Florida Mobile Home Park Eviction Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Nonpayment of lot rent: the 5-day written demand

In a Florida mobile home park, nonpayment is its own eviction ground under Fla. Stat. §723.061(1)(a). You cannot use the 3-day notice from ordinary Florida residential law here. Instead you deliver a written demand for the lot rental amount, and you can only terminate if the default continues for 5 days after delivery of a written demand (§723.061(1)(a)). Count the 5 days from delivery, not from the due date.

How you deliver matters. Under §723.061(4) every notice must be posted on the premises and sent by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, and a mailed notice is deemed given 5 days after the date of postmark. So if you mail the demand, add those 5 days before the 5-day cure clock even starts. Do both — post it on the lot and mail it certified — and keep the return receipt and a photo of the posting.

Other grounds for eviction under §723.061

The grounds for evicting in a mobile home park are a closed list in §723.061(1) — a lease can't add its own. Besides nonpayment, the main ones are: a criminal conviction detrimental to other residents (§723.061(1)(b), vacate within 7 days); violation of a park rule, the rental agreement, or Chapter 723 (§723.061(1)(c)); change in use of the land (§723.061(1)(d)); and a prospective tenant's failure to be approved (§723.061(1)(e), vacate within 7 days).

Rule violations have a specific two-step structure. On a first violation, §723.061(1)(c) lets you terminate with a 7-day notice to vacate. But for a repeat, you must lay groundwork: for a second violation of the same rule within 12 months, you can terminate only if you gave written notice within 30 days after the first violation identifying the noncompliance and giving time to cure, and the resident must have received written notice of the ground upon which they are to be evicted at least 30 days prior. Miss those earlier notices and the repeat-violation eviction fails.

Change-of-use is the slow one. §723.061(1)(d) requires that you give affected residents at least 6 months' notice of the eviction due to the projected change in use. Residents also have a window to challenge it — under §723.061(2) they must object by petitioning for administrative or judicial remedies within 90 days after the date of the notice. This is not a tool for a quick removal.

Filing the eviction

If the notice period runs and the resident hasn't cured or left, you go to court. Under §723.061(3) you file, in the county court in the county where the mobile home lot is situated, a complaint describing the lot and stating the facts that authorize the removal. That means county court (not circuit court), and the complaint has to point to one of the §723.061 grounds — attach or reference the notice you served.

Florida gives park owners the fast track: §723.061(3) says you are entitled to the summary procedure provided in s. 51.011, and the court shall advance the cause on the calendar. Summary procedure shortens the tenant's response time and speeds the hearing, but it only works if your underlying notice was correct and properly served under §723.061(4) — post on the premises plus certified/registered mail, remembering mailed notice is deemed given 5 days after postmark.

What happens to the home (Florida-specific)

The critical Florida wrinkle: the resident usually owns the physical mobile home as personal property and rents only the lot. A judgment for possession returns the lot to you; it does not hand you the home. There is no statutory grace period baked into the eviction to let the resident sell the home — but the mechanics of §723.062 create a practical window.

After a judgment in your favor, §723.062(1) says the clerk issues a writ of possession, and that writ shall not issue earlier than 10 days from the date judgment is granted. Then, under §723.062(2), at the time the sheriff executes the writ, the landlord or the landlord's agent may remove any personal property, including the mobile home, to or near the property line or, in the case of the mobile home, into storage, and neither you nor the sheriff is responsible for loss or damage to the property after it has been removed. In plain terms: the resident's window to move or sell the home is before the sheriff executes the writ; after that you can move it to the property line or into storage at their risk and cost. Because relocating or storing a home is expensive and slow, most operators try to resolve this before the writ.

Typical timeline in Florida

• Serve the correct notice
  Nonpayment = a written demand giving 5 days to pay (§723.061(1)(a)). Rule violation = a 7-day notice to vacate (§723.061(1)(c)). Change of use = at least 6 months (§723.061(1)(d)).
• Deliver it the right way
  Post on the lot AND send certified/registered mail; a mailed notice is deemed given 5 days after postmark, so calendar those extra days (§723.061(4)).
• File in county court
  If uncured, file a complaint in the county court where the lot sits; you get summary procedure under s.51.011 and the court advances the case (§723.061(3)).
• Judgment and writ
  After judgment for the park, the clerk issues a writ of possession — but it cannot issue earlier than 10 days after judgment (§723.062(1)).
• Sheriff executes; home moved
  The sheriff executes the writ and the park may move personal property, including the home, to the property line or into storage at the resident's risk (§723.062(2)).

Operator best practices in Florida

• Match the notice to the ground
  Use the 5-day written demand for nonpayment (§723.061(1)(a)) and a 7-day notice for rule violations (§723.061(1)(c)). Never borrow the 3-day notice from ordinary Florida residential evictions — it's the wrong statute for a park.
• Serve notices by the book
  Post on the lot and mail certified/registered every time, and add the 5-day deemed-given period for mailed notices (§723.061(4)). Sloppy service is the most common reason these cases get thrown out.
• Paper the repeat violations early
  For a second rule violation you must already have sent the 30-day-after-first-violation notice and at least 30 days' notice of the ground (§723.061(1)(c)). Document each violation with dates and photos as it happens, not later.
• Offer cash-for-keys before the writ
  This is market practice, not law: because the resident owns the home and moving or storing it under §723.062(2) is costly, offering to buy the home or cover moving costs so they leave voluntarily is usually faster and cheaper than executing a writ.
• Build a relationship with a Florida MHP attorney
  Chapter 723 is far more protective than ordinary Florida landlord-tenant law and has its own exclusive grounds and notices. Have Florida counsel review your notices and handle the county-court summary-procedure filing (§723.061(3)).