A Hollywood landlord serves a 3-day notice on Friday afternoon demanding rent by Monday morning. The tenant pays Tuesday and gets evicted anyway. The notice was defective — it counted Saturday and Sunday as business days, violating Florida Statute § 83.56(3). Cases like this fill Broward County Court calendars because landlords and tenants both misunderstand the timelines and procedural traps built into Florida’s eviction law.
Hollywood sits in Broward County, so every residential eviction for a property in Hollywood gets filed in Broward County Court at the Central Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. The process follows Chapter 83, Part II of the Florida Statutes — the same framework that applies statewide. But knowing the statute numbers doesn’t tell you how these cases actually play out in Broward or what defenses actually work when a tenant hires counsel.
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The 3-Business-Day Notice Rule Most Landlords Get Wrong
Florida law requires a 3-day notice before filing an eviction for nonpayment of rent. That’s three business days under § 83.56(3), which means Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays don’t count. Serve the notice on a Thursday, and the tenant has until the following Tuesday to pay or vacate. Serve it Friday afternoon, and the clock doesn’t even start until Monday.
The notice must demand only rent as defined in the lease. Including late fees, utilities, or other charges in the total amount due makes the notice legally defective. Defense attorneys in Broward routinely get evictions dismissed or delayed by showing the landlord demanded $1,450 when the lease says rent is $1,200 and the extra $250 was a late fee. The statute says “rent” — not “amounts owed.”
Delivery matters just as much as the content. Under § 83.56(4), you can hand the notice to the tenant, hand it to another adult at the residence if the tenant isn’t home, or post it in a conspicuous place and mail a copy by first-class mail if no one is there. Post-and-mail is the most common method, but landlords who skip the mailing step or post the notice somewhere other than the front door create an easy defense.
One bill in 2026 — SB 716 — tried to extend the nonpayment notice period from three days to five. It died in committee on March 13, 2026. The 3-business-day rule is still in effect across Florida.
Material Lease Violations Get Two Different Notice Tracks
Nonpayment cases are straightforward. Lease violation cases are not. Section 83.56(2) splits violations into curable and non-curable categories, and the notice requirements are completely different.
For curable violations — unauthorized pets, unauthorized occupants, noise complaints, minor rule violations — the landlord must give a 7-day notice with an opportunity to cure. The tenant gets seven full days to fix the problem. If they do, the eviction dies before it starts.
For non-curable violations, the landlord issues a 7-day notice to vacate with no cure opportunity. Serious damage to the property, repeated violations of the same rule after prior written warnings, and certain criminal activity fall into this category. Effective October 1, 2026, Florida added fraudulent rental fraud under § 817.537(2) to the non-curable list. A landlord who discovers a tenant obtained occupancy through rental fraud can now issue a 7-day notice to vacate without waiting for a criminal prosecution or giving the tenant a chance to fix anything.
The difference between curable and non-curable isn’t always obvious. Landlords who guess wrong and issue a non-curable notice for a curable violation hand the tenant a defense. Tenants who receive a non-curable notice and try to “cure” the issue anyway often don’t realize the landlord has no legal obligation to accept the cure and stop the eviction.
Month-to-Month Tenancies Require 30 Days Notice Statewide
Terminating a month-to-month tenancy without cause requires 30 days’ written notice under § 83.57. That’s a recent change. Before July 1, 2023, Florida law required only 15 days’ notice for month-to-month tenancies. HB 1417 raised it to 30 days and wiped out local ordinances across the state that tried to impose longer notice periods or additional tenant protections.
Some cities — including a few in South Florida — had passed “tenant bill of rights” ordinances with extended notice requirements, mandatory lease renewal terms, or restrictions on no-cause terminations. HB 1417 added § 83.425 to the statutes and preempted every one of those local rules. State law now controls eviction timelines in all 67 counties, including Broward. Hollywood landlords and tenants operate under the same notice rules as everyone else in Florida.
The 30-day notice must be delivered using the same methods as other termination notices under § 83.56(4) — hand delivery, substitute service at the residence, or posting and mailing. The notice period runs from the date of delivery, not the date the landlord decides to terminate the tenancy or the date the tenant actually receives the mailed copy.
Filing the Eviction Complaint in Broward County Court
After the notice period expires and the tenant hasn’t paid, cured, or vacated, the landlord files a complaint for eviction with the Broward County Clerk of Courts. The filing fee runs around $185, but the Clerk sets the exact amount and it changes periodically. The complaint has to describe the property, attach the lease and the expired notice, and state the facts that authorize recovery of possession.
Service of process in eviction cases follows Chapter 48 of the Florida Statutes, and the rules are stricter than most landlords expect. The summons and complaint must be personally served on the tenant under § 48.031 — handed to the tenant directly or left with another adult at the residence if the tenant isn’t home. If no one is there and the tenant can’t be found in the county, the process server can use posting service under § 48.183, but only after at least two genuine attempts to serve the tenant personally. Those attempts must be at least six hours apart.
The posting-service affidavit has to spell out the dates, times, and details of both attempts. Broward judges review those affidavits closely. A process server who makes two attempts 90 minutes apart or who shows up at the property once and immediately posts the summons creates a service defect the tenant can use to quash service and restart the clock.
After proper posting, the Clerk mails an additional copy of the summons and complaint to the tenant by first-class mail. Both the posting and the mailing are required. Skip either one and the tenant has grounds to challenge service.
Tenants Have 5 Business Days to Respond and Deposit Rent
Once served, tenants have five business days to file an answer or other responsive pleading. That’s five business days under Florida’s summary procedure for eviction — Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays don’t count, just like the 3-day notice calculation.
Here’s the part that catches unrepresented tenants off guard. In nonpayment cases, § 83.60(2) requires the tenant to deposit the full amount of rent the landlord claims is due into the court registry if the tenant wants to contest the eviction and raise most defenses. The tenant can file a motion to determine the rent amount if they dispute what’s owed, but they still have to deposit something into the registry or risk an immediate default judgment for possession.
Failing to deposit rent waives nearly all defenses to possession. A tenant who files a detailed answer raising habitability issues, retaliatory conduct, and improper notice but doesn’t deposit rent into the court registry gets a default judgment anyway. Broward County Court judges enforce this requirement strictly. It’s one of the most common reasons tenants lose eviction cases even when they have valid defenses.
The rent deposit rule doesn’t apply to lease violation cases or no-cause terminations. It only applies when the landlord is evicting for nonpayment. But most evictions in Broward are nonpayment cases, so the rule comes up constantly.
Default Judgments Move Fast, Contested Cases Don’t
If the tenant doesn’t respond within five business days, the landlord moves for a clerk’s default and then gets a final judgment of possession within days. Uncontested evictions in Broward typically run from filing to lock-out in three to five weeks.
Contested cases are a different story. Once the tenant files an answer and raises defenses, the timeline stretches to two to four months or longer depending on discovery, motions, and whether the tenant appeals. Tenants have 30 days to file a notice of appeal after a final judgment, and filing an appeal can delay the writ of possession for months if the tenant posts a supersedeas bond.
After the court enters a final judgment for possession, the Clerk issues a writ of possession directing the Broward Sheriff to restore possession to the landlord. The Sheriff posts a 24-hour notice at the property before executing the writ. Weekends and holidays count in that 24-hour period. After 24 hours, the Sheriff returns, removes the occupants, and turns possession over to the landlord.
Self-help lockouts are illegal in Florida. Landlords who change the locks, cut off utilities, remove doors, or physically remove the tenant’s belongings without a writ of possession executed by the Sheriff violate Florida law and open themselves up to lawsuits. Removal has to happen through the Sheriff. There’s no shortcut.
The Defective Notice Defense Landlords Hand Tenants
Attacking the 3-day notice is the first thing defense attorneys do in nonpayment cases because landlords get the details wrong constantly. The notice demands the wrong amount — rent plus late fees or utilities. The notice miscounts the three business days by including Saturday or Sunday. The notice gets posted but never mailed. Any of those mistakes makes the notice defective and defeats the eviction or forces the landlord to start over with a corrected notice.
The “wrong amount” defense is especially common in Broward. A lease says rent is $1,350 per month. The tenant is three weeks late. The landlord serves a 3-day notice demanding $1,500 — the $1,350 rent plus a $150 late fee. The notice is defective because § 83.56(3) requires the notice to demand “rent,” not “rent plus other charges.” The tenant’s attorney files an answer, points out the discrepancy, and the landlord either dismisses the case or loses at trial.
Date calculation errors are just as common. A landlord serves a 3-day notice on Friday and counts Saturday, Sunday, and Monday as the three days. The tenant doesn’t pay by Monday and the landlord files the eviction Tuesday morning. The notice is defective because the three business days didn’t start until Monday. The tenant had until Wednesday to pay or vacate.
Improper delivery comes up when landlords use post-and-mail service but skip the mailing step or post the notice somewhere other than a conspicuous place like the front door. Section 83.56(4) requires both posting and mailing. Do one without the other and the tenant has a defense.
Payment After the Notice Expires Creates a Waiver Argument
Landlords who accept rent after serving a 3-day notice without explicitly reserving the right to proceed with the eviction sometimes waive the default. Say a landlord serves a 3-day notice on the 5th of the month. The tenant doesn’t pay within three business days. The landlord files the eviction on the 12th. The tenant pays the full rent amount on the 15th and the landlord deposits the check. The tenant’s attorney argues the landlord’s acceptance of payment after filing the eviction waived the default and created a new period of performance.
Florida courts don’t always agree on how to handle post-notice payments, but tenants raise the argument regularly and sometimes win. Landlords who want to preserve the right to evict after accepting late payment need to state that explicitly in writing when they accept the payment — “acceptance of this payment does not waive landlord’s right to proceed with eviction for the prior default.”
Partial payments create even murkier situations. A tenant who owes $1,200 pays $600 after the 3-day notice expires. The landlord deposits the $600 without comment and continues the eviction. The tenant argues waiver. The landlord argues the partial payment didn’t cure the default because the full amount wasn’t paid. These cases turn on the specific facts and how the landlord documented the transaction.
Habitability Defenses Under Section 83.51 Require Following the Statute Exactly
Florida law requires landlords to maintain the property in compliance with applicable building, housing, and health codes and to keep the premises in a safe, habitable condition under § 83.51. Tenants can use the landlord’s failure to maintain the property as both an offensive tool to terminate the lease and a defensive tool to withhold rent in an eviction case. But Florida’s habitability law has strict procedural requirements tenants have to follow or they lose the defense.
A tenant who discovers a serious maintenance issue — no working air conditioning in August, a roof leak that’s causing mold, broken windows, no hot water — has to give the landlord written notice describing the problem and stating the tenant’s intention to terminate the rental agreement if the landlord doesn’t fix it. The landlord then has seven days to cure the issue under § 83.56(1). If the landlord doesn’t cure within seven days, the tenant can terminate the lease and move out without penalty.
If the tenant wants to stay in the property and withhold rent because of the habitability issue, the process is different and riskier. The tenant still has to give the landlord written notice describing the noncompliance. If the landlord doesn’t fix it and then files an eviction for nonpayment, the tenant must deposit the withheld rent into the court registry under § 83.60 and raise the landlord’s § 83.51 violation as a defense. The court can reduce the rent to reflect the diminished value of the property during the period of noncompliance, but the tenant has to deposit the full amount claimed into the registry first or risk losing on a procedural default.
Florida has no “repair and deduct” statute. Tenants can’t hire a contractor to fix the air conditioner and deduct the cost from next month’s rent. Deducting repair costs without following the § 83.56 and § 83.60 process is grounds for eviction. The only way to withhold rent legally in Florida is to follow the statutory notice and deposit requirements exactly.
Retaliatory Eviction Claims Under Section 83.64
Section 83.64 makes it illegal for a landlord to raise rent, reduce services, or file an eviction in retaliation for certain protected tenant activities. Protected activities include complaining to a government agency about code violations, complaining to the landlord about maintenance issues under § 83.56, organizing or joining a tenant organization, or exercising rights under fair housing laws.
Tenants raise retaliatory conduct as a defense in eviction cases by showing the landlord’s primary motive was retaliation and that the tenant is being treated differently than other tenants as to rent, services, or enforcement. Timing is usually the key evidence. A landlord who files an eviction two weeks after a tenant calls code enforcement about mold or submits a written repair request for a broken air conditioner hands the tenant a retaliation argument.
The tenant has to prove retaliation was the primary motive, not just one factor. A landlord who can show the tenant actually didn’t pay rent or actually violated the lease in a way that justifies eviction usually wins even if the timing looks suspicious. But landlords who file evictions shortly after receiving complaints or who suddenly start enforcing lease rules they ignored for months create fact patterns that support retaliation claims.
Retaliation defenses come up more often in Broward than landlords expect, especially in older rental properties where maintenance issues are common and tenants know they can call code enforcement. A tenant who’s been paying rent on time for two years, submits a written request for mold remediation, and then gets a 3-day notice for nonpayment three weeks later has a colorable retaliation defense even if they actually are behind on rent.
Service of Process Defects Tenants Use to Quash and Restart the Clock
Improper service is one of the most common procedural defenses in Broward eviction cases. Section 48.183 allows posting service in eviction actions only after the process server makes at least two attempts to personally serve the tenant at least six hours apart. The affidavit of service has to document both attempts with specific dates, times, and details about what happened at the property.
Process servers who make two attempts 90 minutes apart or who show up once, knock on the door, get no answer, and immediately post the summons violate the statute. Tenants who get served that way can move to quash service, and if the court grants the motion the landlord has to start the service process over. That adds weeks to the case.
The mailing requirement after posting creates another common defect. After the process server posts the summons and complaint at the property, the Clerk has to mail a copy to the tenant by first-class mail. If the Clerk doesn’t mail the copy or mails it to the wrong address, the tenant has grounds to challenge service. Both the posting and the mailing are mandatory under § 48.183. Skip either one and the service is defective.
Defense attorneys in Broward routinely file motions to quash service in eviction cases because landlords and process servers cut corners on the two-attempt requirement. Judges review the affidavits closely and grant the motions when the affidavit doesn’t show two attempts six hours apart or doesn’t provide enough detail about what the process server did at each attempt.
Standing Issues When the Plaintiff Isn’t the Real Landlord
Tenants sometimes argue the plaintiff doesn’t have standing to bring the eviction because the plaintiff isn’t the actual landlord. This comes up when a property manager files the eviction in the property manager’s name instead of the owner’s name, when an HOA tries to evict a tenant for the owner’s unpaid assessments, or when a bank that’s foreclosing tries to evict the tenant before the foreclosure is final.
Florida law requires the party seeking possession to have a legal right to possession. A property manager who doesn’t hold title and isn’t specifically authorized in the lease to bring eviction actions in the manager’s own name doesn’t have standing. The property owner has to be the plaintiff or at least a named party to the case.
HOA evictions for unpaid assessments are more complicated. An HOA can sometimes evict a tenant if the governing documents give the HOA that right and the owner’s unpaid assessments create a lien that affects the tenant’s occupancy. But HOAs that try to evict tenants without following the specific procedures in the declaration or without proving the tenant was given proper notice often lose on standing grounds.
Bank evictions before foreclosure is final almost never work. A bank that’s foreclosing on the property doesn’t have a right to possession until the foreclosure judgment is entered and the property is sold or transferred to the bank. Filing an eviction before that happens is premature and the tenant can defeat it on standing grounds.
Whether you are buying a home, dealing with a landlord dispute, or recovering from an injury, Eric Goldman can help. Serving clients throughout Florida.
Eviction Cases Move Faster Than Almost Any Other Civil Case in Florida
The summary procedure for evictions compresses timelines that would take months in a standard civil case into weeks. Five business days to respond. Immediate default if the tenant doesn’t deposit rent in nonpayment cases. Trial within weeks of filing the answer in uncontested cases. The entire process from filing to lock-out can happen in under a month if the tenant doesn’t respond or doesn’t follow the procedural rules exactly.
That speed works in the landlord’s favor when the landlord follows the rules and the tenant doesn’t have a valid defense. It works against landlords who skip steps or make procedural mistakes because those mistakes create defenses that delay or defeat the eviction entirely. A landlord who serves a defective 3-day notice, files the eviction, and then has to dismiss the case and start over with a corrected notice just added three to four weeks to the timeline and paid filing fees twice.
Tenants who understand the procedural requirements and have counsel can use the statutory defenses to delay evictions for months even in cases where they legitimately owe rent or violated the lease. Depositing rent into the registry, raising habitability or retaliation defenses, challenging service, and filing an appeal after an adverse judgment can stretch a case that would have taken five weeks into a case that takes six months.
If you’re a landlord dealing with a tenant who won’t pay or won’t leave, follow the statutory notice requirements exactly and document everything. If you’re a tenant facing eviction in Hollywood, you have five business days from service to respond and you need to deposit rent into the court registry in nonpayment cases or you’ll lose on a procedural default before the court even hears your defenses. These cases move faster than almost anything else in Broward County Court and the procedural traps are everywhere.
