Florida Residential Lease Agreement

What every Florida lease must include

Standard lease elements

• Parties and the Florida county + street address of the rental.
• Lease term — fixed end date or a month-to-month tenancy.
• Monthly rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods.
• Security deposit amount and the account that will hold it.
• Utilities — which the landlord covers and which the tenant pays.
• Occupancy rules, pets, smoking, and entry procedures.
• Default, cure periods, and termination language permitted under state law.
• Signatures of all parties — no witnesses or notary are required for a Florida lease (Fla. Stat. § 689.01).

Florida-required disclosures

• Radon notification — the statutorily prescribed sentence alerting the tenant that radon is a naturally occurring gas and may be present at elevated levels. (Fla. Stat. § 404.056)
• Flood-history disclosure — written notice of whether the dwelling has flooded in the prior five years, delivered at or before lease signing. (Fla. Stat. § 83.512)
• Name and address of the landlord (or authorized agent) for receiving notices and demands. (Fla. Stat. § 83.49(1)–(2))
• Federal lead-paint disclosure and EPA pamphlet for any unit built before 1978. (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 24 C.F.R. Part 35)
• For landlords with five or more units, a copy of Fla. Stat. § 83.49(2) must be included in the lease or delivered within 30 days of receiving the deposit. (Fla. Stat. § 83.49(2))

Florida-specific workflow

• No statutory cap on the security deposit — landlord and tenant negotiate the amount.
• Deposit held either in a non-interest-bearing Florida account, an interest-bearing Florida account (with the tenant getting 75% of interest), or posted as a surety bond. The selected method must be disclosed to the tenant within 30 days.
• Return the deposit in full within 15 days of move-out, OR send an itemized claim by certified mail within 30 days (the tenant then has 15 days to object).
• Entry for repairs requires at least 24 hours of notice between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. (Fla. Stat. § 83.53(2), as amended in 2022 — older templates still say 12 hours).
• Month-to-month tenancies can be terminated by either party with at least 30 days' written notice before the end of the monthly period (Fla. Stat. § 83.57(3), as amended by HB 1417 in 2023 — up from 15 days).
• No subscribing witnesses are required for a lease of any length — the old two-witness rule for leases over one year was removed from Fla. Stat. § 689.01 in 2020 (ch. 2020-102).

Florida Bar — Consumer Pamphlet on Rights and Duties of Tenants and Landlords

How the Florida lease is structured

1. The document opens with parties, Florida county, and the rental-property address.
2. The term section identifies the arrangement as fixed-term with an end date or as month-to-month, and carries the statutory termination-notice period for a periodic tenancy (Fla. Stat. § 83.57).
3. The rent section sets the monthly amount, due date, accepted payment methods, and NSF/stop-payment handling.
4. The security-deposit section records the amount and the statutorily required account-method disclosure.
5. Statewide radon and flood-history disclosures attach as distinct clauses; the flood disclosure branches on whether the dwelling has flooded in the prior five years.
6. Landlord entry, utility responsibility, occupancy rules, and pet/smoking policies fill the use-of-premises block.
7. Federal lead-paint disclosure attaches for pre-1978 housing, alongside the EPA pamphlet.
8. Signature blocks close the document. Florida requires neither witnesses nor notarization for a residential lease (Fla. Stat. § 689.01), so the parties' signatures are all that is needed.

BuildMyLease assembles all of this for you in a guided interview.

Free Florida lease template vs BuildMyLease

Free Florida lease templates are everywhere, and some work for simple tenancies. Here is the honest comparison for what you actually get on each side.

Who this is for

This is for

• Florida landlords managing 1–4 private-market units (single-family, condo, duplex, small multifamily).
• Owners who want the radon + flood + deposit-method disclosures built in without researching every statute.
• Landlords issuing a new fixed-term lease OR a month-to-month that needs proper 30-day termination-notice language.

This isn't for

• Landlords with five or more units who need the lengthier deposit notice — the wizard references it but you should run wording past counsel.
• Commercial, mobile-home, or transient (hotel/motel) leases.
• Tenancies subject to the Florida Mobile Home Act or the Florida Cooperative Act.
• Ongoing eviction or summary-procedure filings — those need court forms, not a lease.