Bay County, FL Rental Property Rules: Just Cause Eviction (2026)

In 2023 the Legislature enacted chapter 2023-314, Laws of Florida, creating Fla. 425. It flatly preempts "the regulation of residential tenancies, the landlord-tenant relationship, and all other matters" covered by Part II of Chapter 83 to the state, and it specifically lists what local governments can no longer touch: the tenant-screening process, security deposits, rental-application fees, the terms and conditions of rental agreements, disclosures about the unit or the parties' rights, landlord fees, and notice requirements. Because "notice requirements" and "the rights and responsibilities of the landlord and tenant" are named outright, a just-cause eviction ordinance, which by definition limits the reasons a landlord may terminate and often extends notice periods, falls squarely inside the preempted zone.

Bay County's Code of Ordinances contains no just-cause, good-cause, or notice-extension provision for residential rentals in the unincorporated county, and the county commission has no authority to adopt one even by unanimous vote; any such measure would be void the moment it passed. A landlord renting property in unincorporated Bay County may decline to renew or may terminate a month-to-month tenancy without stating a reason, subject only to the statewide notice periods in Part II of Chapter 83. Terminations for cause, such as nonpayment or a lease violation, likewise follow the uniform state notice-and-cure process rather than any local addition.

The preemption reaches beyond eviction grounds themselves: it also forecloses county measures pairing a just-cause standard with security-deposit rules, application-fee caps, or extra disclosure mandates, since all of those are separately named in the same sentence.