What Florida law requires landlords to repair (Fla. Stat. 83.51)

What does section 83.51 require of every Florida landlord?

Suppose the water heater in a second-floor apartment quits on a Friday night in January. Whether the landlord has to fix it starts with section 83.51 of the Florida Statutes, which gives the landlord one of two duties "at all times during the tenancy."

The first is the code duty. Section 83.51(1)(a) requires the landlord to comply with applicable building, housing and health codes, and section 83.43 defines those broadly: any law, ordinance or governmental regulation concerning health, safety, sanitation or fitness for habitation, or the construction, maintenance, operation, occupancy, use or appearance of any dwelling unit.

The second is a fallback for anything no code reaches. Under section 83.51(1)(b), the landlord must maintain the roofs, windows, doors, floors, steps, porches, exterior walls, foundations and all other structural components "in good repair and capable of resisting normal forces and loads," and keep the plumbing "in reasonable working condition." Screens get their own sentence: installed in a reasonable condition when the tenancy begins, then repaired once annually, when necessary, until the rental agreement ends.

Subsection (1) ends with two limits. The landlord need not maintain a mobile home or other structure the tenant owns. And for a single-family home or duplex, the subsection (1) obligations "may be altered or modified in writing."

What extra duties apply outside single-family homes and duplexes?

Section 83.51(2)(a) adds a list for every dwelling unit other than a single-family home or duplex. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, that landlord must, at all times during the tenancy, make reasonable provisions for:

• The extermination of rats, mice, roaches, ants, wood-destroying organisms and bedbugs.
• Locks and keys.
• The clean and safe condition of common areas.
• Garbage removal and outside receptacles for it.
• Functioning facilities for heat during winter, running water and hot water.

Back to the second-floor apartment. A dead water heater is a hot water problem, so the list reaches it even where no local code does. Where both subsections apply, section 83.51(3) says the subsection (1) duty governs if it is the same as or greater than the subsection (2) duty.

The extermination item carries its own procedure. If the tenant has to leave for treatment, the landlord is not liable for damages but must abate the rent, must give seven days' written notice, and cannot require the tenant to stay out for more than four days.

Section 83.51(2)(b) requires working smoke detection devices at the start of a tenancy in a single-family home or duplex, unless otherwise agreed in writing. Section 83.51(2)(e) lets the rental agreement make the tenant pay for garbage removal, water, fuel or utilities. That paragraph decides who pays the charges; whether the facilities work is still a question for paragraph (a).

What can a written agreement change for single-family homes and duplexes?

For a single-family home or duplex, the core duties themselves (code compliance, or the structural and plumbing fallback) "may be altered or modified in writing."

For other units, section 83.51 grants no such permission over subsection (1). The written-agreement language appears instead at the head of the subsection (2)(a) list, which opens "Unless otherwise agreed in writing." Read on its own terms, then, the statute lets a house or duplex lease rearrange the core duty, while in an apartment building the words that allow a written agreement attach only to the added list.

What is a Florida landlord not responsible for?

Section 83.51(4) leaves out conditions caused on the tenant's side. The landlord is not responsible to the tenant under the section for conditions created or caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of the tenant, a member of the tenant's family, or another person on the premises with the tenant's consent.

Say a guest leaves a bathtub running and the water soaks into the unit below. The ceiling still has to be dried and repaired soon (the guide to water intrusion and mold after a Florida storm explains why), and subsection (4) settles only who is responsible to the tenant under section 83.51. It does not make the water stop.

What can a tenant do when the landlord does not make repairs?

Florida gives the tenant two main remedies, and both start with a written notice and a seven-day wait.

The seven-day notice to terminate, section 83.56(1)

Under section 83.56(1), if the landlord materially fails to comply with section 83.51(1), or with material provisions of the rental agreement, within seven days after delivery of the tenant's written notice specifying the noncompliance and stating the intention to terminate, the tenant may terminate the rental agreement.

When the failure comes from causes beyond the landlord's control and the landlord keeps making every reasonable effort to correct it, the statute adjusts the result. A tenant who leaves an untenantable unit owes no rent while it stays uninhabitable, and a tenant who stays in a livable one pays rent reduced in proportion to the lost rental value. Section 83.56(4) adds that a rental agreement cannot waive these notice requirements.

Withholding rent, section 83.60

Section 83.60(1)(b) is what people usually mean by rent withholding in Florida. In an eviction for unpaid rent, the tenant may defend on a material noncompliance with section 83.51(1) if seven days have passed since the tenant delivered written notice specifying the noncompliance and stating the intention not to pay rent because of it. The notice can go to the landlord, a representative designated under section 83.50, a resident manager, or whoever collects the rent. If the defense holds, it is a complete defense to possession, and the court or jury decides how much, if at all, to reduce the rent for the unit's lost value.

Two details narrow it. The defense reaches only subsection (1), because section 83.51(2)(c) bars raising a subsection (2) noncompliance as a defense to an action for possession under section 83.59. And under section 83.60(2), a tenant who raises any defense other than payment must pay the accrued rent, plus rent that comes due during the case, into the registry of the court. A tenant who neither deposits it nor files a motion to determine the amount within five days after service, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, waives every defense other than payment.

Withholding, in other words, does not end with the tenant keeping the money. Once the landlord sues, the money goes to the court.

When can a landlord enter the unit to make repairs?

Under section 83.53, the tenant shall not unreasonably withhold consent for the landlord to enter to make necessary or agreed repairs, among other purposes. For repairs, the landlord must give reasonable notice and come at a reasonable time, and the statute defines both: at least 24 hours' notice, and entry between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.

The exceptions are what matter at night. The landlord may enter at any time for the protection or preservation of the premises, and may enter in case of emergency. Entry is also allowed with the tenant's consent, when the tenant unreasonably withholds consent, or after an absence equal to half the rental payment period (if the rent is current and the tenant gave notice of the absence, only consent or protecting the premises will do). Section 83.53(3) adds that the landlord shall not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant.

The 24-hour figure is recent. Until 2022 the statute required 12 hours. Chapter 2022-222, which may be cited as "Miya's Law," raised it to 24, effective July 1, 2022. A lease or a vendor scheduling template written before then may still say 12.

Which of these sections changed recently?

The history notes in the 2026 Florida Statutes show these recent amendments:

• Section 83.51 was last amended by chapter 2025-16 (House Bill 615, approved April 29, 2025, effective July 1, 2025), which rewrote the extermination clause to say the seven-day notice may be given in person, by mail or by e-mail under section 83.505.
• Section 83.505, created by that law, allows e-mail delivery of any notice required under part II of chapter 83 if both parties sign an addendum to the rental agreement and each provides a valid e-mail address. An e-mailed notice counts as delivered when sent, unless it comes back undeliverable.
• Section 83.56 gained e-mail as a delivery method in subsection (4) under the same 2025 law. A 2026 amendment, chapter 2026-143, added to subsection (2), the landlord's side, and left the tenant's notice in subsection (1) as it was.
• Section 83.60 has not been amended since chapter 2013-136.

What does this mean for a maintenance request queue?

Most of the clocks in these sections start when a written notice is delivered, so when a repair complaint arrives, and in what form, is not a clerical detail. Which requests have to be handled tonight and which can wait for morning is the subject of the guide to after-hours maintenance emergency triage.

1Stop Service Pro takes repair requests from property managers and dispatches vetted trade vendors, with every trade in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties and scheduled work in Lake and Polk (the coverage page has the rest); how it works explains the monthly billing.

Section 83.51 asks for repairs "at all times during the tenancy." Much of the rest of the chapter is about what happens when "at all times" becomes seven days.