Florida
Time frame to report construction defects in Florida to shift from 10 to 7 years starting July 1
FLORIDA – Florida construction law is changing, cutting the amount of time homeowners have to file construction defect claims by 30%.
Beginning Monday, July 1, the time frame to report construction defects in the state of Florida will shift from 10 years to seven years.
The change in the law affects anyone who owns a home that was recently built, but it especially impacts homeowners in that 7-to-10-year time frame.
The News4JAX I-TEAM receives complaints regularly about construction defects in newer-built homes. Most recently, we heard from a Middleburg homeowner dealing with mold, humidity, and improper ventilation issues.
“It’s a brand-new house. It’s unacceptable,” homeowner Erin LePage said last year. “If we could have been here for our walkthrough, it would have been different.”
RELATED | ‘It’s unacceptable’: Middleburg homeowner says new build troubled with mold, humidity, ventilation issues
Brian Crevasse, a board-certified construction attorney, said this change will impact hundreds of thousands of people in Florida — if not more.
Senate Bill 360 was signed into law last summer changing the time limit from 10 years to seven years.
Crevasse said this is a real concern because he deals with clients who are often past the seven-year threshold when reporting construction defects.
“Oftentimes, these defects are actually concealed. And you wouldn’t be able to necessarily see that you have water intrusion, just by taking a walk around the building and looking at it, you would have to actually remove some of the exterior facade to look for the types of issues that we typically see,” Crevasse said.
The new law also changes when the countdown starts for filing claims. Previously, the time frame started when you got possession of your home or when construction was finished.
MORE | Worried about construction fraud? Here are some ways you can protect yourself
“If you are a homeowner or association that was built, you know, seven to 10 years ago, you know, you’re going to want to run out and get counsel as soon as possible to see if there’s a way to file by Monday. And then, for everybody else that may have homes that are four or five, six years old, you know, you’re just going to want to be extremely diligent about pursuing any potential issues that you might see with your home going forward so that you don’t run out of time at that seven years,” Crevasse said.
The new law starts the countdown from the earliest of the following events:
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When the building gets a temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy
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At the completion of the building
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At the abandonment of construction, even without completion
Copyright 2024 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.
Florida
Florida couple in alleged embryo mix-up have identified biological parents of ‘non-caucasian’ baby
A Florida couple who claimed a fertility clinic error led the woman giving birth to a “non-Caucasian child” who was not related to them said they have identified their child’s biological parents, according to reports.
“The results of testing delivered to us today confirm that our baby’s genetic parents have been identified,” Tiffany Score and Steven Mills said in a statement obtained by People on Wednesday.
Score and Mills filed a lawsuit in January against Fertility Center of Orlando and its head reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol, alleging that another patient’s embryo was implanted in Score’s uterus in April 2025.
The mix-up led to the birth of their now 4-month-old daughter, Shea, who is not biologically related to them, the filing alleged.
“This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved,” the statement continued. “In addition, questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered.”
“Only one thing is as absolutely certain today as it was on the day our daughter was born —we will love and will be this child’s parents forever.”
The couple added that they will respect the privacy of Shea’s biological parents and will keep their identities “confidential.”
Score and Mills, who are both white, stored three viable embryos at the Longwood clinic in 2020 for in vitro fertilization, a process that creates embryos and stores them until pregnancy.
Five years later, after an embryo was implanted, the couple gave birth to a “beautiful, healthy female child” on Dec. 11, 2025, according to the lawsuit filed Jan. 22 in Orange County Circuit Court and obtained by Law & Crime.
“Tragically, while both Jane Doe and John Doe are racially Caucasian, Baby Doe displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child,” the lawsuit said.
Further genetic testing confirmed that baby Shea had no biological relationship to either parent — raising questions about where their embryos had gone or whether another woman was impregnated with their biological child.
The new parents had an “intensely strong emotional bond” with their child during pregnancy and wished to keep the girl, but recognized she “should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able and willing to take her,” the lawsuit stated.
Scarola told People, following Wednesday’s development, that Shea’s biological parents have not made any requests to take her into custody.
“Remaining questions about the fate of Tiffany and Steven’s unaccounted for embryos…are still pending,” Scarola said.
“The current legal proceeding will remain open to address those matters,” the attorney added. “However, we expect that we will now also begin to focus on the need for our clients to be compensated for the expenses they have incurred and the severe emotional trauma that they endured and will continue to experience.”
The Fertility Clinic of Orlando announced earlier this month that it would close by May 20 — a decision leadership said was made after “thoughtful consideration.”
Neither Scarola nor the clinic immediately responded to The Post’s request for comment.
Florida
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Florida
Florida investigating AI role in mass shooting at university
Florida on Tuesday announced a criminal probe into whether artificial intelligence played a role in a deadly mass shooting at a university in the US state.
“If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,” Uthmeier said.
Florida law allows anyone who assists or counsels someone in the commission of a crime to be treated as an “aider and abettor” bearing the same responsibility as the perpetrator, according to Uthmeier.
In exchanges with ChatGPT, the accused shooter sought advice on what type of gun and ammunition to use, as well as where and when on campus a lot of people would likely be found, the state attorney general said during a press briefing.
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
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