A Florida land lease is an arrangement where one party rents the ground and the other owns whatever sits on it. That split shows up most often in mobile home parks, where the homeowner rents the lot, and in commercial development, where a business builds on land it doesn’t own. Because the tenant’s investment lives on someone else’s property, Florida treats these leases more carefully than an ordinary rental. Mobile home lot tenancies run under a dedicated statute, Chapter 723, and everything else falls under the general landlord-tenant provisions in Chapter 83.
Which Rules Apply to Your Lease
The first question is what kind of land lease you have, because the answer decides which statute governs.
Mobile home park lot tenancies are the most common residential ground lease in the state. A homeowner places or buys a manufactured home on a rented lot inside a park, and Chapter 723 controls almost everything about that relationship, from notice periods to the right to sell the home in place.
Conventional residential ground leases, where someone builds a stick-built home on rented land, are rarer and fall under Chapter 83, Part II. Commercial ground leases, where a business puts up retail, office, or industrial space on leased land, fall under Chapter 83, Part I and are shaped heavily by the negotiated contract itself. These deals commonly run 30 to 99 years.
Putting the Lease in Writing
Any land lease longer than one year must be in writing under Florida’s statute of frauds. Leases are exempt from the two-witness requirement that applies to deeds, so the signature of the party granting the interest is enough, though both parties normally sign in practice.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 689.01 – How Real Estate Conveyed A lease of one year or less can technically be oral, but writing it down avoids the disputes that oral leases tend to produce.
A workable land lease identifies the parties by full legal name, includes an accurate legal description of the parcel, states clear start and end dates, and sets out the rent amount, due date, and payment method. Commercial ground leases need more: who insures the improvements, who pays property taxes, what happens to tenant-built structures when the term ends, and whether the landlord’s interest is subordinated to the tenant’s construction lender.
Disclosures the Landlord Must Give You Before Signing
Radon Gas
Every Florida landlord signing a rental agreement must include a radon gas disclosure in the exact language state law prescribes. The notice explains that radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that may pose health risks when it builds up indoors, and it directs the tenant to the county health department for testing information.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 404.056 – Radiation; Definition, Licensing, and Registration The requirement covers building rentals broadly, so land leases with a structure on the lot are included.
Lead-Based Paint
For any residential property built before 1978, federal law requires the landlord to disclose known lead-based paint hazards, hand over available inspection reports, and provide a lead hazard information pamphlet before the lease is signed.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 4852d – Disclosure of Information Concerning Lead Upon Transfer of Residential Property This obligation applies even when the tenant owns the structure sitting on the leased land, because the disclosure attaches to the lease transaction itself.
Mobile Home Park Prospectus
Parks with 26 or more lots must give every prospective tenant a prospectus before the rental agreement is signed. It has to describe the park property, lot sizes, recreational facilities, management arrangements, and the services included in the lot rent. After receiving it, the tenant has 15 days to void the rental agreement.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 723.012 – Disclosure Prior to Rental of a Mobile Home Lot; Prospectus, Filing, Approval Smaller parks are exempt from the prospectus itself, but their rental agreements still have to comply with Chapter 723.
Rent and Rent Increases
Mobile Home Lots
A park owner must give at least 90 days’ written notice before raising lot rent, cutting services or utilities, or changing park rules. The notice has to state the current rent, the proposed new rent, and the effective date, and the 90-day right cannot be waived in the rental agreement.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 723.037 – Lot Rental Increases; Reduction in Services or Utilities; Change in Rules and Regulations; Mediation
If homeowners think the increase is unreasonable, a committee of up to five affected homeowners can request a meeting with the park owner. That meeting has to happen at least 60 days before the increase takes effect. If it doesn’t resolve things, a majority of affected homeowners can petition the state to appoint a mediator, with each side paying a $250 filing fee. No civil lawsuit challenging the increase can be filed until mediation has been tried and failed.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 723.037 – Lot Rental Increases; Reduction in Services or Utilities; Change in Rules and Regulations; Mediation
Commercial Ground Leases
Commercial rent is a contract question, not a statutory one. Long-term leases typically build in escalation clauses that adjust rent at set intervals. Common approaches include flat annual percentage increases, adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index (sometimes with a cap on how far the rent can move in either direction), and periodic resets to fair market value based on an independent appraisal. On a lease that runs 50 years or more, the escalation structure ends up driving the long-term economics of the deal.
Selling a Mobile Home on a Leased Lot
A mobile home owner who rents the lot has the right to sell the home in place. The buyer can become a tenant of the park as long as they meet reasonable application standards, the park owner cannot unreasonably withhold approval of a qualified buyer, and the homeowner can post a “For Sale” sign of limited size on the lot. Without those protections, a park owner could effectively trap homeowners by blocking every sale and destroying the home’s resale value.
Security Deposits
Florida imposes tight rules on deposits, and they apply to land lease arrangements. A landlord must hold the deposit in one of three ways: a separate non-interest-bearing Florida bank account, a separate interest-bearing account (paying the tenant at least 75 percent of the annualized interest or 5 percent simple interest, at the landlord’s choice), or a surety bond covering the total deposits held.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.49 – Deposit Money or Advance Rent; Duty of Landlord and Tenant
Within 30 days of receiving the deposit, the landlord must notify the tenant in writing where the money is held and whether it earns interest. After move-out, the landlord has 15 days to return the deposit if no deductions are claimed, or 30 days to send written notice by certified mail describing any deductions. If the tenant doesn’t dispute the claimed deductions within 15 days of receiving that notice, the landlord may keep what was claimed.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.49 – Deposit Money or Advance Rent; Duty of Landlord and Tenant Mobile home park deposits held longer than three months follow the same rules.
Notice and Eviction
Standard Residential Land Leases
For a residential land lease outside Chapter 723, eviction starts with a written notice, and the type depends on the problem. If the tenant fails to pay rent, the landlord delivers a written demand for payment or possession, and the tenant has three days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed holidays) to pay or leave.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
For a curable lease violation, the notice must describe the problem and give seven days to fix it. For a violation that cannot be cured, the notice gives seven days to vacate. A repeat of the same violation within 12 months of a prior written warning allows the landlord to terminate without offering another chance to cure, even if the tenant fixed it the first time.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
Mobile Home Park Lots
Mobile home evictions carry higher stakes because relocating a manufactured home is expensive and sometimes not physically possible. When lot rent goes unpaid, the park owner must deliver a written demand for payment, and if the default continues for five days after delivery, the park owner may begin termination. The notice has to be posted on the premises and sent by certified or registered mail. If the homeowner pays everything owed, including late charges, court costs, and attorney’s fees, the court can deny the eviction for good cause, but only if nonpayment hasn’t happened more than twice.8Online Sunshine. Florida Code 723.061 – Eviction; Grounds, Proceedings
For a first violation of a park rule, rental agreement term, or Chapter 723 provision, the park owner must give written notice describing the violation and allow seven days to correct it. A second violation of the same rule within 12 months is grounds for eviction whether or not the homeowner cures it, but the park owner must have sent a proper written warning within 30 days of the first violation, and the homeowner must get at least 30 days’ notice before being required to vacate on the second one. A repeat that happens more than a year after the first offense doesn’t count as a second violation for these purposes.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 723.061 – Eviction; Grounds, Proceedings
Nonresidential Tenancies Without a Fixed End Date
Commercial ground leases usually spell out their own termination provisions, but when a lease is silent or when a holdover develops after the written term expires, Chapter 83, Part I sets default notice periods tied to how rent is paid. A year-to-year tenancy requires at least three months’ notice before the end of an annual period; a month-to-month tenancy requires at least 15 days’ notice before the end of a monthly period.10Online Sunshine. Florida Code 83.03 – Termination of Tenancy at Will; Length of Notice
What Happens to the Building When the Lease Ends
This is the question that keeps ground lease tenants awake, and the answer turns almost entirely on the lease itself. Florida has no statute that automatically gives the tenant the right to remove improvements or receive compensation for them when a ground lease expires. In the absence of a lease provision, the general common law rule is that improvements become part of the real property and revert to the landowner at lease expiration. A tenant who built a $2 million commercial building on leased land could lose it if the lease doesn’t include removal rights or a compensation formula.
Well-drafted ground leases handle this directly. Three common approaches: the tenant must remove all improvements and restore the land to its original condition; ownership of the improvements transfers to the landlord at a negotiated price; or the tenant gets a right of first refusal to buy the land or renew the lease before it expires. Mobile home park tenants have a practical edge because a manufactured home can usually be physically moved, though relocation costs often run into the thousands. For any ground lease involving substantial improvements, negotiating what happens at the end of the term is one of the most important things a tenant can do before signing.