Why this one section of law decides your move-out
Section 83.49, Florida Statutes, is the entire law of the security deposit for a residential rental: how the money must be held while the tenant lives there, what notice some landlords owe about where it sits, and, above all, the strict little calendar that starts the day the tenancy ends. For the Canadian who rents out a Florida condo from Laval or Calgary, this is the statute most likely to cost real money for a purely administrative reason, because its deadlines are short, they run whether or not you are in the country, and missing the main one forfeits your claim even when the tenant genuinely wrecked the carpet.
This guide reads the section the way a remote owner needs it: the holding rules first, then the move-out calendar in both directions, then the distance playbook, the manager, the e-mail option the statute now allows, the certified-mail problem solved from Canada. The companion pages cover the rest of the relationship: the lease framework of chapter 83 upstream, and the eviction process when the relationship fails for other reasons.
While the tenancy runs: three lawful ways to hold the money
Florida does not let a landlord treat the deposit as spending money with a promise attached. From receipt to lawful deduction, the funds must sit in one of three statutory arrangements.
Verified fact: under s. 83.49(1), the landlord must either hold the deposit in a separate non-interest-bearing account in a Florida financial institution, or hold it in a separate interest-bearing Florida account and pay the tenant at least 75 percent of the annualized average interest or 5 percent per year simple interest, whichever the landlord elects, or post a surety bond with the clerk of the circuit court of the property's county. In the two account options, commingling the deposit with the landlord's other funds, or pledging or using the money before it is due, is prohibited. Source: Florida Statutes s. 83.49, Online Sunshine, consulted June 9, 2026.
For a Canadian owner the practical consequence sits in the words Florida financial institution: the deposit does not belong in your RBC chequing account in Montreal, and it does not belong mixed into the U.S. account that collects rent and pays the pool service. The clean pattern, and the one professional managers default to, is a dedicated U.S. escrow or trust account, separate from operating funds. If your manager holds deposits in their brokerage escrow account, that satisfies the section, and the management agreement should say exactly that.
The disclosure layer applies to larger operations. Within 30 days of receiving the deposit, the landlord must tell the tenant in writing how and where it is held and whether interest applies, with the statutory wording, delivered in person, by mail, or by e-mail under s. 83.505. That disclosure duty, by the statute's own terms, does not apply to a landlord renting fewer than five individual dwelling units, which describes most Canadian owners with one condo. The holding rules above apply to everyone regardless; only the notice is excused, and giving it anyway, as managers routinely do through the lease, costs nothing.
The move-out calendar: 15, 30, 15, 30
Everything in a Florida deposit dispute traces back to four numbers that start running at the termination of the rental agreement.
Verified fact: under s. 83.49(3), if the landlord makes no claim on the deposit, it must be returned within 15 days after termination of the tenancy. A landlord who intends to claim must, within 30 days after termination, send the tenant written notice of the intention to impose a claim, with the reason, by certified mail to the tenant's last known address or by e-mail in accordance with s. 83.505, using the statutory wording. The tenant then has 15 days after receiving that notice to object in writing. If the tenant does not object, the landlord may deduct the claim and must remit any balance within 30 days after the date of the notice. A landlord who fails to send the notice within the 30-day window forfeits the right to impose a claim on the deposit, may not set off against it, and must return it, keeping only the option of suing separately for damages afterward. Source: Florida Statutes s. 83.49(3), consulted June 9, 2026.
Read the forfeiture rule twice, because it is the one that catches absent owners. The statute does not ask whether the damage was real; it asks whether your certified letter or compliant e-mail left within 30 days with the right wording. Day 31, with photographs of a ruined floor in hand, you owe the full deposit back, and your only remedy is a fresh lawsuit you will probably never file from Quebec over a few thousand dollars. The deadline is the claim.
Two boundary details complete the calendar. The 30-day notice must state the reason for the claim, and the statutory text the notice must contain tells the tenant where to send the objection. And termination of the tenancy is the trigger in every branch: for an ordinary lease end that date is unambiguous, while after an eviction it is the end of the tenancy through that process, which is one more reason the eviction file and the deposit file should live with the same manager and the same attorney.
What a claim can actually cover
The deposit secures the tenant's obligations: unpaid rent, and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear. The line between damage and wear is factual, and Florida case files are full of the same examples on both sides: faded paint, worn carpet in traffic lanes, and loose grout read as wear; pet stains, holes in doors, broken blinds, and the burn mark in the laminate read as damage. A claim built on a dated move-in inspection report, a matching move-out report, and timestamped photographs survives the tenant's 15-day objection; a claim built on memory invites one.
Typical range: Florida residential deposits typically run between one and two months' rent, June 2026 market observation; chapter 83 sets no cap, but the market and the tenant's alternatives do. Whatever the amount, the deposit is not a renovation budget: it meets the unit's condition as documented, not the owner's upgrade plans.
One adjacent risk belongs in this section: the deposit only exists if the loss is the tenant's. The water heater that lets go and damages two floors is your file, not the tenant's, which is why the deposit rules and the landlord insurance policy are two halves of the same protection plan.
Advance rent: the deposit's twin, with different tax DNA
Section 83.49 governs more than the damage deposit: advance rent, typically the prepaid last month many Florida leases collect, lives under the same holding rules. The same three arrangements, the same Florida-institution requirement, the same prohibition on touching the money before it is due. A landlord holding first, last, and security is holding two categories of statutory money, and the account architecture must cover both.
At the end of the tenancy the two part ways. The advance rent is not returned; it is applied to its month, and the 15 and 30 day machinery above concerns only the security deposit. The practical failure mode is the lease that labels everything "deposit": money the parties meant as last month's rent gets swept into the claim-and-objection process, while money meant as security gets consumed as rent. Label each amount for what it is, in the lease, and the statute's two tracks run cleanly.
The tax treatment differs too, and it surprises Canadian owners at filing time. IRS guidance, Publication 527, treats advance rent as rental income in the year you receive it, whatever month it pays for, while a refundable security deposit is not income unless and until you keep some of it through a claim. First and last collected in November 2026 means two months of 2026 income on the U.S. return even though one of those months will be lived in 2028; the deposit beside them stays off the return until the day part of it becomes yours. The cross-border filing mechanics live in the Schedule E guide and the T776 guide.
Running s. 83.49 from Canada
Every deadline above is achievable from 2,000 kilometres away if three pieces are in place before the tenant gives notice.
First, the account architecture. The deposit sits in a compliant Florida account or the manager's escrow from day one, documented in the lease and the management agreement. Fixing the architecture at move-out is too late; the holding violation has already run for the whole tenancy.
Second, the notice machinery. The statute's e-mail option under s. 83.505 exists only if the lease contains the tenant's e-mail consent, which is precisely the kind of clause the lease guide tells you to build in on day one. With consent in the lease, the 30-day claim notice becomes a same-day act you can trigger from anywhere; without it, you are mailing certified from Canada or, far better, having the Florida manager mail certified from the same county, with the receipt scanned into the file.
Third, the inspection discipline. The manager performs the move-in and move-out inspections with the same template and the same camera angles, dates everything, and stores it where you can reach it at midnight. The 30-day window is generous when the evidence is already organized and brutal when someone must fly down to look at the carpet.
Opinion: delegate the execution, never the decision. The manager should prepare the claim file and the statutory notice, but the choice to claim, and for how much, is an owner's judgment about evidence, relationship, and the cost of being wrong, and it deserves ten sober minutes before the deadline rather than a reflex. Managers optimize for closure; you should optimize for a clean file.
How Florida compares with what Canadians know
Deposit law is provincial in Canada, and the spread is wide, which is exactly why calibrating on home habits misleads in Florida.
| Aspect | State (FL): s. 83.49 | Provincial (QC) | Provincial (ON) | Provincial (BC · AB · SK · MB · NS · NB · PEI · NL) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security deposit for damage | Lawful, uncapped by statute, strict holding and claim rules | Not permitted: the Civil Code does not allow demanding a damage deposit | Not permitted for damage; only a last month's rent deposit for rent | Generally permitted with provincial caps, commonly half to one month's rent, and tribunal-supervised returns |
| Where the money sits | Separate Florida account or surety bond, no commingling | Not applicable | Rent deposit held by landlord, interest owed annually | Varies: trust or general accounts with interest rules by province |
| Return clock | 15 days, or 30-day claim notice then statutory sequence | Not applicable | Applied to last month's rent rather than returned | Commonly 10 to 15 days with consent or tribunal process on dispute |
The takeaway runs both directions. An Ontario or Quebec owner discovers a tool their home market denies them, and routinely under-documents because they never built the inspection habit. A Western or Atlantic owner knows deposits but expects a tribunal to referee; in Florida the referee is a statute and a calendar, and the landlord who misses a date loses by default.
A worked example: a April 30, 2027 move-out
Chantal, of Gatineau, rents her Cape Coral house at 2,400 USD a month; the tenant holds a 3,600 USD deposit in the manager's Florida escrow, and the lease contains the s. 83.505 e-mail consent. The tenancy ends April 30, 2027.
The manager's move-out inspection on May 1 finds two real items against the move-in report: a bedroom door with a fist-sized hole and a burn mark in the kitchen counter, photographed and priced at 850 USD on two contractor quotes. On May 6, Chantal approves the claim. The same day, the manager sends the statutory notice of intention to impose a claim for 850 USD, with the reason, by e-mail under the lease's consent clause, day 6 of 30. The tenant does not object within 15 days. On June 1, well inside 30 days from the notice, the manager remits the 2,750 USD balance. File closed in 32 days, no flights, no court.
Typical range: the repair pricing here reflects ordinary June 2026 handyman and countertop quotes; the legal numbers, 15, 30, 15, and 30, are the statute's and do not move. Run the counterfactual once: had the notice gone out on June 2 instead, day 33, the same photographs would have bought nothing, the full 3,600 USD goes back, and the 850 USD becomes a small claim Chantal will rationally abandon.
Common mistakes
Deposit files are lost on process. These are the recurring failures in owner files, most of them fatal under the statute.
- Missing the 30-day claim notice. The forfeiture is absolute: no setoff, full return, sue separately if you insist. The calendar entry belongs in your diary the day the tenant gives notice.
- Commingling the deposit. Parking it in the rent account, or in Canada, violates the holding rules from day one and hands the tenant an argument that outlives the tenancy.
- Sending the claim by ordinary mail or text. The statute says certified mail or compliant e-mail with the statutory wording. The medium is part of the claim.
- No move-in baseline. Without the dated move-in report, every move-out finding is your word against the tenant's 15-day objection.
- Claiming wear as damage. Faded paint and carpet tracks pad the claim and discredit the legitimate items beside them.
- Treating the deposit as the insurance. It covers tenant-caused loss up to its amount; everything else is the landlord policy's job.
- Forgetting the e-mail consent clause at lease signing. One line in the lease converts the certified-mail problem into a same-day click; its absence puts Canada Post and USPS between you and a statutory deadline.
The owner's deposit checklist
- At lease signing: deposit amount in the lease, compliant Florida account or manager escrow named, s. 83.505 e-mail consent included.
- Confirm in the management agreement who holds the deposit, who prepares notices, and who signs them.
- Move-in: dated inspection report and photo set, copy to the tenant.
- During the tenancy: never touch the funds; if the holding arrangement changes, notify as required.
- The day notice is given: diarize termination date, day 15, and day 30.
- Move-out: same-template inspection within days, against the move-in baseline.
- Decision by day 25 at the latest: claim or return.
- No claim: full return within 15 days. Claim: statutory notice with reason by certified mail or compliant e-mail within 30 days.
- Track the tenant's 15-day objection window; absent objection, deduct and remit the balance within 30 days of the notice.
- Archive the whole file, notice receipts included, with the year's tax records.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a maximum deposit in Florida?
Chapter 83 sets no cap for ordinary residential tenancies; the market does. One to two months' rent is the common band, and amounts above that price the unit out against competing listings rather than adding real protection.
Do I owe the tenant interest?
Only if you chose the interest-bearing holding option, in which case the statute fixes the tenant's share: at least 75 percent of the annualized average rate, or 5 percent simple, at your election. In the common non-interest-bearing escrow arrangement, no interest is owed.
Can I hold the deposit in my Canadian account?
No. The statutory options are a separate account in a Florida financial institution or a surety bond filed with the circuit court clerk of the property's county. A manager's Florida escrow account is the standard compliant answer for a remote owner.
What if the tenant disputes my claim within their 15 days?
The deduction stops being automatic: the dispute resolves by agreement or in court, typically small claims, and your inspection file decides it. The objection does not extend your original obligations, which is why the claim should be evidence-grade before it is sent.
The tenant left no forwarding address. Where do I send the notice?
The statute requires certified mail to the last known mailing address, which can be the rental unit itself if nothing newer was provided, or the compliant e-mail where consent exists. Send it anyway and keep the proof: the obligation is to give the notice properly, not to guarantee its reading.
After an eviction, do these deadlines still apply?
Yes. The tenancy's termination through the eviction process starts the same 15 and 30 day clocks on whatever deposit remains, and an owner mid-eviction routinely forgets the second calendar while watching the first.
Does normal wear and tear ever justify a claim?
No. Wear is the cost of the rent you collected. The claim covers unpaid rent and damage beyond wear, and the move-in versus move-out comparison is what separates the two in front of a judge.