Your Guest Will Not Leave. What Florida Law Says

Florida gives the operator of a public lodging establishment a procedure for a guest who will not check out. It starts with a written notice telling the guest the establishment no longer wants them and asking them to leave immediately. A guest who stays after that notice commits a second-degree misdemeanor, and a law enforcement officer has a duty to remove them on the operator's request.

It is much faster than an eviction. It also only works if you are a licensed public lodging establishment.

The procedure, in order

Fla. Stat. 509.141 sets out the steps, and the order matters more than people expect.

First, the written notice. For a guest who has not checked out or not paid by the written checkout time, the notice must be in writing — by e-mail, text message or printed paper. The statute supplies the wording, including the line telling the guest that remaining after receipt is a misdemeanor under Florida law. The notice takes effect on delivery.

Then the refund. If the guest prepaid, you refund the unused portion when you hand over the notice. You may keep the charge for each full day stayed, including any part of a day.

Only then, law enforcement. A guest who remains after the notice commits a misdemeanor of the second degree. The operator may request assistance, and the statute puts a duty on the officer: it is the duty of the law enforcement officer, upon the request of the operator, to remove a guest. After an arrest the guest is treated as having given up the right to occupy the room, and you may re-let it, taking reasonable care of anything they left behind.

Calling the police first, before the written notice exists, is the most common mistake. Without the notice there is no offence yet, and the officer has nothing to act on.

Why the licence decides whether any of this applies

Everything above belongs to Chapter 509, which governs public lodging establishments. If your property is not one, the chapter is not yours to use.

Without that status, the person in your apartment is not a guest you can have removed — they are an occupant, and getting them out runs through a different and much slower body of law. Same apartment, same calendar date, completely different week.

The classification has a name worth knowing. Under Chapter 509, vacation rental is itself a class of public lodging establishment: a unit in a condominium or cooperative, or a one- to four-family dwelling, that is a transient public lodging establishment and is not a timeshare. DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants issues those licences as single, group or collective.

So the question is not whether you have "a licence" in general. It is whether you hold a current vacation rental licence from that division — the local certificate of use that your city or county requires is a separate permission and does not put you inside Chapter 509 on its own.

What it does not do

• It does not protect your property. Damage, theft and liability are what your policy is for, and a short-term rental exposes you differently from a long lease. It also puts you on the non-primary side of how Citizens classifies the property, which sets the ceiling on your renewal. See how Citizens classifies a rental.

The renewal date nobody marks

Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation groups counties into licensing districts, and each district has its own annual renewal date.

Miami-Dade and Monroe are District 1, and District 1 renews on October 1.

That date lands immediately before Miami's high season, which is precisely when the procedure above becomes useful. A licence that lapsed on October 1 is a licence that will be missing in December.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just call the police? Not as a first step. The offence is remaining after the written notice, so the notice has to exist before an officer has anything to enforce.

Does a text message count as written notice? The statute names e-mail, text message and printed paper for this situation.

Do I have to refund the guest? You refund the unused portion of a prepayment when you give the notice, and you may keep the charge for each full day stayed, including part of a day.

What if my licence expired? Then the fast route is likely closed to you until it is current. Check the expiration printed on the licence rather than assuming the district date applies to your renewal cycle.

What to do next

Before the holidays fill up, check two things: that your licence is current, and that your policy is written for the way you actually use the property. Tell us what you are running and we will look at both — homeowners insurance and condo insurance are often written for an occupancy the owner stopped having years ago.