How to Evict a Tenant in Florida: Laws, Process, and Timeline
Florida Eviction Timeline 2026: Notice, Court, and the 24-Hour Writ Window
Florida runs eviction on a summary-procedure track — a 5-business-day answer window instead of the usual 20, a 24-hour vacate clock once the writ is posted. This page covers that lawsuit: notice, filing, the hearing, the writ. Deposits, repair rights, and entry notice are covered separately on our Florida landlord-tenant law guide.
Grounds and Notice Periods
One number below is not what older guides say: the month-to-month no-cause period. Fla. Stat. § 83.57 was amended effective July 1, 2023 (chapter 2023-314), raising it from 15 days to 30 — quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year were untouched by that change.
| Ground | Notice Period | Statute | Curable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-payment of rent | 3 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays | § 83.56(3) | Yes — pay the exact rent stated; late fees or other charges can only be included if the lease names them as additional rent |
| Curable lease violation | 7 days from receipt | § 83.56(2)(b) | Yes — fix the specific noncompliance named |
| Non-curable violation (e.g., destruction of property, repeat of the same violation) | 7 days from delivery | § 83.56(2)(a) | No |
| No-cause, week-to-week | 7 days | § 83.57 | N/A |
| No-cause, month-to-month | 30 days (raised from 15 days, effective 2023-07-01) | § 83.57 | N/A |
| No-cause, quarter-to-quarter | 30 days | § 83.57 | N/A |
| No-cause, year-to-year | 60 days | § 83.57 | N/A |
The Court Process
- File the complaint. Once the notice period runs out, the landlord files an eviction complaint at the county court where the property sits, attaching the notice and lease.
- Service. A sheriff or certified process server serves the summons; posting is a last resort after other methods fail.
- Tenant’s response. Eviction gets Florida’s summary-procedure track under Fla. Stat. § 51.011(1) — the tenant has 5 business days after service to respond, not the ordinary 20-day civil answer window. Raising any defense other than “I paid” — including a defective-notice defense — requires depositing the accrued and accruing rent into the court registry under § 83.60 to keep the case alive; skip that deposit and the landlord can move for a default judgment even if an answer was filed.
- Trial. Florida doesn’t guarantee a jury trial in eviction cases — most are heard by a judge alone. There’s no single verified statewide average for how long this takes: which county is hearing it and whether the tenant answers at all move the number more than any flat range can.
- Judgment. A landlord who wins gets a final judgment for possession.
- Writ of possession. The clerk issues the writ; once it’s posted, the occupants have 24 hours to leave voluntarily — one of the shortest such windows of any state.
- Sheriff lockout. If nobody’s left after 24 hours, the sheriff removes them.
What This Costs
County court filing fees aren’t set by one statewide number — check the fee schedule for the specific county court before filing. High-volume counties like Miami-Dade and Broward can also add scheduling delays that a filing-fee number wouldn’t capture anyway.
What a Landlord Cannot Do
Fla. Stat. § 83.67 bars a landlord from cutting off water, electricity, gas, or other essential services, removing doors, locks, or windows outside of maintenance, taking a tenant’s belongings without a lawful eviction, or blocking reasonable access to the unit. A violation makes the landlord liable for actual and consequential damages or 3 months’ rent — whichever is greater — plus costs and attorney’s fees; repeated violations that aren’t part of the same incident get separate damage awards each. Filing to retaliate against a tenant for a good-faith code complaint, joining a tenant organization, or a fair-housing complaint is barred under § 83.64, though the statute doesn’t set a fixed presumption window the way some states do, and it doesn’t apply if the landlord has a legitimate reason like nonpayment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much notice does a Florida landlord have to give to end a month-to-month tenancy? 30 days — not the 15 days still quoted in some older guides. Fla. Stat. § 83.57 was amended effective July 1, 2023 to raise the month-to-month figure specifically; quarter-to-quarter (30 days) and year-to-year (60 days) weren’t changed by that amendment, and week-to-week tenancies get 7 days.
How long does a tenant have to respond to a Florida eviction complaint? 5 business days, under the summary-procedure rule in Fla. Stat. § 51.011(1) — far shorter than Florida’s ordinary 20-day civil answer window. Raising a defense other than “I already paid” also requires depositing the disputed rent into the court registry under § 83.60 to keep the case alive.
What happens if a Florida landlord shuts off the water to force a tenant out? That’s a prohibited practice under § 83.67, and it’s expensive: the landlord owes actual and consequential damages or 3 months’ rent, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees — not damages layered on top of a flat penalty, but whichever of the two numbers comes out higher.