Florida's security deposit rules have one deadline that matters.

Security deposits are the most common source of disputes between Florida landlords and former tenants, and the law that governs them — Fla. Stat. § 83.49 — is unusually unforgiving about deadlines. The money is the tenant's until you follow a specific procedure to claim it.

Where the deposit has to be held

Section 83.49 gives a Florida landlord three lawful options:

1. Hold it in a separate non-interest-bearing account in a Florida financial institution, kept apart from your own money.
2. Hold it in a separate interest-bearing account in a Florida financial institution, paying the tenant either at least 75% of the annualized average interest rate payable on the account, or 5% simple interest per year, whichever the landlord elects.
3. Post a surety bond with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the unit is, and pay the tenant 5% simple interest per year.

Commingling deposit money with operating funds is not one of the options.

Deadline one: tell the tenant where the money is

You must give the tenant written notice — either in the lease itself or within 30 days of receiving the deposit — stating the name and address of the depository (or that you have posted a surety bond), whether the tenant earns interest on it, and the disclosure paragraph printed in § 83.49(2)(d). If you later move the money, the tenant must be told within 30 days of the change.

The statute says this notice requirement does not apply to a landlord who rents fewer than five individual dwelling units. Most leases include it anyway, and we would rather give it than argue about whether it was needed.

Putting this clause in the lease is the simplest way to never miss it.

Deadline two: the 30 days after move-out

This is the one that costs owners money.

Read that carefully. If you intend to keep any part of the deposit, you must send the tenant written notice of your intent to impose a claim within 30 days after the tenancy ends, by certified mail to the tenant's last known mailing address, or by e-mail if you and the tenant signed the e-mail addendum described in § 83.505. The notice has to state the amount and the reason, in substantially the wording the statute prints. Miss the window and you must return the deposit in full. You keep the right to sue for damages separately, but you have lost the ability to simply deduct — and you are now the one who has to file.

What the timeline looks like

What you can and cannot deduct

The deposit is held, in the statute's words, "as security for performance of the rental agreement", and the notice form it prints is a claim "for damages". Section 83.52(6) says a tenant must not "destroy, deface, damage, impair, or remove any part of the premises". Florida's statute does not use the phrase "wear and tear" or list what counts, so the lease and your evidence carry the argument.

The working line we use: wear is what time and normal use do; damage is what a person did. It is a judgment call, and the examples below are how we apply it, not a list from the statute.

The documentation that actually settles disputes

A deposit claim is a factual argument, and the owner with the better record wins it. What holds up:

• A dated move-in inspection with photographs of every room, signed by the tenant.
• A matching move-out inspection shot from the same angles. Same-angle before-and-after pairs are far more persuasive than a pile of loose photos.
• Actual invoices for the repairs claimed, not estimates you wrote yourself.
• The certified-mail receipt (or the saved e-mail, if you use the § 83.505 addendum) for the 30-day notice. The deadline is about when you sent it; you need to be able to show that date.

Where owners lose deposit disputes

1. Sending the notice late. Thirty days runs from the end of the tenancy, not from when you got a contractor's quote back.
2. No move-in condition record. Without a baseline you cannot prove the tenant caused anything.
3. Claiming replacement cost for a worn item. A carpet at the end of its life is not a new carpet's worth of damage.
4. Deducting for cleaning that was never required. Unless the lease requires professional cleaning, "not as clean as I'd like" is a hard claim to win.
5. Keeping the deposit in the operating account. It undermines everything else even if the deduction itself was fair.

How we handle it

Deposits on CIMCO-managed properties are held as the statute requires, disclosures go out with the lease, and the 30-day clock is tracked from the day the tenancy ends rather than from whenever the paperwork lands. Move-in and move-out inspections are photographed from matching angles so a claim can be evidenced rather than argued.

That is part of full-service management at a flat 8% fee, across Broward and Miami-Dade.

This is general information, not legal advice. Florida landlord–tenant law is detailed and fact-specific, and statutes change. Verify anything you intend to act on against the current Florida Statutes Chapter 83, Part II, and consult a Florida attorney before serving notices or filing an eviction.