Your rights as an RV park tenant in Florida turn on a single fact: how long you’ve been registered at the park. Stays of six months or less are governed by Chapter 513 of the Florida Statutes, which treats you as a transient guest and lets the operator remove you with almost no notice. Once continuous occupancy passes six months, the law presumes you are nontransient, and the operator has to use the same formal court eviction process that applies to apartment landlords under Chapter 83. Everything else, from deposits to rule changes to how quickly you can be told to leave, flows from that distinction.
The Six-Month Rule
If the guest register shows a stay of six months or less, Florida law presumes you are a transient guest and Chapter 513 controls. The park operator does not need a court order to remove you.
When a park operator knowingly allows you to occupy a site continuously for more than six months, that presumption flips. You are presumed nontransient, and Part II of Chapter 83 applies. The operator must file a formal eviction lawsuit and get a judgment before removing you. The operator can try to rebut that presumption, but the burden is on them.
This matters in practice because some parks rotate registration paperwork to keep stays technically under six months. Courts look at whether you were “permitted with the knowledge of the park operator to continuously occupy” the site. The actual facts of your stay can override what the guest register shows.
How Fast You Can Be Removed as a Transient Guest
There is no five-day notice, no grace period, and no court hearing. Florida Statute 513.13 requires the operator to deliver a written notice requesting the guest to “immediately depart from the park.” That is the entire process.
The statute lists the grounds an operator can use to eject a transient guest:
- Failing to pay rent at the agreed rate.
- Disturbing the peace or interfering with the comfort of other guests.
- Damaging the park.
- Possessing or dealing in controlled substances on the premises.
The written notice must state: “You are hereby notified that this recreational vehicle park no longer desires to entertain you as its guest, and you are requested to leave at once. To remain after receipt of this notice is a misdemeanor under the laws of this state.” If you have prepaid, the park must refund the unused portion at the time of the notice.
Refusing to leave after receiving that notice is a second-degree misdemeanor. Law enforcement, once called, has a legal duty to remove you or place you under arrest. No judge reviews the operator’s reasons before you are put out.
Because the process moves so quickly, most transient guests cannot stop an ejection in real time. If you believe the ejection is retaliatory or discriminatory, the practical strategy is to document everything as it happens: keep the written notice, save any messages with management, and note the names of any witnesses. That evidence is what makes a later lawsuit viable, even if you had to leave in the meantime.
What Changes After Six Months
Once the nontransient presumption kicks in, the park operator has to go through the courts. That means filing an eviction complaint, serving you with process, and obtaining a judgment before you can be removed. The grounds and defenses available under Chapter 83 apply, as do the deposit-handling rules described below.
If a park pushes you to sign new paperwork, move sites, or reset your registration as you approach the six-month mark, treat that as a warning sign. The point of such paperwork is usually to preserve the operator’s ability to eject you without going to court. Whether it succeeds depends on the facts of your actual occupancy, not the label on the form.
What Your Agreement Controls
RV park agreements are treated more like licenses than traditional leases, but they are still binding contracts, and their terms govern most disputes. Read closely before you sign. A workable agreement covers:
- Duration and renewal, and what notice either side must give to end the stay.
- Rent, payment due dates, late fees, and utility or amenity charges.
- The park rules, attached or referenced, and how rules can be changed.
- Who handles site maintenance versus RV maintenance.
- Liability and insurance clauses, including whether you must carry liability coverage on your RV.
Liability waivers deserve extra attention. Park operators commonly include blanket disclaimers for theft, flooding, and injuries. Florida courts do not enforce every waiver automatically, but waivers that are clear, specific, and conspicuous tend to survive. Signing without reading and arguing later that you did not understand rarely works.
Deposits and Refunds
Chapter 83 requires apartment landlords to return a security deposit within 15 days if they are not claiming against it, or to send written notice of intent to claim within 30 days by certified mail. Those deadlines are enforceable in court.
RV park operators dealing with transient guests are not bound by that statutory timeline. The deposit terms are whatever your agreement says. Get the refund timeline, the list of deductible expenses, and any advance-notice requirement in writing before you pay. If you have crossed the six-month line into nontransient status, the Chapter 83 deposit rules likely apply.
Park Rules and Rule Changes
Florida Statute 513.117 lets park operators establish “reasonable rules and regulations” for managing the park. Rules must be printed in English and posted in the registration area, along with copies of certain statutory provisions including the ejection statute. A park can set quiet hours, restrict pets, limit vehicles per site, and regulate common areas. Rules that single out specific guests or serve no legitimate business purpose are vulnerable to challenge.
The statute does not set a mandatory notice period for new rules. Some agreements build in a 30-day advance notice; others say nothing. If your agreement is silent, the operator has significant latitude to impose new rules quickly. Negotiating a notice requirement into the agreement before signing is the strongest protection. If a rule change makes your site unusable or fundamentally alters what you agreed to, you may have grounds to argue breach of contract.
Access to Your Site
Chapter 83 requires apartment landlords to give at least 24 hours’ notice before non-emergency entry, during daytime hours. RV park agreements often grant broader access rights and may not specify any notice period. If your agreement does not limit when management can enter, your options are limited unless intrusions are frequent or disruptive enough to amount to constructive eviction.
Serious privacy complaints can be filed with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), which regulates recreational vehicle parks. DBPR’s authority is administrative: it can fine a licensee, impose probation, or take action against the license, but it cannot award you money damages or resolve a contract dispute. Financial recovery requires a civil claim.
Federal Protections That Apply No Matter What
Some rights come from federal law and cannot be signed away in a park agreement.
Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. Park operators cannot refuse to rent a site, impose different terms, or evict someone on those grounds. Florida Statute 513.13 echoes this, stating that admission to or removal from a park may not be based on race, color, national origin, sex, physical disability, or creed.
Residents with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations, meaning changes to rules or policies that allow equal enjoyment of housing. A no-pets policy, for example, generally has to yield to an emotional support animal if the resident has a disability-related need. Operators can deny an accommodation only if it would create an undue financial or administrative burden or fundamentally alter park operations. Fair housing complaints go to HUD or the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
ADA and Common Areas
RV parks are places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Common areas such as restrooms, laundry facilities, clubhouses, and pools must be accessible. For existing facilities, the standard is “readily achievable” barrier removal, meaning changes that can be done without much difficulty or expense, like ramps, widened doorways, or grab bars. New construction and substantial alterations must meet the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design.
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
Active-duty military members and their dependents get an important extra layer. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), a landlord cannot evict a servicemember or dependents from residential housing without a court order, even where non-judicial eviction is otherwise permitted. Because Florida’s transient ejection process normally bypasses the courts, the SCRA is the safeguard that keeps a military family from being put out on a written notice alone.
The SCRA also lets servicemembers terminate a residential lease early, without penalty, after entering military service, receiving permanent change-of-station orders, or receiving deployment orders for 90 days or more. Termination requires written notice with a copy of the orders. For monthly leases, termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent payment is due. These protections apply when monthly rent is $10,542.60 or less as of 2026.
When the Park Breaks the Deal
The main remedy for a park’s breach of your agreement is a civil claim: unmaintained amenities, an unjustified deposit withholding, a fee not permitted by the contract. Florida small claims court handles disputes up to $8,000 and does not require a lawyer, which makes it practical for most deposit and fee cases.
For more serious misconduct, Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) reaches “unfair methods of competition, unconscionable acts or practices, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce.” An individual who suffers a loss can recover actual damages plus attorney’s fees and court costs. The attorney’s fees provision is what makes FDUTPA useful in practice: a lawyer may take the case even when the dollar amount alone would not justify the litigation.
For discrimination or SCRA violations by a park operator, the Department of Justice has an enforcement role in addition to any private claim you bring. DBPR remains the venue for licensing complaints against the operator itself. Different remedies solve different problems, so match the forum to what you are trying to recover: money damages in court, license discipline through DBPR, civil rights enforcement through HUD or DOJ.