Free Florida Lease Renewal Agreement

Yes, and it is the step most Florida landlords skip. § 83.49(6) provides that for the purposes of Part II of Chapter 83, a renewal of an existing rental agreement shall be considered a new rental agreement, and any security deposit carried forward shall be considered a new security deposit. Two consequences follow. The § 83.49(2) disclosure duty is triggered again, so the disclosure belongs in the renewal document itself. And the § 83.49(3)(a) deadlines — 15 days to return the deposit where no claim is made, 30 days to send a claim notice — run from termination of the renewal term, not the original lease.

For a lease with a specific duration, none by default — it simply expires on its end date. The exception is § 83.575(1). If your lease requires the tenant to notify you within a specified period before vacating at the end of the term, that provision is valid only if it also requires the landlord to notify the tenant, in a manner prescribed by § 83.56(4), within that same notice period if the agreement will not be renewed. The statute then caps the period at both ends: a rental agreement may not require less than 30 days’ notice or more than 60 days’ notice from either the tenant or the landlord.

Only if you did your part first. § 83.575(2) lets a specific-duration lease make the tenant liable for liquidated damages as specified in the agreement, but conditions it on the landlord providing written notice to the tenant, in a manner prescribed by § 83.56(4), specifying the tenant’s obligations under the notification provision and the date the rental agreement terminates. The timing is exact: within 15 days before the start of the notification period contained in the lease. The written notice must also list all fees, penalties, and other charges applicable. Miss that window and the liquidated-damages clause has nothing to stand on.

A holdover you accept becomes a tenancy without a specific term, and § 83.46(2) sets its length by how the rent is payable — rent paid monthly makes it month to month. To end it, § 83.57(3) requires not less than 30 days’ notice prior to the end of any monthly period, given in the manner provided in § 83.56(4). The 15-day figure some competing sites still publish is repealed text; the current § 83.57 History line ends s. 2, ch. 2023-314. There is also a cost to the tenant: § 83.575(3) makes a permitted holdover who fails to give the § 83.57(3) notice liable for an additional 1 month’s rent.

Florida has no statewide rent control and Chapter 83 sets no cap or maximum percentage on a renewal increase. A renewal is a new agreement both parties sign, so the figure is whatever the tenant accepts. Two limits are real. First, you cannot impose a new rent in the middle of a term or a rent period — for a tenancy without a specific duration you would terminate under § 83.57(3) with 30 days’ notice, or agree a new term. Second, § 83.64 makes it unlawful to discriminatorily increase a tenant’s rent primarily in retaliation, and lists the tenant conduct that cannot be retaliated against.

No. Chapter 83, Part II prescribes no renewal form, no witnesses, and no notarization for a residential lease renewal. Florida does prescribe exact wording elsewhere — the deposit disclosure in § 83.49(2)(d), the claim notice in § 83.49(3)(a), the 3-day rent demand in § 83.56(3), the electronic-notice addendum in § 83.505 — which is the tell that where the Legislature wants specific words it says so, and here it has not. A signed writing identifying the original lease, the new term dates, the rent, and which original terms survive is sufficient. Keep it physically attached to the original lease rather than as a loose page.

Yes. Because § 83.49(6) treats a renewal as a new rental agreement, the parties may set its terms afresh — subject to the floors Chapter 83 imposes. § 83.51 fixes the landlord’s maintenance and habitability obligations, and § 83.47 makes void and unenforceable any provision that purports to waive or preclude the rights, remedies, or requirements set forth in Part II, or to limit either party’s liability arising under law. A renewal therefore cannot contract out of the § 83.53 entry rules, the § 83.49 deposit procedure, or the § 83.56 notice requirements, whatever the tenant signs. Spell out every changed term; anything not changed carries over.

There is no statute either way — this is practice. Florida neither requires a renewal-stage screening nor prohibits one. What does apply is federal: if you obtain a consumer report at renewal, the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs it, including permissible purpose and an adverse action notice if the report contributes to a decision to decline the renewal or to change its terms. Landlords who re-screen are usually looking for eviction filings, civil judgments, or an employment change since move-in. Whether the cost may be passed to the tenant, and whether the existing lease permits that, is a lease question rather than a Chapter 83 one.