Breaking a lease in Florida: the landlord's side.

Sooner or later a tenant calls to say they are leaving early. A job moved, a relationship ended, they bought a house. The owner's first instinct is usually that the tenant owes the rest of the lease. Florida's answer is more specific than that. What you can recover depends on which of four statutory remedies you use, on what the lease and a separate addendum say, and on what you do once the tenant hands back the keys.

Every rule below is quoted from the Florida Statutes, chapter 83, part II, and linked at the end.

1. When the four remedies apply

Fla. Stat. § 83.595 opens with a condition. The remedies are available when the tenant breaches the rental agreement and one of three things has happened: the landlord "has obtained a writ of possession," the tenant "has surrendered possession of the dwelling unit to the landlord," or the tenant "has abandoned the dwelling unit."

That matters because it tells you where the process starts. A tenant who announces they are leaving but is still living there has not surrendered anything. The practical moment is the return of the keys, or a court's writ, or a unit that is legally abandoned (see section 5).

2. The four remedies, side by side

Remedies (1) and (2) both start the same way, with the landlord taking the unit back, but they end very differently: under (1) the tenant owes nothing more, under (2) the tenant owes the shortfall. The statute distinguishes them by whose account the landlord retakes possession for. If you intend to hold the tenant to the shortfall, say so in writing when you take the keys back, so there is no question later about which remedy you chose.

3. Reletting: what "good faith" means

Remedy (2) is the one most landlords want, because a new tenant starts paying and the old tenant covers the gap. It comes with a duty. Under § 83.595(2), "the landlord has a duty to exercise good faith in attempting to relet the premises," and any rent received from the new tenancy "must be deducted from the balance of rent due from the tenant."

The statute defines the standard, which is unusual and useful:

In practice that means your records from the original letting become the yardstick. Keep the listing, the listing dates, the asking rent and the showings log. The statute measures the second marketing effort against the first, so doing less the second time is the weak point in any claim for the shortfall.

4. The early termination fee: the only clean exit, if you set it up

Remedy (4) gives both sides certainty. The tenant pays a fixed amount, and the landlord is spared an argument about reletting efforts. It is also the remedy with the strictest conditions, and all of them are set by the lease you signed on day one, not by what you decide when the tenant calls.

• A cap. The amount may "not exceed 2 months' rent."
• A notice cap. For an early termination fee, the tenant may be required to give "no more than 60 days' notice" before the proposed termination date.
• A separate, signed addendum. The tenant must indicate acceptance "by signing a separate addendum to the rental agreement." A clause buried in the lease itself does not satisfy the statute.
• Agreement at the start. The remedy is available "only if the tenant and the landlord, at the time the rental agreement was made, indicated acceptance."

The statute prescribes the wording of the addendum. The tenant ticks one of two boxes:

Read the first box closely. By offering the fee, the landlord gives up any rent beyond the month in which it retakes possession. What the landlord keeps, under § 83.595(4)(a), is the fee, "the rent and other charges accrued through the end of the month in which the landlord retakes possession," and "charges for damages to the dwelling unit."

5. Abandonment, and what not to do with the keys

An owner who has not heard from the tenant and finds the unit apparently empty is tempted to change the locks. Florida law is unforgiving about that. Section 83.67(2) prohibits a landlord from preventing the tenant's access "by any means, including, but not limited to, changing the locks," and § 83.67(1) prohibits cutting off utilities. The penalty under § 83.67(6) is "actual and consequential damages or 3 months' rent, whichever is greater, and costs, including attorney's fees."

The lawful route is the abandonment presumption in § 83.59(3)(c). Where the landlord has no actual knowledge of abandonment, the tenant is presumed to have abandoned the unit if absent "for a period of time equal to one-half the time for periodic rental payments." On a monthly lease that is half a month. The presumption does not apply "if the rent is current or the tenant has notified the landlord, in writing, of an intended absence."

Belongings left behind are a separate question. Under § 83.67(5) a landlord may not remove the tenant's property except after surrender, abandonment, a lawful eviction or the specific death-of-tenant procedure. If the lease carries the legend set out in that subsection, printed or clearly stamped, the landlord is not responsible for storing or disposing of property left after surrender or abandonment. Without it, the notice procedure for personal property left behind in Fla. Stat. § 715.104 applies.

If the tenant has not surrendered and the presumption does not apply, the route to possession is the county court process described in our guide to the Florida eviction process.

6. Servicemembers: a right the lease cannot remove

One group of tenants has a statutory right to leave early. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.682(1), a servicemember may terminate the lease by written notice effective at least 30 days after the landlord receives it, where one of six conditions applies. The most common are permanent change of station orders requiring a move of 35 miles or more, a premature or involuntary discharge, orders into government quarters, and temporary duty orders of more than 60 days to an area 35 miles or more away.

• The notice must come with a copy of the official orders or a written verification signed by the commanding officer (§ 83.682(2)).
• The tenant owes rent prorated to the effective date and "is not liable for any other rent or damages due to the early termination" (§ 83.682(4)).
• If the tenant terminates 14 or more days before occupancy, "no damages or penalties of any kind will be assessable."
• The section "may not be waived or modified by the agreement of the parties under any circumstances" (§ 83.682(5)). An early termination fee addendum does not override it.

7. Leaving at the end of the lease is a different rule

A tenant who stays to the last day of the lease but moves out without notice has not broken the lease early. Section 83.595(4)(b) says the early termination remedy "does not apply if the breach is failure to give notice as provided in s. 83.575." That breach has its own rules:

The 15-day reminder in § 83.575(2) is the step owners miss. Without it, the liquidated damages clause for a missed end-of-lease notice cannot be enforced, however clearly the lease states it.

8. The deposit still runs on its own clock

An early departure does not change the security deposit deadlines. Under § 83.49(3)(a), if you intend to claim against the deposit, you must send written notice "within 30 days after the termination of the rental agreement," by certified mail to the tenant's last known mailing address or by e-mail as allowed under § 83.505. Miss it and you forfeit the right to claim against the deposit, although you may still sue for damages after returning it. If you make no claim, the deposit is due back within 15 days.

One detail in the tenant's disfavor: where interest is payable on a deposit, § 83.49(9) says the landlord "is not required to pay interest to a tenant who wrongfully terminates his or her tenancy before the end of the rental term." The full deposit timetable is in our guide to Florida security deposit law.

Which remedy to choose

There is no universal answer, and anyone offering one is guessing about your market and your tenant. The questions that decide it are practical:

1. Did the tenant sign the § 83.595(4) addendum? If yes, the fee is usually the quickest and least contested outcome.
2. How fast will the unit relet? In a strong rental season, remedy (2) may leave little or no shortfall to chase.
3. Is the tenant collectable? Remedies (2) and (3) create a debt. A judgment against someone who has left the state is worth what you can enforce.
4. Are you ready to show the good-faith effort? If your original marketing was thorough, remedy (2) is defensible. If it was a single listing, keep the reletting at least as thorough.
5. Is the tenant a servicemember with qualifying orders? Then § 83.682 decides, not the lease.

The checklist

1. Offer the § 83.595(4) addendum as a separate signed page at every new lease and every renewal, with the amount filled in and no more than 2 months' rent.
2. When a tenant says they are leaving, get the surrender in writing: the date, the keys, and a forwarding address.
3. State in writing which remedy you are using. If you are reletting for the tenant's account, say so.
4. Keep the marketing record from the original letting and match or exceed it when reletting.
5. Never change the locks, remove belongings or cut utilities on an occupied or disputed unit.
6. Check whether the tenant is a servicemember before quoting any fee.
7. Diary the 30-day deposit claim deadline from the day the tenancy ends.
8. For fixed-term leases, send the § 83.575(2) reminder within the 15 days before the notice period begins.

CIMCO manages long-term rentals across Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Broward County. Lease addenda, move-out documentation, reletting and the deposit notice are part of full-service management at a flat 8% fee. Choosing the next tenant well is the best protection against an early departure, and our tenant screening guide sets out how to do it lawfully.

This is general information, not legal advice. Florida landlord–tenant law is detailed and fact-specific, and statutes change. Verify anything you intend to act on against the current Florida Statutes Chapter 83, Part II, and consult a Florida attorney before serving notices or filing an eviction.