Florida Just Made Rental Application Fraud a Felony

Key Takeaways

• Starting October 1, 2026, knowingly using a fake ID, a doctored pay stub, or someone else’s identity to get into a Florida rental is a third-degree felony under the new “fraudulent entry” law (Chapter 2026-143).
• Fraudulent entry is now a non-curable lease violation, so a landlord can serve a 7-day notice to vacate without offering a chance to fix it, and without waiting on criminal charges. The full Florida eviction process still applies if the tenant doesn’t leave.
• The law only covers knowing, willful fraud, not honest mistakes on an application, so documentation and a consistent screening process matter more than ever.

We just put out a video walking through this one because rental owners have been asking us about it for weeks, and I wanted to get ahead of October 1 rather than field the same question after it’s already too late to prepare. If you own or self-manage rentals in Orlando or anywhere else in Florida, this is worth ten minutes of your time before the law takes effect.

As a full-service property management company in Orlando, we see application fraud more than most people would guess. Altered bank statements, pay stubs that don’t match what an employer will confirm over the phone, IDs that look right until you check the fonts against a real Florida license. Most of it gets caught in screening. Some of it doesn’t, and until now, once someone signed a lease and got the keys under a false identity, an owner’s options were limited. That’s the gap this new law is aimed at closing.

If you don’t like to read, you can watch the video below:

What Florida’s New Fraudulent Entry Law Actually Does

The bill is CS/HB 1293, now Chapter 2026-143 of the Florida Statutes. It passed the House 110-0 and the Senate 34-0, was signed into law on June 12, 2026, and takes effect October 1, 2026. It creates a new criminal offense called fraudulent entry of a residential dwelling unit.

Under the statute, a person violates the law if they knowingly and willfully enter into and take possession of a residential rental property by doing one of three things:

• Making a materially false written statement about their identity on a rental application.
• Presenting forged, fictitious, or counterfeit documents to the landlord, including (but not limited to) a driver’s license, ID card, bank statement, or pay stub.
• Impersonating the actual person whose name was used on the rental application, for the purpose of signing the lease or taking possession.

A violation is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine under Florida’s general sentencing statutes. What actually happens in a given case depends on the facts, the person’s record, and decisions made by the prosecutor and the court. This isn’t an automatic five years for every case, and it isn’t supposed to be.

Why the Non-Curable Violation Piece Matters More Day to Day

Florida law splits lease violations into two buckets: ones a tenant can fix within 7 days, and ones serious enough that they don’t get that chance. Under Florida Statute 83.56, that second category has historically covered things like intentional property damage or a repeated disturbance. As of October 1, fraudulent entry joins that list.

In practice, that means if you discover a tenant got into your property through fraud, you can serve written notice terminating the lease and requiring them to vacate within 7 days, and you don’t have to wait for criminal charges to be filed first. For an owner who’s just found out the person living in their house isn’t who they said they were, that’s a meaningfully faster path than what existed before.

It doesn’t mean you can change the locks yourself or remove someone’s belongings the day you find out. If the tenant doesn’t leave after the notice period, you still have to go through Florida’s standard eviction process through the courts. The law gives you stronger grounds to terminate and non renew your lease. It doesn’t let you skip the legal process to enforce it.

What This Law Does Not Cover

This is the part I’d tell every owner to slow down and read twice. The law requires the conduct to be knowing and willful, and it has to be tied to getting into and taking possession of the property. An applicant who makes an honest mistake, misremembers a former address, or rounds their income up by a couple hundred dollars isn’t in the same category as someone submitting a counterfeit driver’s license or a digitally altered pay stub.

That distinction matters because the instinct after finding a screening discrepancy is going to be to call it fraud immediately. Don’t. Document what you found, keep the evidence, and treat a suspicious application differently from a confirmed fraudulent one. A rushed accusation based on a hunch is a liability, not a shortcut.

How Orlando Landlords Should Prepare Before October 1

We manage properties across Orlando, Winter Park, Winter Garden, Lake Nona and the rest of Central Florida, and this market has its own wrinkle worth naming: a large share of our applicant pool is relocating from out of state or out of the country, sight unseen, on a compressed timeline because they’re starting a job or a school semester. That’s exactly the kind of application where a rushed, remote verification process is easiest to fool. It’s also where a little extra friction up front saves you the most trouble later.

Before the law takes effect, walk through this checklist:

• Review your rental application to make sure it clearly states that all information and supporting documents must be truthful and authentic.
• Confirm your income and identity verification steps go beyond “does this document look real” (call the employer, check a bank statement for formatting inconsistencies, verify a driver’s license against the state’s format).
• Put a written, consistent process in place for handling a questionable document: who reviews it, how it’s documented, and how the applicant is notified.
• Make sure that process applies the same way to every applicant. Consistency is what keeps a fraud denial from turning into a fair housing complaint.
• Update your lease and notice templates with your attorney so they reflect the new non-curable violation category.
• Keep a record retention policy so you actually have the original application, ID copies, and pay stubs on file if you need them later.

If your current process is mostly “run a credit check and call it done,” this is a good moment to have someone take a second look at it. Get a Free Rental Analysis and we’ll walk through what a fuller screening process looks like for your property.

Tenant Screening Is Still Your Best Defense

With over 15 years of professional property management experience, we’ve reviewed thousands of applications at this point, and the honest truth is the new law is a better backstop, not a replacement for catching fraud before someone gets a key. Strong tenant screening isn’t just a credit score. It’s verifying identity, checking income documentation against something other than the applicant’s word, confirming rental history with a previous landlord (not just the most recent one, who may be motivated to get rid of a bad tenant), and paying attention when something about the file doesn’t add up. We wrote a longer breakdown of that process in our tenant screening guide for Orlando rental property owners if you want the full checklist.

Chapter 2026-143 gives you a much stronger response once fraud is discovered. It doesn’t do anything for you if the fraud never gets caught in the first place.

If You Discover Rental Fraud After Move-In

If you find out after the fact that a tenant used a false identity or forged documents to get into your property, here’s the general order of operations:

• Document everything: the specific documents in question, how you discovered the discrepancy, and any communication with the tenant.
• Don’t attempt to remove the tenant or their belongings yourself. That opens you up to liability regardless of how clear the fraud looks.
• Contact a Florida landlord-tenant attorney before serving notice, especially the first few times you use this law. New statutes get tested in practice, and you want your notice worded correctly.
• Serve the proper written notice and, if the tenant doesn’t vacate, proceed through Florida’s standard eviction process. For background on how that process generally works, our post on the Florida eviction process covers the mechanics, though that piece focuses on nonpayment rather than fraud.
• Consider whether the facts warrant reporting the fraud separately to law enforcement. You don’t need a criminal case filed to move forward on the civil side, but a police report can still matter for the record.

None of this is legal advice, and I’m not an attorney. Every situation is different, and the right move depends on your specific lease, documentation, and facts. Talk to a qualified Florida landlord-tenant attorney before you change your notices, your lease language, or your enforcement policy based on this law.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Florida’s fraudulent entry law and when does it take effect?

It’s Chapter 2026-143 (originally CS/HB 1293), which creates the crime of “fraudulent entry of a residential dwelling unit.” It takes effect October 1, 2026.

What counts as rental application fraud under the new law?

Knowingly making a materially false statement about your identity on an application, presenting forged or counterfeit documents like a fake ID or altered pay stub, or impersonating the person whose name is actually on the lease.

Can I evict a tenant immediately if I discover fraud?

You can serve a 7-day notice to vacate without offering a cure period, and you don’t have to wait for criminal charges. But you still need to follow Florida’s standard eviction process through the courts if the tenant doesn’t leave voluntarily. You can’t change the locks or remove belongings yourself.

Does the law apply to honest mistakes on a rental application?

No. The statute requires the conduct to be knowing and willful. An innocent error, like misremembering a former address, is not treated the same as a forged document or a fabricated identity.

What should Orlando landlords do to get ready before October 1?

Review your application language, tighten your identity and income verification process, put a consistent written procedure in place for handling questionable documents, and update your lease and notice templates with a Florida landlord-tenant attorney.

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