Miya's Law Key Logs & Lock Rules for Florida Rentals

Miya's Law is Florida's CS/SB 898 from the 2022 session, approved by the governor on June 27, 2022 (chapter 2022-222; Florida Senate). It is named for Miya Marcano, a Valencia College student who went missing from her Orlando apartment in September 2021 and was later found dead. According to the Senate staff analysis of the bill, investigators said she was taken from her apartment by a maintenance worker at the complex, who allegedly used a master key fob to get in (Senate bill analysis).

For apartments and their tenants, the law did three things:

• Landlords of licensed apartments must have every employee background-screened as a condition of employment, by a consumer reporting agency, covering criminal records and the sexual predator and offender registries of all 50 states and the District of Columbia (Fla. Stat. 83.515).
• Licensed apartments must keep a key log and key policies, and show proof of both on request at the annual inspection (Fla. Stat. 509.211(5)).
• The notice a landlord must give before entering for repairs went from 12 hours to 24 hours, for all tenancies (Senate bill analysis).

It applies to every public lodging establishment licensed as a nontransient apartment or a transient apartment (509.211(5)). A nontransient apartment is a building or complex where three-quarters or more of the units are available for rent to nontransient tenants; a transient apartment is one where more than a quarter of the units are advertised or held out for transient occupancy (509.242). The rule covers both. The same section also requires an approved locking device on each door of a bedroom or apartment that opens to the outside, to an adjoining room or apartment, or to a hallway (509.211(1)).

Florida's lodging law leaves out several kinds of rentals (509.013(4)(b)), including:

• Any place renting four rental units or less, unless the units are advertised or held out to the public as places regularly rented to transients.
• Condo, co-op and timeshare units, and one- to four-family homes, rented for at least 30 days or a calendar month and not held out for shorter stays, as long as no more than four rental units in a single complex are available for rent.

Per the Senate staff analysis, a nontransient apartment renting four units or less is exempt from DBPR licensure, as is a HUD-inspected apartment building designated primarily as housing for tenants 62 and older. The same analysis counted 19,261 licensed transient and nontransient apartments in Florida in early 2022 (Senate bill analysis). Not sure which side your property is on? Call the Division of Hotels and Restaurants' Customer Contact Center at 850-487-1395 (DBPR).

If the rule doesn't reach your duplex or rental house, the log and the policy below are still a simple way to know where every key is.

The statute asks for “a log accounting for the issuance and return of all keys for each dwelling unit” (509.211(5)(b)). It doesn't prescribe a form or columns, so build the log to answer two questions at any moment: where is every key, and who had it, when? Every time a key or fob goes out or comes back, record:

• The unit, and the key or fob's ID: the number stamped on the key or printed on its tag.
• How many copies went out.
• Who received it, and their role: tenant, staff member or vendor.
• Why it went out: a move-in, a repair, a lockout, a showing.
• The date and time out, who issued it, and the recipient's signature.
• The date and time it came back, and who received it.

Keep master keys, grand masters and unissued keys on a sheet of their own, since those open more than one door or aren't assigned to anyone yet. Then reconcile the log against the keys you actually hold at every move-in and move-out, and whenever someone on staff leaves. If your inspector wants to see anything specific, ask DBPR.

Paragraph (5)(c) requires “policies and procedures for the issuance and return of dwelling unit keys and regulating the storage of, and access to, unissued keys” (509.211(5)(c)). The statute doesn't say the policy has to be written, but you have to show proof of compliance when DBPR asks, so put it on paper and keep it with the log. A 10-point checklist to start from:

The statute says “keys” and doesn't mention fobs, cards or codes. While the bill was in committee, Senate staff suggested the sponsor consider adding electronic programmable key cards to the key-log provision (Senate bill analysis), and the statute today still says keys (509.211(5)).

We'd log them anyway: the case behind the law allegedly involved a master key fob, and a fob that opens a unit door does the same job as a key. Ask DBPR how its inspectors treat fobs, cards and codes at your property.

Electronic entry can make the log easier to keep. Key card and key fob door systems record which credential opened which door and when, which suits shared entrances (see key card and fob door systems). On unit doors, a keypad deadbolt lets you change a code between tenants instead of pulling cylinders, and maintenance gets a code of its own (see keypad and fob entry for rental units). Log who holds each code and when it last changed. For a side-by-side look, see our guide to keypads vs. key cards vs. fobs.

No. This rule covers the landlord of any dwelling unit under Florida's residential landlord-tenant law, licensed or not. A landlord “shall not prevent the tenant from gaining reasonable access to the dwelling unit by any means, including, but not limited to, changing the locks or using any bootlock or similar device” ( Fla. Stat. 83.67(2)). The same section bars removing a unit's outside doors or locks except for maintenance, repair or replacement.

The statute makes no exception for unpaid rent. A landlord recovers possession only through a court action, when the tenant surrenders or abandons the unit, or under a narrow rule that applies after the last remaining tenant dies (Fla. Stat. 83.59(3)). A landlord who violates 83.67 is liable for the tenant's actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus costs, including attorney's fees (83.67(6)). So the turnover rekey comes after the unit is legally back in your hands.

Florida's residential landlord-tenant statutes don't spell out a right for tenants to change the locks, so start with your lease, and get the landlord's OK in writing before any lock work. The locks are usually the landlord's: for any unit other than a single-family home or duplex, the landlord must make reasonable provisions for locks and keys unless the two of you agreed otherwise in writing (Fla. Stat. 83.51(2)(a)).

The landlord also keeps a right of entry. With at least 24 hours' notice, a landlord may enter for repairs between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., and may enter at any time to protect or preserve the premises (Fla. Stat. 83.53(2)). If the landlord approves a lock change, plan to hand over a key or the code. If you're in danger, call 911, and talk to an attorney or a legal aid office about your options.

Turnover is where key control slips: a former tenant's spare, a vendor's copy, a master that left with a manager. These are the tools that keep a log honest:

• A master key system with few masters. Put every unit under one landlord or property-manager master, hand that master to as few people as possible, and update the keying chart at each turnover. See how we set up a master key system for your rental property.
• Restricted keys. They close a gap a log can't: only an authorized dealer can cut copies of Mul-T-Lock restricted keys, and only for people you approve, so a hardware-store copy can't slip past your log.
• Targeted rekeys. When a key goes missing, rekey the locks it opened and update the chart. Whether to rekey or replace at each turnover is its own question; see rekey or replace at turnover.
• Records per unit. Keyed-alike groups under a landlord master, with records kept per unit, make re-orders and audits simpler.

We do this work across the area, from landlord rekeys in Town 'n' Country to rental turnovers near USF.

Every property starts with a walkthrough of the doors and who needs to open each one, and you get a written quote before any work begins. Quotes are free. From there we can set up a master key system, restricted keys, turnover rekeys, keypad deadbolts on unit doors, and key card or fob entry on shared doors.

The Locksmith Shop is a family-owned locksmith in Tampa and has been in business since 2009. We're bonded and insured, and our background-checked technicians work in English or Spanish. Florida's screening rule in 83.515 covers an apartment's own employees; for outside vendors, ask how they screen their people. Walk in to talk it through at 4556 S Manhattan Ave, Tampa, FL 33611, Monday through Saturday, 8am to 8pm; we're closed Sunday.

Property managers, apartment associations and landlord groups are welcome to link to this guide from a resources or vendor page, print the key log for their team, or pass the spreadsheet along to members. It works whichever locksmith you use.