![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MIA_CONCourtsideAGS144.JPG\" "\\"The")
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The view from the street of Courtside II Apartments, a new affordable housing development in Overtown, on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Miami.<\/p>\n
Alie Skowronski<\/p>\n
askowronski@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Renting a place in Miami is hard.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the cost \u2014 among the highest in the country. And also the confusion \u2014 what rights do tenants have and how much can landlords get away with?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know if you are renting an apartment in South Florida:<\/p>\n
Rent is highA recent report from WalletHub, a personal finance website, showed that out of the 182 cities surveyed, Miami had the least affordable rent.<\/a>Of those renting in Miami, 60% are rent-burdened<\/a>, meaning they are spending 30% or more of their income on housing.A report by RentCafe, an online apartment hunting platform, says that $1,500 a month in Miami can now get you only 498 square feet, about the size of a two-car garage.<\/a>To make matters more difficult for renters, Florida ranks among the top six landlord-friendly states<\/a> in the nation, according to LawDepot, a company that \u201cprovides legal documents for DIY use.\u201dThere\u2019s no ceiling for what landlords can charge<\/p>\n James Glover, a senior attorney with the Eviction Diversion Unit at the Legal Services of Greater Miami, says that Florida law allows landlords to get away with a lot, and \u201cthere are few to no tenant protections\u201d in the state.<\/p>\n At the end of a lease term, there is no legal limit to how much a landlord can increase rent. There are also no laws around how much a landlord can charge for a security deposit, the money tenants pay landlords when they move in. A security deposit can be refunded, if a tenant has no unpaid rent or utilities, property damage or lease violations.<\/p>\n Fighting discrimination<\/p>\n State laws help prevent discriminatory evictions. Florida statutes define discrimination as treating a tenant differently \u201cas to the rent charged, the services rendered, or the action being taken by the landlord.\u201d<\/p>\n State law also says that it is illegal for a landlord to apply different lease terms, charge different rates or refuse to rent to a tenant \u201cbecause of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, familial status, or religion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not easy to prove that your landlord is discriminating against you, said Maria Llorens, the policy and research director at the Miami Workers Center, a community organization focused on building \u201cpower with working-class tenants, workers, women, and families.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty challenging, because you would have to show evidence that you were specifically targeted and for that reason,\u201d Llorens said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She suggests keeping track of all communications between you and your landlord, and communicating in writing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also very important to talk to your neighbors, get to know them, and talk about your rent and any issues you\u2019re having with your housing,\u201d Llorens said. \u201cYou can\u2019t realize that a problem is widespread if you don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Notices for eviction<\/p>\n \u201cA landlord can renew or non-renew your tenancy for any lawful reason,\u201d Glover said. \u201cIf the landlord says, \u2018You know what? You and I don\u2019t get along. I don\u2019t really feel like renting to you again.\u2019 They\u2019re allowed to do that for any lawful reason, as long as it\u2019s not a prohibited reason.\u201d<\/p>\n There are three different types of notices, and a tenant must receive one before an eviction lawsuit is filed:<\/p>\n 30-day notice: If a landlord does not plan to renew a tenant\u2019s lease after it expires, he or she must give 30 days\u2019 notice. If tenants aren\u2019t out of the unit within 30 days, they can be evicted.Three-day notice: If your rent is overdue, your landlord can give you three days\u2019 notice to pay. This notice excludes weekends and court holidays, and if it\u2019s not fully paid in three days, a landlord may evict you.Seven-day notice: This type of notice is for lease offenses, and it can either be fixable or not. If it\u2019s fixable \u2014 for example, letting unauthorized tenants stay with you while they are not on the lease \u2014 you have seven days after receiving this notice to fix the issue, in this case the unauthorized tenants would leave the property. When it comes to unfixable offenses, including burning the apartment down, this notice would signify that you have seven days before you are evicted, Glover said.Rent withholding and deposits<\/p>\n According to Glover, there are many myths Miami\u2019s renters believe about their rights, and there are some laws they don\u2019t know about altogether:<\/p>\n MythsYou can withhold your rent for any reason without notifying your landlord.If you send your landlord a rent withholding letter after they refuse to repair something that is required under Florida law \u2014 such as pest infestations, broken locks or structural damage \u2014 that completely protects you from eviction.If you withhold your rent, a judge will hear your case before you are forced to pay anything.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest myth is that you send that rent withholding letter and that protects you, but really what it does is it protects you up until an eviction is filed,\u201d said Glover, the attorney for the Legal Services of Greater Miami. \u201cThe first thing you do when an eviction\u2019s filed is you have to then put all the rent into the court registry.\u201d<\/p>\n LawsTenants are allowed to withhold rent if their landlord refuses to repair something required by law, but they have to send a notice. The Florida Bar published a sample letter for tenants to fill in<\/a>, but this is only a partial protection.If you are sued for not paying your rent, you must deposit all the past-due rent into the court\u2019s registry \u2014 and you must do so within five days.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t run to the court to put your money in \u2014 you automatically lose the eviction,\u201d Glover said. \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter if you have a winning eviction. Doesn\u2019t matter if the landlord was wrong. If we put the rent into the court registry with that rent withholding letter, it is an absolute defense to the eviction.\u201d<\/p>\n The death of the Miami-Dade Tenant\u2019s Bill of Rights<\/p>\n In 2022, Miami-Dade County attempted to increase tenant protections by creating a Tenant\u2019s Bill of Rights, which outlined some additional regulations around landlord-tenant relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n These regulations included requiring landlords to provide 60 days\u2019 notice of rent increases of more than 5% and even further prohibiting discrimination by telling landlords they are not allowed to ask about prior eviction history. Tenants were even allowed to deduct the cost of repairs from their rent if a landlord did not fix issues promptly.\u00a0<\/p>\n But a year later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1417 into law, preempting local regulations and invalidating county or municipal ordinances regulating landlord and tenant rights. The Miami-Dade Tenant\u2019s Bill of Rights was no longer enforceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe tenant\u2019s bill of rights is dead,\u201d Glover said. \u201cIt is entirely dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLocal governments can\u2019t increase the rights of tenants. It doesn\u2019t allow localities to address pressing issues that impact their constituents,\u201d said Llorens, the policy and research director at the Miami Workers Center. \u201cThat said, any right under the law isn\u2019t worth the paper it\u2019s written on unless you have power to enforce it.\u201d<\/p>\n The harm of eviction lawsuits<\/p>\n When it comes to lawsuits, Glover said that \u201chaving an eviction filing against you is almost as bad as actually being evicted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe eviction is just a lawsuit. It\u2019s just like your Apple versus Google mega-billion-dollar lawsuit. It\u2019s just like your car crash, your trip and fall,\u201d Glover said. \u201cIt all looks the same in the public records down in Miami-Dade courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n And these lawsuits do \u201cmake it a lot harder for you,\u201d Glover said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially in those first two to three years after having an eviction filing \u2014 it makes it a lot harder to find another apartment,\u201d Glover said. \u201cThe good quality landlords are the ones that run the tenant screens, and the good quality landlord generally will not rent to somebody with an open eviction.\u201d<\/p>\n But before the tenant even begins the challenge of finding new housing, they have to leave the house they had made a home, which is not easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why it\u2019s so hard to just up and move, especially on 30 days,\u201d Glover said. \u201cIt\u2019s your kids\u2019 schools, it\u2019s your church\u2019s, it\u2019s your entire sense of worth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a scary process, not knowing where you\u2019re going to put your head, where you\u2019re going to be able to sleep that night,\u201d Glover said.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s always room to negotiate<\/p>\n If a tenant checks the mail and sees that the landlord is increasing rent to an unaffordable amount, Glover said the first thing you should do is \u201ccall the landlord.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave a conversation,\u201d Glover said. \u201cThe landlord\u2019s running a business. You\u2019re a customer. The tenant is a customer, and you can negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n As Glover puts it: \u201cLandlords are in the business of making money. They\u2019re not in the business of evicting tenants. They generally want to work things out with the tenants.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always best to try to have a phone call with a landlord if you\u2019re a reasonable person, if you\u2019re a reasonable tenant,\u201d Glover said. \u201cUnfortunately, if things are not working reasonably, then that\u2019s where you may want to get somebody like our office involved. But beyond that, I always recommend to try to resolve things with a phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n