Kelly Roofing liens: ABC Supply files against Naples homeowners

Kelly Roofing customers who already paid in full are receiving construction liens from the supplier, and a new Kelly Roofing company was registered in Florida on August 5

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 11, 2026

Weathered curved clay roof tiles running in overlapping rows up to a ridge, stained and lichen spotted, with a pale sky and the top of a single conifer behind. No person, no address, no signage and no company mark appears. A generic photograph of old roof tiles, not a picture of any home, roof or job site in this story.

Photo: Miguel Á. Padriñán / Pexels

What it changes

The part of this that surprises people is that it is working exactly as Florida wrote it. A supplier who delivered materials to a house and was never paid by the contractor can record a lien against that house, and paying the contractor in full does not by itself stop it. The statute is candid about this to the point of shouting. The notice to owner form set out in section 713.06 carries a warning in capital letters telling the owner that suppliers may file liens even if you have made payment in full, and that the way to avoid paying twice is to obtain a written release from the supplier every time you pay your contractor. Most homeowners receive that notice, file it with the contract and never think about it again, and it is the single document in the pile that was trying to prevent this. So the first thing to do is to find it. The date on the notice to owner matters more than almost anything else in the file. Under section 713.06(2)(a) the supplier had to serve that notice before it began furnishing materials or no later than 45 days after it began, and the statute says failure to serve the notice, or to timely serve it, is a complete defence to enforcement of a lien by any person. A homeowner whose materials were delivered in May and whose first notice arrived in August is in a materially different position from one who was served on time, and that is a question of dates on paper rather than a question of fairness. The second thing worth knowing is that a recorded lien is not permanent and the clock can be shortened by the owner rather than run by the lienor. Section 713.22 gives a lien one year from recording, after which it does not continue unless the lienor has commenced an action to enforce it. Subsection (2) of the same section lets an owner or the owner's attorney record a notice of contest of lien, and once that notice is served the lienor has 60 days to file suit or the lien is extinguished automatically. Section 713.21 sets out the other exits, including a complaint by any interested party that puts a summons on the lienor to show cause within 20 days why the lien should not be enforced or cancelled. None of these are self executing and all of them are the reason to be talking to a construction attorney in August rather than next spring. Third, the amounts on these liens are not the amounts the homeowners paid, and the two numbers answer different questions. A claim of lien under section 713.08 states what the lienor is owed for the materials it furnished, which is a wholesale figure for shingles or tile, and it has no relationship to the contract price the owner already handed over. That is why a 65,000 dollar job can produce a lien in the twenties. It also means the exposure on an unfinished job is capped by what was actually delivered to the address, which is worth establishing early with delivery tickets. Fourth, and least discussed, this lands in the middle of hurricane season on houses that in some cases have no finished roof, and the insurance consequence arrives faster than the legal one. A homeowner who spent an insurance payout on a deposit, has an open roof and no money to hire a second contractor is exposed on the policy as well as on the title, and a lien on the property is its own complication in any refinancing or sale in the meantime. Finally, the counterparty question from July has not gone away and has quietly grown. State records now show seven Florida entities carrying the Kelly Roofing name, and the newest of them was registered on August 5, five days before customers were told the founder had bought the business back. Anyone in this position should read the entity name and document number off their own contract and their own cancelled cheque, because that is who owes them, and a company registered this month is not automatically the company that took their deposit in May.

Dozens of Southwest Florida homeowners who paid Kelly Roofing are now being asked to pay a second time, this time by the company that supplied the materials.

The development was reported by Chorus Nylander and Robin Wolfe at WINK News on Monday evening. According to that report, ABC Supply Company has filed construction liens against at least two dozen affected homeowners over materials delivered for Kelly Roofing jobs. The station reported that John Watson of Naples paid 65,000 dollars for a project finished in June and afterwards received a lien from ABC Supply for over 25,000 dollars, describing it as a complete surprise in his ninetieth year. It reported that Barry Stivers of North Naples handed over a 9,600 dollar deposit in May, had materials delivered to the house, never had work started, and now has a lien on his home. It also reported that Bill and Nancy Rakow of Naples paid more than 29,000 dollars in May, about 75 percent of their project cost, and had roof tiles removed before communication stopped.

This desk reported on July 29 that Kelly Roofing had told customers it was insolvent and winding down after its lender froze its account.

The mechanism is ordinary Florida law rather than anything unusual to this case. Section 713.06 of the Florida Statutes gives a materialman who was not in privity with the owner a lien on the property, and the notice to owner form written into that section warns in capital letters that a supplier may file even where the owner has made payment in full, and that the way to avoid paying twice is to obtain a written release from the supplier on every payment made to the contractor.

That right is conditional. Subsection (2)(a) requires the notice to be served before the supplier begins furnishing materials, or no later than 45 days after it begins, and it states that failure to serve the notice, or to timely serve it, is a complete defence to enforcement of a lien by any person. The notice has to be served whether the owner paid properly or improperly.

A recorded lien also has an end date. Section 713.22 gives it one year from recording unless the lienor commences an action to enforce it, and it lets the owner record a notice of contest of lien, which cuts the lienor down to 60 days from service before the lien is extinguished automatically. Section 713.21 adds a further route, a complaint by any interested party that summons the lienor to show cause within 20 days why the lien should not be enforced or cancelled of record.

State corporate records add something the customer emails did not.

WINK reported that customers received an email late on Friday saying former owner Ken Kelly had repurchased the company and intended to resume operations and finish unfinished jobs. Florida Division of Corporations records show that a new limited liability company called Kelly Roofing USA, LLC, document number L26000406764, was filed on August 5, five days before that report. It is listed as active. Its principal and mailing address is on Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, its registered agent is Corporation Service Company in Tallahassee, it has no federal employer identification number on the record, it has filed no annual report, and its authorised person detail reads none.

The two Kelly Roofing entities that were already active both carry a principal address at 8000 Belfort Parkway in Jacksonville. This publication has not established any connection between the August 5 filing and the repurchase described to customers, and the state record does not name anyone as controlling the new company.

WINK reported that the collapse coincides with litigation in Delaware and Florida in which Kelly Roofing's management has accused Chantelle Flores, founder of Integrity Roofing and Gutters, of multimillion dollar fraud after last year's merger. The station reported that counsel for Flores denied the allegations, filed counterclaims and gave the station a statement, and that Monument Microcap Partners, Integrity Roofing and Gutters and ABC Supply Company did not return its requests for comment.

No bankruptcy petition by any Kelly Roofing entity appears in the federal court records searched for this item, and this publication has not confirmed one.

Kelly Roofing customers who already paid in full are receiving construction liens from the supplier, and a new Kelly Roofing company was registered in Florida on August 5

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