Florida Bar Lease Agreement: Disclosures, Deposits, and Termination

The Florida Bar lease agreement is a free, standardized residential rental contract approved by the Supreme Court of Florida, published in two versions — one for single-family homes and duplexes, one for apartments and other multi-family units — and usable for terms of one year or less.¹ It lets a landlord and tenant put a rental in writing without hiring an attorney. The Florida Bar itself cautions that the form is not a substitute for legal advice, because the statutes change and your situation may raise questions a template can’t answer.

Which Form to Use

Pick the version that matches the property:

Residential Lease for Single Family Home or Duplex, for standalone houses and duplexes.²
Residential Lease for Apartment or Unit in Multi-Family Rental Housing, for apartments, condominiums, cooperatives, and mobile homes other than duplexes.³

Both are free PDFs from the Florida Bar’s website or the Florida Supreme Court’s online form library. Neither form covers commercial, agricultural, or other non-residential property, and neither works for a term longer than one year. If your arrangement runs past twelve months, you need a custom, attorney-drafted lease.

Filling In the Blanks

Start with the parties. Every landlord and every tenant should appear by full legal name. Anyone who lives in the unit but is not named on the lease generally has no enforceable rights or obligations under it.

For the property, use the street address and zip code. A formal legal description from the deed is not required.² The form also asks you to list any furniture and appliances that come with the rental. If nothing is included, write “none.” A blank line invites an argument later about what was actually provided.

Enter exact start and end dates. Those dates define when the tenant may occupy the unit and when rent obligations run. Because the form caps the term at one year, anything longer requires a different document.

Rent gets its own field. Write the dollar amount and the day it is due. Under Florida law, rent is payable at the beginning of each payment period without a bill or reminder from the landlord, and if the lease doesn’t state a duration, the tenancy type follows the payment schedule: monthly rent creates a month-to-month tenancy, weekly rent creates a week-to-week tenancy.⁴

Chapter 83, Part II does not set a statutory cap on late fees for standard residential rentals, but courts will strike down a late fee that looks like a penalty rather than a reasonable estimate of the landlord’s actual damages. State a specific dollar amount or percentage so both sides know the number in advance.

Required Disclosures

A Florida residential lease is incomplete without two disclosures. The Bar’s forms already include the language, but if you edit or substitute one, verify both are present.

Radon Gas Notice

Section 404.056(5) of the Florida Statutes requires every rental agreement to carry a specific radon notification, using the prescribed language about radon being a naturally occurring radioactive gas, about elevated levels being found in Florida buildings, and about the county health department as a source of further information.⁵ The landlord is not required to test for radon. The disclosure just puts the tenant on notice.

Lead-Based Paint Disclosure

For any property built before 1978, federal law requires the landlord to disclose known information about lead-based paint hazards before the lease is signed, provide any records or reports on lead in the property, give the tenant the EPA pamphlet “Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home,” and include a lead warning statement in or attached to the lease.⁶ This is a federal rule and applies whichever lease form you use.

Handling the Security Deposit

Florida’s deposit statute is detailed, and it is where landlords most often go wrong. Under Section 83.49, deposit money must be held in one of three ways:⁷

In a separate, non-interest-bearing account at a Florida financial institution, with no commingling of the landlord’s own funds.
In a separate interest-bearing account, with the tenant entitled to at least 75 percent of the annualized average interest rate on the account, or 5 percent simple interest per year, at the landlord’s choice.
Secured by a surety bond posted with the clerk of the circuit court for the total amount of deposits held or $50,000, whichever is less, with 5 percent simple interest paid annually to the tenant.

Within 30 days of receiving the deposit, the landlord must give the tenant written notice stating how the money is held, the name and address of the institution, and whether interest accrues. Missing this notice does not forfeit the deposit outright, but it weakens the landlord in any later dispute.

When the tenancy ends, the landlord has 15 days to return the full deposit if no deductions are claimed. To keep any portion, the landlord must send a written notice by certified mail (or email if the tenant has consented to electronic notices) within 30 days, stating the specific reasons. The tenant then has 15 days to object. If no objection comes, the landlord may take the claimed amount and must return any balance within 30 days of the original notice. Blowing these deadlines can cost the landlord the right to deduct anything.

Maintenance: What the Lease Can and Can’t Change

Florida treats single-family and multi-family rentals differently. For every rental, the landlord must comply with applicable building, housing, and health codes. Where no such codes apply, the landlord must keep roofs, windows, doors, floors, exterior walls, foundations, and plumbing in working condition.⁸

For apartments, condos, and other multi-family units, the landlord also has to handle pest control (roaches, rodents, ants, wood-destroying organisms, bedbugs), locks and keys, common-area cleanliness and safety, garbage removal, and heat, running water, and hot water, unless the lease says otherwise in writing.

For single-family homes and duplexes, the statutory list is narrower and can be shifted to the tenant by written agreement. The landlord must, however, install working smoke detectors at the start of the tenancy.

If the landlord fails to meet these obligations and doesn’t correct the problem within seven days after written notice from the tenant, the tenant may terminate the lease.⁹ If the failure makes the unit uninhabitable, the tenant owes no rent while the condition lasts. If the unit is still livable but worth less, rent is reduced proportionally.

Ending the Lease

When a fixed-term Florida Bar lease reaches its end date, the tenancy simply expires. No notice is required unless the lease includes a renewal or notice clause. Section 83.575 permits a lease to require between 30 and 60 days’ notice from either party before the end of the term if it will not be renewed, and a tenant who fails to give required notice may owe liquidated damages if the lease specifies them.¹⁰

If a lease has no fixed end date, it becomes a periodic tenancy. Either party can end it in writing, with notice tied to the payment cycle:¹¹

Year-to-year: at least 60 days before the end of the annual period.
Quarter-to-quarter: at least 30 days before the end of the quarterly period.
Month-to-month: at least 30 days before the end of the monthly period.
Week-to-week: at least 7 days before the end of the weekly period.

If the tenant breaks the lease early, the landlord’s remedies come from Section 83.595. A lease may include an early termination fee, but it cannot exceed two months’ rent, and the tenant cannot be required to give more than 60 days’ notice before the proposed early termination date. Anything beyond that cap is unenforceable.

Nonpayment and Lease Violations

A Florida landlord cannot respond to unpaid rent by changing the locks or removing belongings. The first step is a three-day written notice demanding payment or return of the premises.⁹ The three days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed holidays, so the tenant usually has five or six calendar days in practice. The notice must state the amount owed, the property address, and the deadline. If the tenant does not pay in time, the landlord may terminate the lease and file for eviction.

For other lease violations, the landlord must give seven days’ written notice. Curable problems get a chance to be fixed. Violations that can’t be cured, such as intentional destruction of the property, allow a seven-day termination notice with no cure period.

Military Early Termination

The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act overrides any early termination penalty in a Florida lease when an active-duty servicemember gets qualifying orders. Under 50 U.S.C. § 3955, a tenant may terminate a residential lease without penalty after entering military service, receiving permanent change of station orders, receiving deployment orders for at least 90 days, or being ordered into military housing.¹²

To use the right, the servicemember delivers written notice and a copy of the orders to the landlord. For a monthly lease, termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent due date following delivery. The landlord cannot charge any early termination fee, and the deposit is returned under Florida’s normal rules. The protection also covers a servicemember’s dependents on a joint lease.

Signing, Storing, and What You Can’t Waive

Florida no longer requires witnesses on a residential lease. A 2020 amendment to Section 689.01 eliminated the subscribing witness requirement for all leases of real property.¹³ The Bar forms include an acknowledgment line at the bottom of each page where landlord and tenant confirm receipt of that page.¹⁴ Signing every page is not legally required, but it creates a record that nothing was swapped in later.

Electronic signatures are valid in Florida under the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act, Section 668.50, provided the signer intended to sign and the electronic process is logically associated with the record.¹⁵ Both parties should walk away with a fully executed copy. The landlord should keep the original in a secure place, because in an eviction or small claims case the lease is the primary evidence of what was agreed. A digital backup stored separately protects against loss.

Finally, any lease clause that tries to waive the rights established under Chapter 83, Part II is void. A provision eliminating the landlord’s maintenance obligations, stripping the tenant’s right to proper notice before eviction, or limiting either party’s liability beyond what the statute allows will not be enforced. If a void provision causes actual damages, the injured party can recover them in court. The Bar’s forms are drafted to stay inside those lines; custom clauses or riders should be checked against the statute before you sign.

1
The Florida Bar. Landlord Tenant Forms
2
The Florida Bar. Residential Lease for Single Family Home or Duplex
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The Florida Bar. Residential Lease for Apartment or Unit in Multi-Family Rental Housing
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.46 – Rent; Duration of Tenancies
5
Justia Law. Florida Code 404.056 – Environmental Radiation Standards and Projects
6
United States Environmental Protection Agency. Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule – Section 1018 of Title X
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 83.49 – Deposit Money or Advance Rent; Duty of Landlord and Tenant
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.51 – Landlord’s Obligation to Maintain Premises
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
10
Florida Senate. Florida Code Chapter 83 – Landlord and Tenant
11
Justia Law. Florida Code 83.57 – Termination of Tenancy Without Specific Term
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3955 – Termination of Residential or Motor Vehicle Leases
13
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 689.01 – How Real Estate Conveyed
14
Florida Supreme Court. Residential Lease for Single Family Home or Duplex
15
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 668.50 – Uniform Electronic Transaction Act