A new Florida law will prevent developers and contractors from being left holding the bag when they face construction defect lawsuits filed shortly before the 10-year deadline for such claims.

On March 27, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law House Bill 875, which provides parties faced with a construction or design defect lawsuit up to one year to file pass-through claims (counterclaims, cross-claim or third-party claims) regardless of the application of the statute of repose that would otherwise serve as an absolute bar to presenting the pass-through claim. The legislation will apply to actions commenced after July 1. For lawsuits already in existence, the legislation would require any counterclaim, cross-claim or third-party to be filed before July 1, 2019.