Property Management in Miami: leasing, rent, maintenance and the duties that stay yours
Residential property management across Miami-Dade and Broward, run inside the brokerage rather than handed to a third party. Pricing from comparable closed leases, screening and placement, deposits into escrow and noticed the way the statute requires, maintenance against the obligations the law actually puts on an owner, and reporting that reconciles. For owners of a single rental and of a small portfolio, in English or Español.
Updated October 2026
How management works here, step by step
- 01
Agree what is being managed, and what is not
Leasing only, or leasing and ongoing management. Which property, which units, what spending authority, who approves what and at what threshold. Most management disputes start as a scope that was assumed rather than written.
- 02
The management agreement, in writing
Term, fee, leasing fee, notice to terminate, how funds are held and disbursed, reporting cadence, and the limit above which a repair needs your approval. Clear on the first page, not the seventh.
- 03
Price from comparable closed leases
What comparable units actually leased for, not what similar ones are asking. An optimistic asking rent does not cost you the difference — it costs you the vacancy while the market declines to meet it, and that is the more expensive mistake.
- 04
Market, screen and place
Photography and listing, showings, applications screened consistently against written criteria applied the same way to everyone, and a lease that says what both sides think it says. Consistency here is both better tenanting and the correct practice under fair housing.
- 05
Deposits into escrow, and noticed properly
Funds entrusted to a broker go into an escrow account promptly — the rule allows no later than the end of the third business day — and the tenant gets the statutory written notice of where the deposit is held within 30 days. This is the part owners most often get wrong on their own.
- 06
Run the property
Rent collection and the statutory notices when it does not arrive, maintenance against the obligations the law places on a landlord, periodic inspections with a record, renewals negotiated before the lease runs out rather than after.
- 07
Report, reconcile, and hand back cleanly
Statements that tie to the bank, documents kept where you can reach them, and — at the end of a tenancy — the deposit claim handled inside the 30-day window. If you ever move the management elsewhere, the file goes with you in a state someone else can pick up.
What a manager is actually for
Florida does not leave the landlord’s job to the lease. It requires compliance with applicable building, housing and health codes, and where no code applies it spells out the obligation in plain terms — roofs, windows, doors, floors, steps, porches, exterior walls, foundations, the structural components and the plumbing. That is the standard against which a rental is run, and a manager is hired to discharge it, document it and keep it from becoming a dispute.
There is a nuance worth knowing if you own exactly the kind of property most Miami landlords own: these obligations may be modified in writing for a single-family home or a duplex. That is a genuine flexibility and also a place to be careful, because a modification only works if it was actually agreed in writing and is clear enough to rely on. It is not a reason to skip the work.
“maintain the roofs, windows, doors, floors, steps, porches, exterior walls, foundations, and all other structural components in good repair and capable of resisting normal forces and loads and the plumbing in reasonable working condition”
How the money moves
Three streams, and they should never touch. The owner’s money — rent collected, less the fee and any approved costs — is disbursed to the owner on an agreed cycle. The tenant’s money — the security deposit and any advance rent — is not the owner’s and is not the manager’s: funds entrusted to a broker go into an escrow account promptly, under a rule that requires it by the end of the third business day after receipt. The manager’s money is the fee, and it is earned from the first two rather than mixed with them.
On tax, one point surprises owners coming from the commercial side: a residential lease of more than six months is not subject to the state transient rental tax, which only reaches lets of six months or less. If you are letting furnished and short, that is a different page and a different set of returns.
| Item | How it works | Whose money |
|---|---|---|
| Management fee | Agreed in the management agreement, normally as a share of rent actually collected | Owner |
| Leasing or tenant placement fee | Agreed separately and charged when a tenant is placed | Owner |
| Security deposit | Entrusted funds go to escrow promptly — the rule requires it by the end of the third business day after receipt | Tenant's, held in trust |
| Advance rent | Treated the same way as the deposit, and noticed to the tenant the same way | Tenant's, held in trust |
| Rent collected | Disbursed to the owner on the agreed cycle, net of the fee and approved costs | Owner |
| Maintenance and repairs | At cost, within the spending authority set in the agreement; above it, approved first | Owner |
| State transient rental tax | Not due on a residential lease of more than six months; it reaches lets of six months or less | Tenant, where it applies |
Escrow timing — funds entrusted to a broker placed "immediately", defined as no later than the end of the third business day after receipt, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays: Rule 61J2-14.008 and 61J2-14.010, F.A.C. Deposit handling, the separate account and the written notice to the tenant: F.S. 83.49. Landlord maintenance obligations: F.S. 83.51. Licence required to rent or lease for another: F.S. 475.01(1)(a). Community association management licensure above ten units or a $100,000 budget: F.S. 468.432(2). Transient rental tax and the six-month test: F.S. 212.03. No fee figures appear here because they are agreed per property and this site publishes no number it has not verified. · Florida Statutes §83.49 — security deposits and advance rent
Two different licences, and why it matters who you hire
Renting or leasing someone else’s property for compensation, or negotiating a rental for them, is brokerage in Florida and requires a real estate licence. That is the licence under which residential property management is performed, and it carries the escrow rules, the record-keeping and the regulator that go with it. Asking who holds the licence a manager is operating under is a fair and rarely-asked question.
Managing a condominium or homeowners association is a different activity under a different chapter. A community association management firm must be licensed where it manages more than ten units or a budget of $100,000 or greater — and a real estate licence does not cover that work, nor does a CAM licence authorise brokerage. The two are frequently spoken of as one job. They are not, and knowing which one you actually need is the first useful thing to establish.
What to ask before you hand over the keys
Four questions get you most of the way. Who holds the licence this is performed under. Where tenant funds are held, and how quickly they get there. What the reporting looks like, and does it reconcile to a bank statement rather than to a summary. And what happens at the end — how notice is given, what it costs, and whether the file leaves in a condition another manager could pick up on a Monday.
Then the two that actually decide the relationship: what can be spent without asking you, and what cannot. And who you speak to when something goes wrong at nine on a Friday evening — not which inbox, which person.
Questions owners ask
Do you need a licence to manage rental property in Florida?
Generally yes. Renting or leasing the real property of another, or negotiating a rental for them, for compensation is brokerage activity in Florida and requires a real estate licence. That licence brings the escrow rules, the record-keeping obligations and a regulator with it. Asking which licence a manager operates under, and whose it is, is a reasonable question and one that is asked far less often than it should be.
Is managing a condo or HOA the same as managing a rental?
No — different work, different chapter, different licence. A community association management firm must be licensed where it manages more than ten units or a budget of $100,000 or greater. A real estate licence does not authorise that work, and a community association manager licence does not authorise brokerage. The two are routinely spoken of as one job, and establishing which one you actually need is the first useful step.
Where does my tenant’s security deposit go?
Into escrow, promptly. Funds entrusted to a broker must be placed in an escrow account no later than the end of the third business day after receipt, with Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays not counted. Separately, the landlord must give the tenant written notice within 30 days of receiving a deposit or advance rent, stating where it is held. Both are statutory requirements rather than good practice.
If my manager makes a mistake, who is liable to the tenant?
You are, in the first instance. The statutory duties sit on the landlord — the owner — and appointing an agent is how they are performed, not a transfer of them. The clearest example is the security deposit: if notice of a claim is not given within 30 days of the tenancy ending, the landlord forfeits the right to claim against it. Whatever your agreement with the manager says, the tenant’s remedy runs against you.
What repairs is a landlord required to make in Florida?
Compliance with applicable building, housing and health codes, and where no code applies the statute sets the standard directly: roofs, windows, doors, floors, steps, porches, exterior walls, foundations and other structural components in good repair, and the plumbing in reasonable working condition. For a single-family home or a duplex these obligations may be modified in writing — which is a real flexibility, and only works if it was genuinely agreed and is clear enough to rely on.
Do I pay sales tax on the rent I collect?
Not on a residential lease of more than six months. The state transient rental tax reaches lets of six months or less, so a standard annual residential tenancy is outside it. If you are letting furnished and short-term the position is completely different, with state tax and county accommodations taxes both in play — that is a separate page and a separate set of returns.
Tell us about the property.
Where it is, how many units, whether it is tenanted now and what has gone wrong before. We will tell you plainly what we would do with it.