How to Evict Someone in Florida: Notice, Complaint, and Writ

To evict someone in Florida, you have to move through a court-supervised process set out in Chapter 83 of the Florida Statutes: serve the tenant the correct written notice for your grounds, wait out the notice period, file a complaint in the county court where the property sits if the tenant hasn’t complied, obtain a judgment and writ of possession, and let the sheriff carry out the removal. There is no legal shortcut. Changing the locks, cutting utilities, or putting a tenant’s belongings on the curb before the sheriff executes a writ exposes you to actual damages or three months’ rent, whichever is greater, plus the tenant’s attorney’s fees, with each act counted as a separate violation.¹

From the first notice to a sheriff-supervised removal, a clean nonpayment case usually runs several weeks. A misstep at any stage can reset the clock.

Confirm You Have Legal Grounds

Florida recognizes a limited set of reasons for eviction. The three you’re most likely to be dealing with are nonpayment of rent, a material lease violation (unauthorized pets, significant property damage, ongoing disturbances), and holding over after a fixed-term lease ends.² For a month-to-month arrangement where you simply want the tenant out, you terminate the tenancy with notice rather than filing straight for eviction.

Why this matters: the grounds dictate which notice you serve, and serving the wrong one is one of the most common ways landlords get bounced out of court and have to start over.

Serve the Right Written Notice

Nothing goes to court until you have delivered the correct notice and the notice period has run out.

Three-Day Notice for Unpaid Rent

For nonpayment, serve a three-day notice demanding payment or surrender of the property. The three days are business days, so weekends and legal holidays don’t count. State the exact amount of rent owed. If the tenant pays in full within the three business days, the eviction stops.²

Seven-Day Notice to Cure

For a fixable lease violation, serve a seven-day notice that identifies the problem and gives the tenant seven days to correct it. If the tenant fixes the issue in time, you cannot proceed on that violation.²

Seven-Day Unconditional Notice

For violations too serious to cure, or for a repeat of the same violation within 12 months of a written warning, serve a seven-day unconditional notice. The lease is terminated and the tenant has seven days to leave with no option to fix the problem. Florida law specifically lists intentional property destruction, damage to other tenants’ property, and ongoing unreasonable disturbances as examples.²

Ending a Periodic Tenancy

Without a fixed term, you must give at least 30 days’ written notice before the end of a monthly rental period, or seven days’ notice before the end of a weekly period.³

Delivery and Documentation

You can hand the notice directly to the tenant, leave it at the residence if the tenant isn’t home, or mail it.⁴ Keep a dated copy and a written record of how and when you delivered it. If the case goes to a hearing, proving proper notice is on you.

Do Not Lock the Tenant Out

Until a sheriff executes a court-ordered writ of possession, the tenant has a legal right to occupy the property. It does not matter how much rent they owe or how badly they’ve damaged the place. Florida prohibits every form of self-help eviction: changing locks, shutting off utilities, removing doors or windows, or hauling the tenant’s belongings out.¹

The tenant can sue for actual and consequential damages or three months’ rent, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees and costs. Each separate violation triggers its own award, so changing the locks on Monday and shutting off the water on Wednesday counts as two. Courts treat these acts as irreparable harm, so the tenant can also get an emergency injunction forcing you to restore access.¹

File the Eviction Complaint

Once the notice period runs out without compliance, file a complaint for eviction in the county court where the property is located. The complaint describes the property, states the grounds, and asks the court for possession.⁵ Eviction cases are summary proceedings, which means the court moves them faster than ordinary civil suits.

Attach copies of the lease and the notice you served to the complaint, and prepare a summons for the clerk.⁶ The summons must inform the tenant about the rent deposit requirement that applies if they raise a defense.⁷ The complaint and summons must be served on the tenant by the county sheriff or a licensed process server. You cannot serve them yourself.

The Tenant’s Five-Day Window

After service, the tenant has five business days (weekends and legal holidays excluded) to file a written response. What happens next is driven almost entirely by what the tenant does or fails to do in that window.

No Response Means Default

If the tenant files nothing, you can ask the court for a default judgment. The court can rule for you without a hearing.⁵ This is the fastest outcome available.

The Rent Registry Requirement

If the tenant raises any defense other than “I already paid,” they must deposit all accrued rent into the court’s registry and keep depositing rent as it comes due during the case. They have five business days from service to either make the deposit or file a motion challenging the rent amount. Miss that deadline and the court treats every defense as waived, which entitles you to an immediate default judgment and writ of possession with no further hearing.⁸

Public housing tenants and those receiving rent subsidies only need to deposit the portion of rent they’re personally responsible for.

If There’s a Hearing

If the tenant responds and deposits rent properly, the court sets a hearing. Expect defenses along the lines of uninhabitable conditions, retaliation (for example, after the tenant reported code violations), or a defective notice.⁸ On habitability, if you failed to comply with building, housing, or health codes and the tenant gave you seven days’ written notice about the specific problem before withholding rent, that can be a complete defense to a nonpayment eviction.⁹

Bring the lease, the notice, proof of delivery, a ledger of unpaid rent, photos of any damage, and your communication log. A well-documented case usually makes for a short hearing.

Get the Writ of Possession and Have the Sheriff Remove the Tenant

When the court rules in your favor, it enters a final judgment for possession. You then obtain a writ of possession from the clerk and deliver it to the local sheriff’s office along with the service fee.¹⁰

The sheriff posts the writ on the property door, giving the tenant 24 hours to leave. Unlike the notice periods earlier in the process, weekends and legal holidays do not pause this clock. If the tenant is still there when the sheriff returns, the sheriff physically removes them.¹⁰ You can ask the sheriff to stand by while you change the locks and clear belongings; expect a reasonable hourly charge for the standby.

After the Removal

Personal Property Left Behind

Once the writ is executed, you or your agent can move any personal property left in the unit to the property line or just outside. Neither you nor the sheriff is liable for what happens to it after removal.¹⁰ If the tenant instead abandoned or surrendered the unit and your lease contains the required statutory waiver language, you may not have to follow the formal abandoned-property process under Chapter 715.¹ Without that lease provision, Chapter 715 requires written notice to the tenant describing the property and giving at least 10 days (if delivered in person) or 15 days (if mailed) to claim it. Unclaimed property believed to be worth under $500 can be kept or disposed of; higher-value property must be sold at a public auction.

Security Deposit

If you’re not making any claim against the deposit, return it in full within 15 days. If you are claiming part or all of it for unpaid rent, damages beyond normal wear, or other charges allowed under the lease, send a written notice by certified mail within 30 days describing the amount and the reason. Miss the 30-day deadline and you forfeit the right to keep any of the deposit.¹¹

The tenant has 15 days from receipt to object in writing. If no objection comes, you can deduct your claim and return any balance within 30 days of your original notice. If the dispute lands in court, the winner recovers attorney’s fees and costs.¹¹

If the Tenant Is Active-Duty Military

The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act applies to active-duty military tenants whose monthly rent falls below an annually adjusted threshold ($9,812.12 as of January 2024), which covers virtually every residential lease. You cannot evict without a court order.¹²

If the servicemember requests a stay, the court must grant at least a 90-day postponement when the tenant shows military duties materially affect their ability to appear or pay. The court can also modify lease terms. When you seek a default judgment and the tenant hasn’t appeared, you have to submit an affidavit about the tenant’s military status. A false affidavit is a federal crime, and knowingly evicting a protected servicemember without a court order can bring a fine, up to a year in prison, or both.¹²

What It Costs

Budget for more than the filing fee. Approximate costs:

Court filing fee: around $185
Summons: around $10 per tenant
Sheriff service of the complaint: around $40 per tenant
Writ of possession service: around $90, plus an hourly rate if the sheriff stands by during removal
Attorney fees: $500 to $5,000 depending on complexity; straightforward nonpayment cases tend to the lower end

Amounts vary by county, so confirm figures with your local clerk. The prevailing party in a Florida eviction case can recover court costs from the other side, so a successful landlord can seek reimbursement of filing fees.⁵

1
Justia Law. Florida Code 83.67 – Prohibited Practices
2
Justia Law. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
3
FindLaw. Florida Code 83.57 – Termination of Tenancy Without Specific Term
4
FindLaw. Florida Code 83.56 – Termination of Rental Agreement
5
Justia Law. Florida Code 83.59 – Right of Action for Possession
6
The Florida Bar. Complaint for Landlord to Evict Tenants
7
The Florida Bar. Form 7 Summons – Eviction
8
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 83.60 – Defenses to Action for Rent or Possession
9
Justia Law. Florida Code 83.51 – Landlords Obligation to Maintain Premises
10
Florida Senate. Florida Code 83.62 – Restoration of Possession to Landlord
11
Justia Law. Florida Code 83.49 – Deposit Money or Advance Rent
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress