Breaking A Lease In Florida: Tenant & Landlord Rights

A lease is a written agreement that governs the rental of a residential or commercial property. Under a lease, both the landlord and the tenant have certain rights and obligations. Generally, neither a tenant nor a landlord can break a lease without cause or damages.

For tenants, there are limited situations where it may be possible to break a lease early. Otherwise, tenants may be on the hook for rent or liquidated damages. Landlords can only end residential leases early if the tenant violates the lease and must follow the formal legal eviction process to break a lease.

Eaton Realty is a full-service real estate company located in Lithia, Florida. We help tenants find rental homes in the greater Tampa area and work with landlords to help them effectively manage their investment properties. If you’re looking to rent a house or want help managing your rental properties, reach out today to talk to a member of our real estate team.

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When Can a Tenant Break a Lease in Florida?

In Florida, a residential lease does not have to be in writing, as long as it is for a term of one year or less. However, most landlords and tenants do sign a written rental agreement. A lease can protect both parties, as it spells out rights, duties, and remedies.

Many residential leases are for a term of one year, although they may be longer or shorter (such as a month-to-month rental). Most tenants sign a lease with the intention of remaining in the property for the duration of the agreement. However, life happens—you may get a new job, need to move for family reasons, or otherwise have to break the lease. This raises an important question about your rights regarding getting out of your lease early.

When you sign a lease as a tenant, you are generally obligated to pay rent for the rental property for the entirety of the lease term (even if you vacate the premises). Most leases contain a provision that spells out consequences for breaking the lease (limited by Florida’s Landlord Tenant Law). However, there are some situations where you may be able to break a lease without penalty.

Entering Active Duty

First, if you enter active military duty after signing a lease, you have the right to break the lease under the War and National Defense Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. If you are part of the “uniformed services,” you can break a lease by giving your landlord a written notice of your intent to terminate your tenancy because of active duty military service. Once your notice is either mailed or delivered, then your rental agreement will end within 30 days after the day that the next rent is due.

Landlord Engaging In Illegal Activities

Second, if your landlord engages in certain illegal activities, you can break the lease. Specifically, if your landlord repeatedly violates your right to privacy—such as by failing to provide at least 12 hours notice before entering—or tries to evict you without going through the legal process, you can end your lease without penalty.

Property Is Unsafe

Third, if your rental property violates Florida health or safety codes or is otherwise unsafe, then you have probably been “constructively evicted.” A “constructive eviction” means that the landlord has effectively evicted you by providing unlivable housing. You must follow a specific procedure to move out because of this type of issue, and the problem must be severe (such as a failure to provide water or another essential service or utility).

If your situation does not fall into one of these categories, you may be obligated to either continue to pay rent or pay damages to your landlord. In Florida, landlords are not required to mitigate damages by finding a new tenant quickly. They can either re-rent the property if you break the lease, do nothing and collect rent for the term of the lease, or demand damages of up to 2 months’ rent under an early termination provision of the lease.

In Florida, if you don’t have a legal reason to break your lease, you may be on the hook for rent or damages. Depending on the terms of your lease, you may be able to find someone to sublet your apartment. Otherwise, you can try to work something out with your landlord - such as recommending a new tenant to them - or explain your situation to convince them to work something out with you.

When Can a Landlord Break a Lease in Florida?

As a landlord, you may want to end a rental agreement early. In Florida, you can only terminate a residential lease before its expiration for cause (i.e., the tenant has violated the lease in some way). You will also have to go through the formal eviction process to evict a tenant.

Material Breach Of Agreement

Generally, you can end a tenant’s lease early if they have committed a material breach of the agreement. Material means that the issue is important. In other words, you may be able to evict a tenant if they intentionally damage the rental property in a significant way - but not if they do something minor, like accidentally breaking something that is easily repairable.

Lease violations may be curable or incurable - which means that they can either be fixed or cannot be resolved. A curable violation may include things like nonpayment of rent, violating the pet policy, parking in an unauthorized space, or playing music too loudly. An incurable violation could include continued nonpayment of rent, intentional damage or destruction of the property, engaging in criminal activity, or a continued unreasonable disturbance.

How To Evict A Tenant

To evict a tenant for cause, you must go through the legal process - you cannot engage in self-help eviction, such as by changing the locks or disconnecting utilities. A proper eviction requires giving the tenant written notice and going to court to get an eviction order. The amount of notice depends on the violation and whether or not it is curable:

Nonpayment of rent: 3-day notice to pay rent or quit
A curable violation: 7-day notice to cure the violation
An incurable violation: 7-day unconditional quit notice

If a tenant either refuses to fix the issue (such as by getting current on rent) or has committed a lease violation that can’t be remedied, then you will need to file a lawsuit in court to legally evict your tenant and terminate the lease.

There may be situations where you’d like to end a lease early for any number of reasons. Perhaps you’d like to sell the property or move into it yourself. Unless a tenant has committed a material lease violation, you will need to wait it out until the end of the lease. You can then send a lease non-renewal notice and simply not sign another lease.

Let Eaton Realty Manage Your Rentals For You

If you are a landlord who wants to build financial stability, it is vital to understand Florida’s landlord-tenant laws. A lease is a type of contract, and like other contracts, you usually can’t break a lease without some kind of penalty—unless the other party commits a violation. Following Florida law when breaking a lease is essential to protecting your bottom line.

At Eaton Realty, we help landlords manage their properties with our professional property management services. For each client, our goal is to make the process as smooth and low-stress as possible. We will provide a full suite of management services, including preparing your investment property for listing, marketing the property, collecting rent, handling maintenance requests, and dealing with lease non-renewal notices and evictions.

To learn more about our property management services, fill out our online contact form or call our office at 813-672-8022.

Daniel Rothrock

Director of Property Mgmt., MPM

Daniel is the Director of Property Management at Eaton Realty. He is a Master Property Manager, which is the highest level of recognition you can receive in the field. When he's not covering property management developments and insights on the Eaton blog or managing Eaton's property management team, Daniel can be found serving as the Southeast Regional Vice President/Ambassador for the National Association of Residential Property Managers. You can find Daniel on LinkedIn.