Florida Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

Fla. Stat. § 83.56(3) requires a written 3-day notice demanding payment of rent or possession. The three days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, and the day of delivery does not count, so a notice delivered Wednesday usually expires at the end of Monday. The statute supplies exact form language, and the notice must state the precise amount of rent due and the address of the premises. Delivery is by hand to the tenant, by hand to a person residing in the unit aged 15 or older, or by posting conspicuously on the premises if no one is available.

Under Fla. Stat. § 83.56(2) a curable violation such as an unauthorized pet, guest, or vehicle gets a written 7-day notice to cure, and the tenancy terminates only if the tenant fails to correct it. Non-curable conduct — intentional destruction or damage, continued unreasonable disturbance of neighbors, or a repeat of a similar violation within 12 months of a prior written warning — gets a 7-day unconditional notice to vacate with no opportunity to cure.

Fla. Stat. § 83.57(3) requires at least 30 days' written notice before the end of a monthly rental period to end a month-to-month tenancy, by either party. This was raised from 15 days effective July 1, 2023, and many websites and form packets still publish the old 15-day figure. Florida has no statewide just-cause requirement, and § 83.425 preempts local ordinances that attempted to impose longer notice periods.

Evictions are filed in the County Court of the county where the property is located. The base filing fee is about $185 plus roughly $10 per summons, plus a sheriff or private process server fee for service, and about $90 for the sheriff to execute the writ of possession ($115 in Miami-Dade).

Under the summary procedure in Fla. Stat. § 51.011 the tenant must file a written answer within 5 days of service, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays and not counting the day of service. Under § 83.60(2) a tenant raising any defense other than payment must also deposit the rent alleged in the complaint into the court registry within that same window, and failing to do so waives every defense except payment.

An uncontested nonpayment eviction usually runs about three to six weeks from serving the 3-day notice to the sheriff handing over possession. What stretches it is a defective notice that forces you to start over, a tenant who deposits rent into the registry and earns a hearing, and sheriff scheduling backlogs in high-volume counties such as Broward and Miami-Dade.

Fla. Stat. § 83.67 prohibits shutting off utilities including water, heat, electricity, gas, and garbage service, changing locks or otherwise blocking the tenant's access, and removing the tenant's belongings outside a lawful eviction, surrender, or abandonment. A landlord who does any of it is liable to the tenant for actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus costs and attorney's fees. Separate later violations draw separate damage awards, so a multi-day lockout compounds quickly.

HB 1417 (2023), effective July 1, 2023, raised the month-to-month termination notice from 15 days to 30 days and created Fla. Stat. § 83.425, which preempts local regulation of residential tenancies and nullified dozens of city and county tenant-protection ordinances. No changes to the 3-day or 7-day notice periods have taken effect through August 2026.

Florida courts treat the 3-day notice as a strict-compliance document: a wrong dollar amount, counting weekends into the three days, or filing the complaint one day early all get cases dismissed, and you then serve a fresh notice and start over. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.59(2) a landlord's non-attorney agent may file the initial complaint but may take no other action in the case, so a property manager or an entity-owned rental will effectively need a lawyer once the tenant answers. Since the 2013 amendment to § 83.56(5), accepting partial rent for the period does not by itself waive your right to proceed, though accepting the full amount demanded does. Disregard any local rent or eviction ordinance you find online — § 83.425 voided roughly 46 of them statewide.

• Fla. Stat. § 83.56
• Fla. Stat. § 83.57
• Fla. Stat. § 83.67