Security Deposit Demand Letters
Miami, Florida · Fla. Stat. § 83.49

The Miami security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

Florida law gave your Miami landlord 30 days to return it or itemize. If that clock has run, a Miami security deposit demand letter puts Fla. Stat. § 83.49 to work on your side.

Make them answer for it
Free to write and read your Miami letter. $20 only when you send it.
30
days to return or itemize
Penalties
for non-compliance
$20
letter + certified mail, one-time

Last updated September 2026 · local figures: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-year

Miami deposit math
Median rent in Miami$1,758/mo
Typical deposit ≈ one month≈$1,800
Statutory deadline30 days

Median gross rent: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year (table B25064). Deposit example rounded to one month's rent; statutory figures are ceilings, and courts decide actual awards.

What Miami renters should know

Miami deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in Miami are governed by Florida state law: Fla. Stat. § 83.49. If the landlord misses the 30-day certified mail notice, they forfeit the right to keep any of the deposit; the prevailing party in a deposit suit recovers attorney's fees. Full Florida deadline & penalty guide →

The court that would hear it

Deposit claims from Miami are filed in the Small Claims division of the County Court serving Miami-Dade County, a court designed for people without lawyers, hearing claims up to $8,000. A typical Miami deposit of about $1,800 sits well inside that limit, which is exactly why a statute-citing certified letter usually settles it first.

Local rules in Miami

Florida cities cannot add deposit rules, so do not go looking for one. Fla. Stat. section 83.425 reserves the regulation of residential tenancies to the state and names security deposits among the subjects no city or county may touch; local tenant ordinances passed before July 2023 are void. Fla. Stat. section 83.49 is the whole of the law here.

What you get for $20

You approve the wording first. Then it prints, goes out certified with return receipt requested, and comes back to you as a tracking number, a delivery record, and a signed PDF whose fingerprint proves the text never moved.

The full walk-through, including what doing this yourself costs, is on how it works.

Have it mailed, not downloaded.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage, and the return receipt — and you read every word before you pay.
Read my Miami letter
On the last page of your letter

The bit that stops them arguing

Not a logo that says “verified.” A short record of how and when you signed, printed on the letter your Miami landlord is holding, plus a code made from the letter's own words.

  • The demand paragraph
  • The signature record
  • The SHA-256 hash
  • Certified Mail with Return Receipt
Pin 1 · The demand paragraphThe paragraph names your state's statute, the amount your landlord kept, the deadline they missed, and gives them a firm deadline to send the money before the letter says what happens next. Every part of it comes from the answers you gave, printed in the order the law expects.
Pin 2 · The signature recordMethod (drawn or typed), date, time zone, IP, browser, and consent to sign electronically. Printed on the letter itself, so the person receiving it can see how it was signed. Nothing goes out until a real person signs.
Pin 3 · The SHA-256 hashA 64-character code built from every word in your letter, recorded with the date and time you signed. It is your signing record: paste it into the checker at /verify/ and it confirms the wording you hold is the wording you signed, unchanged. It is not proof of delivery; the certified mail record below is.
Pin 4 · Certified Mail with Return ReceiptSomeone at the other end has to sign. This is the proof: the certified mail receipt, the USPS tracking history, and the delivery signature with its date. The Postal Service records them, our mail partner passes them to us, and we email them to you and post them on your letter tracker. Your landlord cannot claim the letter never came.

The closing words above are the real ones our engine writes for Miami letters, statute and deadline included. The name, signature and codes are made up; yours carry your own record. The time is shown in the signer's own time zone, not ours.

That code is built from every word in your letter. Change one word and it no longer matches. Type it into our checker and it tells you the letter is the same one you signed. Run the example code through the checker →

What a Miami deposit is usually worth

Put a number on it: gross rent in Miami sits near $1,758 a month (ACS 2024 5-year), so a one-month deposit is about what a renter here stands to lose. That tracks the Florida median of $1,669 fairly closely, so what is typical here is what is typical statewide.

More renters than owners live in Miami: about 69% of households, some 134,753 of them, rent. In a majority-renter city, deposit disputes are not an edge case; they are a routine feature of the housing market, and local courts see them constantly. The rule that governs what happens to that money is set at the state level, by Fla. Stat. § 83.49, and it applies in Miami exactly as it does anywhere else in Florida.

Renters underestimate how much the format matters. The same request, made by text, gets filed under “annoyance”; made by certified letter citing the statute and the deadline, it gets filed under “risk”. The money at stake did not change. The category did.

Miami adds a layer state law does not

Most renters never find this out, and landlords rarely volunteer it:

Florida cities cannot add deposit rules, so do not go looking for one. Fla. Stat. section 83.425 reserves the regulation of residential tenancies to the state and names security deposits among the subjects no city or county may touch; local tenant ordinances passed before July 2023 are void. Fla. Stat. section 83.49 is the whole of the law here.Local rule on top of Fla. Stat. § 83.49 · general legal information, not legal advice

Your letter’s deadline and penalty citations still come from state law. That is what gives them teeth. But knowing the local layer exists changes the conversation, because a landlord who assumed you only knew the state rules is dealing with someone better informed than they expected. Local rules change more often than statutes do, so confirm the current position with the city before relying on it.

Leaving a Miami rental without losing the deposit

Mid-sized markets are where the recipient question bites hardest: the rent may go to an agent while the legal obligation sits with an owner you have never met.

  • Capture the condition on move-out day itself. Not before you packed, not after you handed the keys over. The day it changes hands, with the original files preserved.
  • Give the forwarding address in writing and keep the proof. This is the single most common way a good claim fails, in every city and every state.
  • Read the lease for a notice address. It is usually specified, usually ignored, and occasionally the whole reason a demand never got answered.
  • Do not wait for the deadline to feel comfortable. Florida gives them 30 days. Once that has passed, waiting adds nothing but risk to your own evidence.

Where a Miami renter would actually file

A landlord reading your letter is silently sizing up one thing: does this person actually know what happens next? It costs you five minutes to be someone who does.

Florida routes deposit claims to the Small Claims division of the County Court, with a limit of $8,000. For a rental in Miami, that normally means the court serving Miami-Dade County. Fees, forms and service rules are set locally rather than statewide, so check the court information for Miami-Dade County before filing.

You do not need a lawyer, and in some places you can't bring one. Cases turn on documents: the lease, timestamped photos, evidence you gave a forwarding address, and a delivery record showing the landlord received your demand on a specific day.

Read the whole letter first.Reading your Miami letter costs nothing. You decide after you have seen it.
Read my Miami letter

Miami renters, by the numbers

$1,758
median gross rent per month in Miami
69%
of Miami's ≈195,000 households rent their home
≈135,000
renter households on the same 30-day clock
$8,000
small claims limit in Florida. Deposit cases fit easily

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003 (Miami; Census place “Miami city”); Fla. Stat. § 83.49. Population ≈460,000.

Miami deposit questions

How long does a landlord in Miami have to return a security deposit?
30 days. The statute (Fla. Stat. § 83.49) requires the landlord to act within 15 days of termination, or give written notice of an intended claim on the deposit by certified mail within 30 days. Miss it, and the law's remedies open up: If the landlord misses the 30-day certified mail notice, they forfeit the right to keep any of the deposit; the prevailing party in a deposit suit recovers attorney's fees.
Can I sue my landlord in small claims court in Miami?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from Miami are filed in the Small Claims division of the County Court serving Miami-Dade County, a court designed for people without lawyers, hearing claims up to $8,000. A demand letter sent by certified mail is the documented first step judges expect to see.
Is a demand letter worth it for a typical Miami deposit?
Median rent in Miami is $1,758 a month (U.S. Census, ACS 2024 5-year), and deposits typically run about one month's rent. Call it $1,800. The letter is $20 flat, certified mail included, and you read every word of it before paying.
Does Miami have its own deposit rules on top of state law?
Florida cities cannot add deposit rules, so do not go looking for one. Fla. Stat. section 83.425 reserves the regulation of residential tenancies to the state and names security deposits among the subjects no city or county may touch; local tenant ordinances passed before July 2023 are void. Fla. Stat. section 83.49 is the whole of the law here. So the state statute is the whole story here, which is what your letter cites and what sets the deadline and the penalty.

General legal information, not legal advice. Court limits and city ordinances change; verify current rules or consult a licensed Florida attorney.

Skip the trip to the Post Office.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage and the return receipt. No stamps, no green card to fill in wrong, no queue.
Read my Miami letter
Miami · Renter guides

What to settle before you write to them

Deposit law here comes from the state. What varies is which of these four questions your own dispute turns on, so it is worth knowing before you write to anyone.

Deductions Which charges hold up and which do not Florida makes the landlord put their deductions in writing. That list is the whole argument, and most of them do not survive being read closely. Read the guide → Wear and tear Normal wear and tear, or damage? This single distinction decides more deposit disputes than any other. A room that looks lived in after two years is a room that was lived in, which is what a tenancy is. See the line → Evidence The walkthrough that pays for itself two years later The strongest position at move-out is set at move-in. This is what to capture, and where to keep it so it still exists later. Get the checklist → No response Ignored, blocked, or stalling Being weeks or months past the date does not weaken your claim. It is the fact the claim is built on. What to do →

If the fight is over a single line item:

Cleaning billed to youA repainting feeNew carpetPicture hooksPet charges

Faster route: hand the entire statement to the deduction checker and see which Miami charges hold up.

Miami · Keep reading

The rest of what is here

Free to read, in the order most Miami renters need it.

Other Florida cities

Deposit law is the same across Florida. Rent, venue and local rules are not, so each of these has its own page.

Not renting in Miami any more? We send the security deposit demand letter service Miami, Florida renters use in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each built on that state's own statute.

Miami · Free help

Help that costs nothing, Miami and statewide

Nothing on this page has to be done through us. These are the free routes open to a renter in Miami.

Government and nonprofit resources, listed because they are useful. We are not affiliated with any of them, and none of them is affiliated with us. Every link here was checked on August 30, 2026.

Send the letter your Miami landlord can't ignore.

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