How long does it take to evict a tenant in Florida?

Attorney Tom Olsen: We hear every once in a while someone's got a horror story about how it took an eviction six months, nine months, a year to evict somebody. That's generally not true as far as residential evictions here in the state of Florida.

Attorney Caleb Maggio: No, Tom. Residential evictions are quite faster. The only situations I've had six months go are for unlawful detainers or commercial evictions.

Tom: What would you say the average time to do a residential eviction is?

Caleb: I would say the median is probably between two and three months. If you get that default, you can have it done within a month. Really, as attorneys, we can do everything as fast as we can, but we're at the mercy of the court and of the sheriff, because at the end of the day, you have to have the sheriff go out to that property and boot the tenant out once you have the order from the judge. Sometimes sheriffs are really, really busy and it can take them a few weeks.

Tom: Some people might be saying, "Oh, two to three months to evict a tenant? That sounds like forever for me," but when it comes to getting things done in the law, that's pretty quick.

Caleb: That's pretty quick for the law, Tom. Most trials typically are not for 12 to 14 months from initiating the action. Evictions have a specific procedure where everything is expedited. They have what's called summary procedure. For example, in a normal action, a defendant has 20 days to answer the complaint. For an eviction, they only have five.

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