A Florida ejectment action is a circuit-court lawsuit under Chapter 66 of the Florida Statutes used to recover possession of real property from someone who claims an ownership interest in it, not merely a right to stay as a tenant or guest. It resolves disputes over contested deeds, boundary lines, and competing claims of title by asking the court to decide who holds the superior title and is entitled to possession. The clock is strict: you have seven years from being dispossessed to file, or the claim is gone.
Ejectment, Eviction, and Unlawful Detainer
Florida gives you three separate tools for removing someone from property, and picking the wrong one costs time and money. Which one fits depends on why the person is there and what they claim.
- Eviction under Chapter 83 applies when there is a landlord-tenant relationship and the tenant breaches the lease or fails to pay rent. It uses a summary procedure with a five-day response window.
- Unlawful detainer under Chapter 82 applies when someone was allowed onto the property but refuses to leave, such as a houseguest who overstays, and does not claim any ownership interest.
- Ejectment under Chapter 66 applies when the occupant asserts a legal or equitable claim to own the property. It follows the standard rules of civil procedure and gives the defendant 20 days to answer.
The distinction matters most when it surprises you mid-case. File an eviction and the occupant raises a claim of title, and the county court loses jurisdiction. The dispute has to move to circuit court as an ejectment, resetting the timeline and adding cost. Identifying the right action at the outset avoids that.
The Seven-Year Deadline
Florida imposes a firm seven-year statute of limitations. Under Section 95.12, you cannot recover real property or its possession unless you or a predecessor in your chain of title were seized or possessed of the property within seven years before you file suit.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 95.12 – Real Property Actions Wait eight years and the court will bar your claim no matter how strong your paper title looks. That same seven-year window is what an adverse possessor needs to ripen a claim into ownership, so delay does not just lose you the lawsuit; it can hand the property to the person occupying it.
What You Have to Prove
Winning an ejectment case means proving three things: that you hold superior title, that you have the present right to immediate possession, and that the defendant is wrongfully withholding the property. The court will not enter judgment against someone who is not actually occupying or controlling the property when the case is tried.
Superior title has to be shown through a documented chain of ownership. Your complaint must include a chronological statement of your chain of title, listing every grantor, grantee, recording date, and book-and-page or instrument number for each recorded document, with copies of those instruments attached.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment If your claim rests on something other than a recorded deed, like adverse possession, the statement has to explain how and when the claim arose and the facts supporting it. When both sides trace their titles back to the same original source, neither has to go further back than that common point.
Filing the Lawsuit
Ejectment actions must be filed in circuit court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over title disputes.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment County courts handle evictions but cannot adjudicate title. Your complaint needs a specific legal description of the property and the chain-of-title documentation described above.
Florida does not require any presuit notice or demand before filing an ejectment action.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment Unlike an eviction, where a landlord usually has to serve notice to cure or vacate first, you can file the moment you discover the wrongful occupation.
After filing, the defendant is served with the summons and complaint under the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure and has 20 days to answer.3The Florida Bar. Florida Rules of Civil Procedure No answer means you can move for a default judgment. Otherwise the case runs on the standard civil track: discovery, motions, and potentially a full trial on the competing title claims.
Record a Lis Pendens
Record a lis pendens in the county where the property sits as soon as you file. A lis pendens is public notice that a lawsuit affecting the property is pending. Without one, a buyer or lienholder can acquire an interest during the litigation and claim they had no notice of your case. Section 48.23 makes this explicit: an action involving real property has no effect on third parties unless a lis pendens is recorded.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 48.23 – Lis Pendens
The notice needs the names of the parties, the case number or filing date, the court, a description of the property, and a statement of the relief sought. Once recorded, it bars enforcement of any interests or liens recorded after it.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 48.23 – Lis Pendens Skipping it is one of the costlier mistakes in ejectment litigation, because a judgment is worth little if a third party quietly acquired an interest while you were proving your title.
Defending an Ejectment Action
If you are the defendant, the goal is to show the plaintiff’s chain of title is flawed or that your own claim is superior. Your answer must include your own chronological chain-of-title statement at the same level of detail the plaintiff had to provide, with copies of every supporting instrument attached.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment Filing an answer without that documentation puts you at a serious disadvantage.
Challenges to the validity of a specific deed or court proceeding in the plaintiff’s chain of title have to be raised before trial by motion, spelling out the objection and attaching the document. The court resolves those challenges first. If the ruling makes your position untenable, you can concede on the record rather than sit through a trial you know you will lose.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment
You can also limit your defense to just part of the property, which is useful in boundary disputes where you concede the plaintiff owns most of the parcel but contest a strip along the line.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment
Adverse Possession
The most common substantive defense is adverse possession: that you have occupied the property long enough, under the right conditions, to have acquired ownership by operation of law. Florida requires seven years of actual, continuous possession under a claim of title, and the requirements go well beyond just living on the land.5Online Sunshine. Florida Code 95.18 – Real Property Actions; Adverse Possession Without Color of Title
You must have paid all outstanding property taxes within one year of entering possession, filed a return with the county property appraiser within 30 days of paying those taxes, and continued paying all taxes for the remaining years to complete the seven-year period. The property must also have been protected by a substantial enclosure or cultivated, maintained, or improved in the usual manner.5Online Sunshine. Florida Code 95.18 – Real Property Actions; Adverse Possession Without Color of Title Miss any of those and the claim fails. The tax-payment and appraiser-filing rules trip up most people who try to assert adverse possession, because they did not know the obligations existed until the lawsuit was filed.
Equitable Defenses
Beyond title-based defenses, equitable arguments are available. If the plaintiff engaged in fraud or unconscionable conduct related to the property, the court may refuse to grant possession even where the paper title looks clean. These defenses are fact-intensive and demand strong evidence, but they give the court room to prevent outcomes that strict title analysis alone would not catch.
The Betterment Petition
Florida offers a distinctive protection for defendants who lose but made genuine improvements to the property while honestly believing they owned it. Under Section 66.041, if you lose at trial you can file a betterment petition within 60 days of the judgment asking the court to assess the value of your improvements and award you compensation.6Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.041 – Betterment, Petition If you appealed and lost, the window is 20 days after the appellate mandate is filed.
To qualify, you must show you held the property under what appeared to be a good legal or equitable title and genuinely believed that title was valid when you made the improvements. The statute covers titles derived from government grants, titles with a clear public record, and property purchased at court-ordered sales. It is not a blanket right for anyone who poured concrete on land they knew was disputed. The good-faith requirement is real, and courts look at it closely.
Judgment, Damages, and the Writ of Possession
When the plaintiff wins, the court issues a final judgment describing the property by metes and bounds or other certain description and stating the nature of the plaintiff’s estate in the land.7Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.031 – Verdict and Judgment The judgment orders the defendant to vacate and restores possession to the plaintiff.
Beyond possession, the plaintiff can recover monetary damages for the period of wrongful occupation, typically measured by the fair rental value of the property during that time. The plaintiff can ask for a single writ covering both possession and damages or for separate writs, depending on which makes collection easier.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 66.021 – Ejectment
The writ of possession is the enforcement mechanism. Once issued by the clerk, it directs the local sheriff to remove all occupants and restore the property to the plaintiff. If the defendant refuses to leave voluntarily after the sheriff posts notice, the sheriff carries out the removal by force.