Florida Statute 83.595 gives a residential landlord four alternative remedies after a tenant breaches the lease or leaves early: terminate the lease and retake the property, retake possession and re-rent it for the tenant’s account, leave the unit vacant and hold the tenant liable for rent as it comes due, or collect a pre-agreed early termination fee. The statute only applies once the landlord has obtained a writ of possession, or the tenant has surrendered or abandoned the property. Choosing among the four is a one-time decision that determines what the tenant still owes going forward.
When the Statute Applies
Section 83.595 is a remedy statute, not a termination statute. It does not tell a landlord how to end a tenancy; it tells the landlord what to do about the money once the tenancy is already over. Three things can trigger it: a court-issued writ of possession, the tenant’s surrender of the premises, or the tenant’s abandonment.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
If none of those has happened, the landlord is still in the termination phase and needs to look at Sections 83.56 (breach terminations, including the 3-day rent notice and 7-day cure and non-cure notices) or 83.57 (ending a month-to-month or week-to-week tenancy). Only after the tenancy actually ends does the choice-of-remedies menu open up.
The Four Remedies
The statute lays out the options as alternatives. A landlord picks one path; the paths lead to different outcomes for the tenant’s ongoing rent obligation.
Terminate the Lease and Retake Possession
The landlord treats the lease as over and takes the property back for the landlord’s own use. This wipes out the tenant’s future rent obligations under the lease. Nothing further accrues.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
Retake Possession for the Tenant’s Account
The landlord takes possession back but does so on behalf of the tenant, with the intention of finding a replacement renter. The original tenant stays on the hook for the difference between the lease rent and whatever the new tenant ends up paying. If the replacement pays less, the original tenant covers the gap; if the unit sits empty for a stretch, the original tenant covers that stretch.
This remedy carries a condition: the landlord must make a good-faith effort to re-rent the property and must use at least the same efforts used to market the unit originally. A landlord who lets the unit sit while claiming ongoing rent from the departed tenant is not complying with the statute.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
Do Nothing and Hold the Tenant Liable
The landlord can leave the unit vacant and hold the tenant responsible for the full rent as each payment comes due through the end of the lease term. This is the option with no mitigation obligation attached. The tradeoff is that the landlord collects only if the tenant actually pays or is worth suing, and the money trickles in on the lease’s original schedule rather than in a lump sum.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
Collect Liquidated Damages or an Early Termination Fee
The fourth option is available only if the lease includes it and the tenant signed a separate addendum agreeing to it. The fee is capped at two months’ rent. Choosing this remedy also caps the landlord’s recovery: rent and charges can still be collected through the end of the month in which possession is retaken, and the landlord can still pursue actual physical damage to the unit, but the right to sue for rent beyond that month is waived.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
How the Early Termination Fee Must Be Set Up
The early termination fee remedy has strict formation rules, and landlords frequently get them wrong. Burying a fee clause in the body of the lease is not enough. The tenant must sign a separate addendum that offers two checkboxes: one agreeing to the fee, one declining it. If the tenant checks the declining box, the fee remedy is off the table permanently, and the landlord is limited to the other three options after any later breach.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
Two dollar-and-timing rules also apply. The fee itself cannot exceed two months’ rent. And for an early termination fee (as distinct from liquidated damages triggered by a breach), the lease cannot require more than 60 days’ notice from the tenant before the intended move-out date. A lease that demands 90 days of notice, or that sets the fee at three months of rent, does not satisfy the statute, and the fee cannot be enforced under 83.595 on those terms.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
The two-checkbox addendum is where the enforceability of the whole remedy lives. Without it, the landlord’s only paths are termination, re-rental for the tenant’s account, or letting the unit sit.
The Mitigation Duty When Re-Renting
Only one of the four remedies carries an affirmative duty to mitigate: retaking possession for the tenant’s account. The statute is explicit that the landlord must make a good-faith effort to find a replacement tenant and must apply at least the same marketing efforts used to rent the property in the first place. If the original unit was listed on three sites, advertised through a leasing agent, and shown to prospective tenants over several weekends, that is the floor for the re-rental effort.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.595 – Choice of Remedies Upon Breach or Early Termination by Tenant
By contrast, the “do nothing and hold liable” remedy has no mitigation requirement built into the statute. A landlord who wants to sit on the unit and collect rent as it accrues is entitled to do so under that remedy. What a landlord cannot do is combine remedies: claim to be re-renting for the tenant’s account while making no effort, or claim ongoing rent under the “do nothing” path while also demanding an early termination fee.
Termination Has to Come First
Because 83.595 only applies after possession has been recovered, the sequence in most breach cases runs through Section 83.56. Nonpayment of rent requires a written notice demanding rent or possession, with a three-day cure window that excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed holidays; only after the tenant fails to pay or leave does the landlord file for eviction, obtain the writ, and reach the 83.595 stage.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
Non-rent lease violations follow a different path within 83.56. Curable violations get a seven-day notice to fix the problem; a repeat of the same type of violation within 12 months lets the landlord skip the cure period and issue an unconditional seven-day notice to vacate. Noncurable violations, such as intentional destruction of property or ongoing unreasonable disturbances, get an immediate seven-day notice to vacate with no cure option.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
When there is no fixed term, Section 83.57 governs. A month-to-month tenancy ends on at least 30 days’ written notice before the end of any monthly rental period; a week-to-week tenancy ends on at least seven days’ notice before the end of any weekly period.4Justia Law. Florida Code 83.57 – Termination of Tenancy Without Specific Term None of these termination mechanisms is inside 83.595, but each is the entryway to it.
Surrender and abandonment do not require any of that. If the tenant hands back the keys or clearly walks away, the landlord can move directly into the choice-of-remedies analysis without going through the notice-and-eviction sequence.
Security Deposit Deadlines After the Tenant Is Gone
Whichever remedy the landlord picks, the security deposit rules under Section 83.49 still apply once the tenant vacates. A landlord making no deductions must return the full deposit (with any required interest) within 15 days. A landlord intending to withhold any part of it has 30 days to send a written claim by certified mail to the tenant’s last known address, stating the amount and the reason.5Justia Law. Florida Code 83.49 – Deposit Money or Advance Rent Duty of Landlord and Tenant
Missing the 30-day deadline forfeits the right to keep any of the deposit, even against real damage. The tenant then has 15 days after receiving the claim to object in writing; without an objection, the landlord can deduct and return the balance within 30 days. In any court fight over the deposit, the winner recovers attorney’s fees and costs.
The deposit rules run parallel to the 83.595 remedy the landlord chooses. Recovering an early termination fee does not eliminate the deposit obligations, and neither does re-renting for the tenant’s account. The remedy statute governs what the tenant owes going forward; the deposit statute governs what the landlord already holds.