Florida security deposit deadline
In Florida, a landlord making no claim has 15 days after the lease ends to return your deposit. A landlord that wants to keep some of it has 30 days to send written notice of the claim, and the statute says a landlord that misses the 30 days forfeits the right to claim against the deposit. You then have 15 days to object.
| Deadline | Full refund, if the landlord is making no claim: 15 days, 15 days after the rental agreement ended. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(a) Written notice of a claim on the deposit, by certified mail or email: 30 days, 30 days after the rental agreement ended. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(a) |
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| If the landlord misses it | The 15-day date applies only when the landlord does not intend to claim any of the deposit. A landlord that intends to claim has until the 30-day date to send written notice of the claim. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(a) Florida's statute says that if the landlord fails to give the required notice within the 30-day period, the landlord “forfeits the right to impose a claim upon the security deposit and may not seek a setoff against the deposit”. The landlord may still file a separate action for damages after returning the deposit. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(a) The statute also says that a tenant who leaves before the lease ends, or leaves a week-to-week, month-to-month or other periodic tenancy, must give at least 7 days' written notice by certified mail or personal delivery, with an address, unless the written rental agreement provides otherwise. Without that notice, the landlord is relieved of the 30-day notice requirement. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(5) |
| Penalty | Florida's statute has no multiplier. If either side sues over the deposit, “the prevailing party is entitled to receive his or her court costs plus a reasonable fee for his or her attorney.” That works both ways. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(c) |
| Receipts | The notice must state the amount of the claim and the reason, in the form the statute sets out. It does not require receipts. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(a) |
| Your steps | If you leave before the lease ends, or rent week to week, month to month or on another periodic basis, the statute expects at least 7 days' written notice before you leave, by certified mail or personal delivery, with an address where you can be reached. Without it, the landlord is relieved of the 30-day notice requirement, but you keep any right you have to the deposit. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(5) If a claim notice arrives, the statute gives you 15 days from receiving it to object. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(b) |
| Small claims | Small claims limit: $8,000. Check with your court. |
- The 15 and 30 days run from the end of the rental agreement on move-out. If your lease ended on a different day from the day you moved out, enter both dates; we count from the later one.
- Subsidized and public housing may be different. The statute says it “does not apply to transient rentals by hotels or motels ... or in those instances in which the amount of rent or deposit, or both, is regulated by law or by rules or regulations of a public body, including public housing authorities and federally administered or regulated housing programs including s. 202, s. 221(d)(3) and (4), s. 236, or s. 8 of the National Housing Act, as amended, other than for rent stabilization.” It adds: “With the exception of subsections (3), (5), and (6), this section is not applicable to housing authorities or public housing agencies created pursuant to chapter 421 or other statutes.” So for a housing authority the 15- and 30-day rules in subsection (3) still apply (Fla. Stat. § 83.49(4)).
Check your own dates
Sources
Checked against the statute text on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. General information, not legal advice.