Student Tenant Rights: Reforming Florida’s Early Lease Renewal Laws

Writer: Kara Crowther

Editor: Bennett Calvo

Associate Editor: Rose Ossi

I. Introduction

Apartment complexes are constantly being built and expanded in college towns, as they are an efficient way to generate income. This profitability is driven by their constant demand and a legal environment that heavily protects landlord immunity. These complexes maintain maximum capacity by enforcing early lease renewals, a process typically beginning in early September, all taking place a few weeks after initial tenant occupancy. Early lease renewals involve convincing the current resident to renew their lease with the complex, often accomplished by offering benefits, such as parking spots or reduced rental rates.¹ The Florida Landlord and Tenant Statutes provide numerous laws that protect both tenants and landlords and extensively address rental rights, particularly within the leasing process. However, within these statutes is a failure to address the consequences that accompany early lease renewals. Florida Statutes should implement requirements that limit how early renewal processes for apartment leases can begin, following the lead of Minnesota Statutes 504B.114, Early Renewal of Leases; the statute bars apartment complexes from renewing any leases more than 6 months before the lease expires, allowing college town and student tenants to have the maximum amount of support under housing law.

II. The Florida Landlord and Tenant Statutes

 In Florida specifically, early lease renewals exist as a legal loophole that allow landlords to maintain maximum capacity within their student-tenant demographic. Current landlord-tenant law primarily regulates periodic leases; agreements with no set end date that continue indefinitely until either the tenant or landlord terminates the agreement.² But the statutes largely overlook the fixed-duration leases that dominate college town housing markets, including apartments, houses, and single-room rentals. Differing from periodic tenancies, fixed-term leases specify both a move-in and a move-out date, for instance, from August 1, 2026, to July 31, 2027. Although Florida law shows that it can restrict end-of-lease windows, as reflected in § 83.575’s requirements for a 60-day notice of termination for periodic tenancies, the rest of the statutes stand completely silent on how early a landlord can initiate the lease renewal process. As a result, each lease renewal period is completely different and varies by city and complex.³ The timeline of this lease renewal process ensures the apartment is at capacity, but it holds its tenants in a tight grip. The current timelines for lease renewals may assist occupancy; however, they place a significant amount of pressure on the tenants. The lack of statutory protection creates an environment in which landlords can perpetuate tense situations, leaving tenants feeling they must make an equally rapid and legally binding housing choice. 

III. The Minnesota Early Renewal of Lease Statute

In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature enacted a statute that prohibited landlords from initiating the early lease renewal process more than six months before the lease ends, allowing students to experience living in an apartment or house before deciding to renew their lease. § 504B.144 of the 2025 Minnesota Legislature specifically states that 

A landlord may not require a tenant to renew a lease sooner than six months prior to the expiration of the current lease, if the lease is for a period of time longer than ten months. Any provision, whether oral or written, of any lease or other agreement whereby any provision of this section is waived by a tenant is contrary to public policy and void. 

This statute is directly intended for student housing within college towns, as the city itself was facing an issue with affordable student housing.⁴ The last clause of the statute directly prevents landlords from using fine-print loopholes to extort their tenants, as the lease will immediately become void if it is found to be against public policy. This statutory language provides student tenants with much-needed freedom to explore their options, roommates, and needs before they sign the lease to renew. Not only does this increase student morale and well-being, but it also positively impacts the housing market by increasing demand for new housing accommodations that are dependable and within specific price brackets.⁵ 

IV. Differentiation between Florida and Minnesota Renewal Periods

There is a stark difference in the college town lease renewal legislation between Florida and Minnesota: Florida’s silence regarding the matter and Minnesota’s outspoken prevention. Specifically, the distinction between these two states lies in the way they regulate and manage the timeline of fixed-term leases. With Florida’s current legislation regarding lease renewals, numerous loopholes are continually exploited by landlords throughout the state, where they can begin the lease renewal process early. Florida’s lack of statutory commentary fails to restrict a landlord’s ability to initiate early lease agreements.⁶ This environment allows landlords to manipulate the timeline of the apartment housing market in college towns by creating a sense of scarcity. Conversely, Minnesota Statute § 504B.144 completely removes the artificial urgency by enforcing a strict 6-month boundary.⁷ The model that Minnesota’s legislation recently implemented is further supported by an examination of Ann Arbor City Code § 8:530. This ordinance bars a landlord from initiating the lease renewal process until the current tenant is at least 180 days into their current lease.⁸ The implementation of Minnesota’s Statute § 504B.144 successfully corrects a landlord’s asymmetric power through legally codifying a tenant’s right to their time and space. However, in Florida, this asymmetric power dynamic continues to pressure the tenant to make a swift decision, or complicate it by adding incentives or unnecessary obligations and fears.⁹ The landlords hold disproportionate power in exploiting students, creating a genuine sense of fear and inferiority, and a feeling that they have little to no choice in the matter. The six-month window in Minnesota and the 180-day period in Ann Arbor provide autonomy to students, allowing them to fully experience their accommodations before resigning.¹⁰ Minnesota changed the language of its statutes to best include and protect student tenants, through the removal of the phrase “must wait until six months from the expiration of the current lease before requiring a tenant to renew the lease” and the alteration of “may not require a tenant to renew a lease sooner than six months prior to the expiration of the current lease.”¹¹ The pressures that students feel are soothed by the ability to acclimate to their current living situation before worrying about the next, greatly contributing to a student’s well-being and attitude.¹² 

V. Conclusion

Florida has the perfect opportunity to enact legislation prohibiting early lease renewals, benefiting students at numerous institutions and universities throughout the state. Minnesota has laid the groundwork and provided the factual benefits of the legislation. Limiting the duration a landlord can begin early lease renewal, as in Minnesota’s § 504B.144, can alter the timeline and alleviate the pressure a student feels when looking for housing. Specifically, Florida can use the template of § 504B.144 and shape it to fit the needs of the state and its many universities, such as Florida State University and the University of Florida; for instance, by altering the 6-month period to accommodate the semesterly academic calendar these institutions have. The lack of regulations regarding the lease renewal timeline allows these complexes to take advantage of students who are completely reliant on the housing that the building provides. By implementing new legislation limiting early lease renewal periods for the real estate market, Florida would greatly improve the student living accommodations while boosting the student-university economy.

1. RBS Lawyers, Renewing or Extending a Lease – There is a Difference, Richard Buell Sutton (Sep. 2014), https://www.rbs.ca/publications/renewing-or-extending-a-lease-there-is-a-difference/ (on file with the Undergraduate Law Review at FSU). ↩︎
2. Termination of Tenancy without Specific Term, Fla. Stat. § 83.57 (2023). ↩︎
3. Termination of Tenancy with Specific Duration, Fla. Stat. § 83.575 (2023) ↩︎
4. Anna Smith, New Minnesota Statutes are Shielding Students from Housing Woes. Can Madison Follow Suit?, The Badger Herald (Feb. 2024), https://badgerherald.com/news/madison/2024/02/07/new-minnesota-statutes-are-shielding-students-from-housing-woes-can-madison-follow-suit/ (on file with the Undergraduate Law Review at FSU). ↩︎
5. Id. ↩︎
6. Fla. Stat. § 83.575 (2023). ↩︎
7.  Minn. Stat. § 504B.144 (2025). ↩︎
8. Ann Arbor, Mich., Housing Code § 8:530(2)(c) (2024). ↩︎
9.  Emily Walsh, What’s Law Got to Do With It? Is Consumer Law the Solution to Problems Faced by Student Tenants?, 41 Leg. Stud. 567, 579 (2021). ↩︎
10. Id. ↩︎
11. Early Renewal of Lease, Minn. Stat. § 504B.144 (2025). ↩︎
12. Smith, supra note 4. ↩︎