
The Hillsborough County Clerk states that eRecording does not guarantee immediate recording and advises that time-sensitive documents requiring immediate recording be submitted in person.
The Clerk separately advises that mailed/electronically received NOCs may take longer to be validated and entered into the Official Records index, so Swift-E’s same-day figure should be understood as observed Swift-E processing experience rather than a county guarantee.
You do not have to use the Swift-E NOC Generator.
If your Notice of Commencement has already been prepared, signed, and notarized, upload it and submit it electronically for recording.
Florida law requires the NOC to be posted at the job site before the first inspection when applicable.
The statute allows either:
to satisfy the posting requirement.
If you need a certified copy, request one through your Swift-E recording workflow where available.
Prepare your NOC without paying for a separate form service.
Based on recent Swift-E submissions, NOC recordings are typically completed the same business day.
Record NOCs for projects in Tampa, Plant City, Temple Terrace, and throughout unincorporated Hillsborough County.
Receive your recorded NOC through your Swift-E account.
Request a certified copy through the recording workflow where available.
Pay only when you record.
Yes. Hillsborough County accepts Notices of Commencement through electronic recording vendors, and Swift-E lets you submit the document electronically and receive the recorded NOC back through your account.
No.
The Notice of Commencement is recorded in the Official Records of Hillsborough County.
If your permit was issued by the City of Tampa, the required NOC documentation is then provided to the City of Tampa building department for the permit/inspection process.
For projects subject to the NOC requirement, it must be recorded and the required documentation provided before the first inspection.
Florida law does not require the NOC to be recorded before the building permit itself is issued.
Yes.
If the improvement does not actually begin within 90 days after the NOC is recorded, the Notice of Commencement becomes void.
The Notice of Commencement must be properly executed by the owner in accordance with Florida law.
The statutory form also provides for signatures in appropriate representative capacities when the owner is an entity or another legally authorized capacity applies.
Yes. The statutory form includes a notarial acknowledgment for the owner’s signature.
Unless the Notice of Commencement states a different expiration date, it generally ceases to be effective one year after the date of recording.
Florida’s recording statute requires the name and post-office address of the natural person who prepared the instrument or under whose supervision it was prepared for instruments subject to §695.26.
Based on recent Swift-E Recording submissions, Hillsborough NOCs are typically being recorded the same business day.
Same-day recording is not guaranteed.
Review the rejection information, correct the document or submission issue, and resubmit through your Swift-E account.
Before resubmitting, check:
Yes. Swift-E can also electronically submit eligible Terminations of Notice of Commencement for recording in Hillsborough County.
Whether your project is in Tampa, Plant City, Temple Terrace, Brandon, Riverview, Valrico, or elsewhere in Hillsborough County, you can prepare or submit your Notice of Commencement through Swift-E Recording.
Create your NOC for free or upload a completed document and submit it electronically for recording.
Swift-E Recording provides electronic document recording services and records documents as submitted. Swift-E does not provide legal advice.
