“I’m just going to keep the deposit because the tenant trashed the place.” If you’ve been a Florida agent for more than fifteen minutes, you’ve heard this. It’s not a strategy. In Florida, it’s a great way to turn a $1,500 dispute into a $6,000 judgment against your client. There’s a second, sneakier deposit trap too and this one hiding in the FAR/Bar contract for clients on either side of the Contract.
1. The Rental Security Deposit Clock
Florida Statute § 83.49 doesn’t care who’s “right,” only who followed the deadlines:
No claim intended? Full deposit back within 15 days of lease termination.
Claim intended? Landlord has 30 days to send written notice (certified mail or email) stating the amount and reason. Then the tenant then has 15 days to object.
No objection? Landlord deducts the claim and sends the balance within 30 days of the notice.
Miss the 30-day notice window, and the landlord forfeits the right to withhold anything, no matter how legitimate the damage claim is. They can still sue separately for damages, but they’ve lost their leverage.
Why it bites agents’ clients: § 83.48 lets the prevailing party recover attorney’s fees. A $400 carpet dispute can become a four-figure judgment once a tenant’s attorney gets involved, especially against a landlord with no move-in photos, no itemized notice, no certified mail receipt.
Tell your clients: document condition with photos every time, calendar the 15/30-day deadlines the moment a lease ends, and never “just keep” a deposit without the statutory notice.
2. The Other Deposit Fight: Earnest Money Under the FAR/Bar Contract
Paragraph 17 of the FAR/Bar Residential Contract lets the prevailing party recover attorney’s fees in “litigation permitted by” the contract. Sounds simple, that is until Pesantes v. Kelley (406 So.3d 340, Fla. 3d DCA 2025). The court held that the contract’s pre-suit mediation requirement is a condition precedent to filing suit. Skip mediation, then sue, and even if you win, you can be denied attorney’s fees, because the lawsuit was never “permitted by” the contract in the first place. Winning the case doesn’t fix it.
Why it matters: Earnest money disputes are common: failed financing, inspection fights, blown closing dates. The instinct is to file suit and sort it out later. Pesantes says “later” is too late, at least for fee recovery.
Tell your clients: before anyone drafts a complaint over a deposit dispute, pre-suit mediation needs to happen first, not as a formality, but as a prerequisite.
The Common Thread
Whether it’s a $1,500 security deposit or a $50,000 earnest money deposit, Florida law rewards the party who follows procedure and quietly punishes the party who assumes being right is enough. You just need the instinct to catch “I’ll handle it myself” before it becomes a legal problem, and a good real estate attorney to send that client to first.
