Florida 3-Day Eviction Notice PDF: Content, Service, and Deadlines

The Florida 3-day eviction notice PDF is available free from the Florida Bar’s landlord-tenant forms library and from most county clerk websites, and it follows the exact template set out in Florida Statute 83.56(3).¹² You fill in the tenant’s name, the property address with county, the exact rent owed, and a compliance deadline three business days out, then deliver it by one of the four methods the statute allows. Get the form and the math right the first time; a defective notice is one of the most common tenant defenses in Florida eviction cases, and fixing it means starting over.

Where to Download the Form

The Florida Bar publishes Supreme Court-approved landlord-tenant forms, including the 3-day notice, that track the statutory language.¹ County clerks also post downloadable PDFs. The Brevard County Clerk’s version, for example, follows the statute closely and includes instructions for calculating the deadline.³ Any form that mirrors the statutory template works; the statute uses the phrase “substantially the following form,” which gives flexibility in wording but not in substance.

What the Notice Must Contain

Every 3-day notice has to include a few specific pieces of information:

A statement that the tenant is “indebted” for a specific dollar amount “for the rent and use of the premises.”
The property address, including the county.
A deadline for payment or surrender of possession, calculated in business days.
The landlord’s name, mailing address, and phone number at the bottom.²

Missing the county, leaving out the phone number, or omitting the compliance date gives the tenant grounds to challenge the notice as defective. The notice requirements cannot be waived in the lease, so a rental agreement that tries to shorten or eliminate the notice period is unenforceable on that point.²

What Counts as Rent on the Notice

This is where most notices go wrong. The dollar amount can only include actual rent owed. Florida law defines “rent” as the periodic payments due for occupancy plus any other charges the written lease specifically designates as rent.² If the lease labels a monthly utility charge or trash fee as “additional rent,” it can go on the notice. If it doesn’t, it can’t.

Late fees are the most common trap. Unless the lease explicitly classifies late fees as rent, adding them to the notice total makes the entire notice defective. Florida courts have thrown out 3-day notices for including late charges, water and sewer fees, or electric charges that weren’t designated as rent in the lease. Overstating or understating the amount has the same effect. Double-check the figure against the lease and the payment ledger before you print the form.

How to Serve the Notice

Florida law authorizes four delivery methods, and the one you choose affects when the clock starts and how long the tenant actually gets:²

Hand delivery. Give the notice directly to the tenant. The three-day clock starts immediately and there’s no ambiguity about receipt.
Leaving a copy at the residence. If the tenant isn’t home, you can leave the notice at the property. Taping it to the front door in a visible spot is the standard approach. This method is only available when the tenant is absent; if the tenant is home and you post rather than hand, the service may not hold up.
Email. Permitted only if the lease includes an email provision that complies with Florida Statute 83.505.
Mail. You can mail the notice, but this adds five calendar days to the timeline under Florida’s civil procedure rules. A mailed 3-day notice effectively becomes an 8-day notice.

Counting the Three Business Days

The three-day period starts the day after the notice is delivered and excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed legal holidays.² The statute limits “legal holidays” to court-observed holidays only, not every federal or state holiday.

A practical example: hand the notice to the tenant on a Wednesday, skip Thursday (day one), Friday (day two), the weekend doesn’t count, and Monday is day three. The tenant has until the end of Monday to pay or vacate. If you serve on a Thursday before a Monday holiday, the math shifts again because that Monday also drops out. Getting this wrong by a single day means filing the eviction complaint too early, which gives the tenant a procedural defense.

Enter the compliance date on the form in the blank for “on or before the ___ day of ___.” Calculate from the day you actually deliver the notice, not the day you prepare it.

If the Tenant Pays Part of the Balance

Accepting partial rent after serving the notice does not automatically kill the eviction. Florida law says a landlord does not waive the right to terminate or sue by accepting partial rent for the period.⁴ But you have to do one of three things after taking the money:

Give the tenant a written receipt showing the date, the amount received, and the agreed-upon date and balance still due, before filing the eviction complaint.
Deposit the partial payment into the court registry when filing the eviction action.
Serve a new 3-day notice reflecting the reduced balance.

Skip all three and the numbers stop matching. If you accept $500 of a $1,500 balance and then file a complaint demanding the original $1,500, the notice amount no longer reflects reality, and that mismatch is exactly the kind of defect tenants raise in court.

Common Mistakes That Invalidate the Notice

A defective 3-day notice is one of the most common tenant defenses in Florida, and the statute explicitly recognizes it as a valid one.⁵ The landlord gets a chance to correct a deficient notice before dismissal, but a fix resets the clock. The errors that cause the most problems:

Wrong dollar amount. The notice must state the exact rent due.
Including non-rent charges. Late fees, utility costs, or other charges not designated as “rent” in the lease.
Miscounting the deadline. Forgetting to exclude weekends and court-observed holidays, or filing the complaint before the period actually expires.
Improper service. Posting on the door when the tenant is home instead of handing the notice over.
Missing required information. No county, no landlord phone number, no compliance date.

After the Three Days Expire

Once the three-day window closes and the tenant has neither paid in full nor moved out, the landlord can file an eviction complaint in the county court where the property is located. The complaint must describe the rental unit and explain the facts that justify recovering possession.⁶ Bring a copy of the served 3-day notice to the clerk’s office along with the filing fee.⁷ A landlord’s non-attorney agent can file the initial complaint, but only an attorney can handle the case from that point forward. Florida evictions proceed under summary procedure, so the case moves faster than a standard civil lawsuit.

1
The Florida Bar. Landlord Tenant Forms
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
3
Brevard County Clerk of Courts. 3 Day Notice to Tenant
4
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 83.60 – Defenses to Action for Rent or Possession; Procedure
6
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 83.59 – Right of Action for Possession
7
Marion County Clerk of Court and Comptroller. Evictions