June 26, 2026
If you are a contractor, subcontractor, developer, or design professional in Florida, a string of 2025 court decisions changed how damages in construction defect cases are measured, and the financial stakes are significant. Here is what you need to know.
How Damages Were Measured Before
Since 1982, Florida courts have generally measured construction defect damages two ways: the cost to repair the defect, or the reduction in the value of the property. Under the foundational Grossman Holdings rule, the cost of repair was measured at the time of trial. For decades, that framework held, but that is now being refined.
Three New Cases Shift the Calculation
Three Florida appellate decisions issued in 2025 have provided further insight into the proper measure of damages in construction cases, clarifying various options and time periods from which damages might be measured.
In Bandklayder v. Sabga (Fla. 3d DCA 2025) and Vuletic v. Malkin (Fla. 4th DCA 2025), the courts held that damages for breach of a construction contract should be calculated as of the date of the breach, not the date of an expert’s report or trial. In Vuletic, homeowners lost because they failed to present evidence of damages tied to the date of breach. Interestingly, neither appellate court allowed for the case to be tried again at the trial court level (which was typical in the past) and simply upheld the trial court’s ruling in each case.
A third case, Eloquence on the Bay Condominium Association, Inc. v. CDC Builders, Inc. (Fla. 3d DCA 2025), addressed condominium association disputes specifically, establishing that the turnover of the association serves as the relevant timeframe for measuring damages.
Why the Date of Breach Matters Now More Than Ever
Construction material and labor costs have fluctuated dramatically over the last six years. The difference between what repairs cost in 2020 versus 2026 can be substantial, and that gap cuts both ways depending on which side of the dispute you are on.
Plaintiffs typically submit the estimated cost of repair damages at the time the lawsuit is filed or during a pinpoint in time during discovery. Under these new holdings, that approach is not permissible. Instead, the case law, at least in a breach of construction contract case, indicates that the measure of damages is calculated as of the date of the breach of the contract. The question, however, is: what is the date of the contractual breach? Pinpointing that date is rarely straightforward, because identifying a specific moment in time is impossible. There are arguments to be made that several events, including the date the defect was discovered, the date of turnover, the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, or the issuance of final payment, can serve as the trigger for the breach of contract damages analysis. As a result, a detailed evaluation of the evidence, the viable trigger options, and the timeline of your case is critical to setting up the damages analysis in your case correctly.
Pre-judgment interest and whether repairs have already been completed add further complexity to the analysis.
What This Means for Your Case
For contractors, developers, and design parties, the key takeaway is this: identifying the date of breach early in any dispute is now critical to evaluating potential damages at the end of your case. We also must be cognizant of the measure of damages presented by a plaintiff and the year in which those damages are presented, as it may not be an acceptable timeline based on these new cases.
Questions?
Contact GrayRobinson Shareholder Lauren Eliopoulos, B.C.S., or a member of the Construction Team.