Florida Residential Lease Requirements: What to Include

A residential lease in Florida is governed by the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the core of Florida landlord-tenant law found in Chapter 83, Part II of the statutes. This article covers what the law requires a lease to contain, the disclosures a landlord must make, the clauses Florida treats as void, and the default rules that fill the gaps when a lease says nothing.

Does Florida require a written lease?

Florida does not require every residential tenancy to be in writing. The dividing line is the length of the term. Under Florida’s statute of frauds, Fla. Stat. § 725.01, a lease “for a period longer than 1 year” must be in writing and signed by the party to be charged. A lease for one year or less can be oral and still create a valid tenancy that Chapter 83 governs.

An oral lease is enforceable, but it is harder to prove. When the parties disagree about rent, duration, or who pays for what, a written lease is the record a court reads first. A month-to-month arrangement with no written agreement is common and is treated as a tenancy without a fixed term.

When a lease does not state how long it runs, the statute supplies the answer. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.46, the duration is set by how often rent is paid: rent paid weekly creates a week-to-week tenancy, and rent paid monthly creates a month-to-month tenancy.

Core terms a Florida lease should spell out

A lease is a contract, so it needs the basic elements any contract needs: the parties, the property, the rent, and the term. Florida law does not dictate a form, but it does fill in several of these terms when the lease is silent, and the statutory default is not always what a landlord or tenant expects.

Rent is the clearest example. Fla. Stat. § 83.46 provides that, unless the lease says otherwise, rent is payable without demand or notice and is due at the beginning of each rent payment period. A lease that does not name a due date therefore makes rent due at the start of the period, not the end.

1. Name the parties and the property

   Identify the landlord and every adult tenant by legal name, and describe the rental unit by address. These identify who is bound by the lease and what is being rented.

2. State the rent, the due date, and how it is paid

   List the rent amount, when it is due, and the accepted payment methods. If the lease is silent on the due date, Fla. Stat. § 83.46 makes rent due at the beginning of each period.

3. State the term and any renewal terms

   Give the start and end dates for a fixed-term lease, or state that the tenancy runs month to month. A lease with no stated duration falls back to the rent-period default.

4. Include the required disclosures

   Confirm the lease or an accompanying document carries the landlord’s notice address, the deposit disclosure, and the radon notice described below.

Disclosures a Florida lease must include

Florida imposes a short list of affirmative disclosures. These are the closest thing the state has to mandatory lease contents, and a landlord who skips them is out of compliance even if the rest of the lease is sound.

First, the landlord must give the tenant a notice address. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.50, the landlord or the landlord’s agent must disclose in writing, at or before the start of the tenancy, the name and address of the landlord or of a person authorized to receive notices and demands on the landlord’s behalf. This is what tells a tenant where to send a repair notice or a forwarding address.

Second, the landlord must disclose how any money the tenant pays up front is held. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.49, a landlord who holds a security deposit or advance rent must give the tenant written notice disclosing whether the money is held in a separate account or secured by a surety bond, and whether it earns interest. The same section sets the deadlines for returning a deposit, including the 15-day window to return it when the landlord makes no claim against it.

Third, Florida requires a radon disclosure. Under Fla. Stat. § 404.056(5), a specific radon notification must appear on at least one document executed at or before signing a rental agreement for any building.

Lease clauses that are void under Florida law

A Florida lease can contain almost any term the parties agree to, with one large exception: it cannot strip the tenant of the protections Chapter 83 provides. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.47, a lease provision is void and unenforceable to the extent it purports to waive or preclude a right, remedy, or requirement in the Act, or to limit either party’s liability arising under law. A clause that says a tenant “waives all rights under Chapter 83” does nothing, and if a party suffers actual damages from the void clause, that party can recover them.

The landlord’s repair duty is the protection tenants most often see written away. The maintenance obligations in Fla. Stat. § 83.51 require the landlord to meet applicable building and housing codes and to keep the structure, plumbing, and, for most apartments, running water, hot water, and heat in working order. A lease cannot drop below that floor. This statutory duty is what Florida uses in place of a common-law Florida warranty of habitability, and the notice steps a tenant uses to enforce it cannot be waived in the lease.

Early termination and renewal clauses the statute limits

Some optional clauses are allowed only on the statute’s terms. Two of the most common are early termination fees and notice-of-non-renewal provisions.

An early termination fee is enforceable only if the lease follows Fla. Stat. § 83.595. The fee cannot exceed two months’ rent, the tenant must sign a separate addendum choosing between paying the fee and accepting liability under the law, and the lease may require no more than 60 days’ notice of an early departure. A fee that skips the addendum or exceeds the cap is not enforceable as written. The rules for leaving early and what a tenant owes for an ordinary breach are covered in how to break a lease without penalty in Florida.

A fixed-term lease may also require the tenant to give notice before moving out at the end of the term. Under Fla. Stat. § 83.575, such a clause cannot demand less than 30 days’ or more than 60 days’ notice, and it is valid only if the lease also requires the landlord to tell the tenant, within the same window, whether the lease will be renewed.

A lease also cannot shorten the statutory notice a landlord must give before filing to evict. Those periods are fixed by statute and are explained in the guide to Florida eviction notice types.

What applies when the lease is silent

A short or oral lease is not a lease without rules. When the written agreement omits a term, Chapter 83 and related statutes supply the default. Section 83.46 sets the rent timing and the duration of the tenancy, section 83.50 requires the landlord’s notice address regardless of what the lease says, and section 83.51 imposes the repair duty on every residential tenancy. The gaps a lease leaves are filled by the Act, and any clause that tries to contract around those protections is void under section 83.47. The Florida Bar’s consumer guide, Rights and Duties of Tenants and Landlords, summarizes the same framework in plain terms.