Florida Debt Collection Laws

Florida debt collection laws control two things: how creditors and collection agencies may behave while pursuing payment, and what a creditor holding a court judgment can actually take. The Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act bans harassment, false statements, and late-night calls, and it applies to original creditors as well as collection agencies and debt buyers.

A creditor with a money judgment collects through Florida’s collection tools: judgment liens, garnishment, execution, and proceedings supplementary. Every tool has a corresponding exemption or defense. Most judgments against individuals whose assets sit within Florida’s exemptions are settled for less than face value.

Which Laws Regulate Debt Collection in Florida?

Two laws regulate consumer debt collection in Florida. The Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act, found at §§ 559.55 through 559.785, is the state law. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies nationwide. When the two conflict, whichever provision is more protective of the debtor controls.

The biggest difference between them is who must follow the rules. The federal act regulates only third-party debt collectors, and under Henson v. Santander a debt buyer collecting debts it owns is not automatically one of them. The Florida act reaches anyone collecting a consumer debt, including the original creditor: the bank, the credit card issuer, the medical practice, or the landlord collecting its own receivable. A demand letter from a lender’s own workout department must comply with the Florida act even though the federal act would not apply to it.

Florida also requires consumer collection agencies to register with the state’s Office of Financial Regulation before collecting here. An out-of-state agency needs the same registration only if it solicits accounts from creditors that have a business presence in Florida; collecting from Florida residents by itself does not require it. Original creditors, banks, and Florida Bar members are exempt from the registration requirement, though not from the conduct rules.

What Debt Collectors Cannot Do in Florida

Florida law prohibits 19 categories of collection conduct, and the list applies whether the person collecting is a collection agency or the original creditor. The prohibitions that generate the most disputes:

• Contact at prohibited hours. A collector cannot communicate with a debtor between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the debtor’s time zone unless the debtor consented in advance. The only carve-out is e-mail: a payment-reminder e-mail sent at 10 p.m. does not violate the statute, but a 10 p.m. text message or phone call does.
• Harassment. Repeated calls made to annoy or abuse, obscene language, and threats of violence are all prohibited.
• False threats of arrest or prosecution. A collector cannot claim nonpayment is a crime or threaten jail, because Florida does not jail people for consumer debt.
• Impersonation. Collectors cannot pose as police officers, government agents, or attorneys, and cannot send documents designed to look like court papers.
• Misrepresenting the debt. Overstating the amount owed, adding unauthorized fees, or attempting to enforce a debt the collector knows is not legitimate all violate the statute.
• Contacting your employer. A collector cannot discuss the debt with an employer unless it first obtains a judgment or the debtor’s written permission, and cannot publicize the debt to outsiders lacking a business reason to know, including so-called deadbeat lists.
• Going around your lawyer. Once a collector knows an attorney represents the debtor, it must direct communications to the attorney.

The employer-contact rule turns on whether the collector had a final judgment or the debtor’s written permission when it called; the attorney-contact rule turns on whether the collector knew the debtor had a lawyer.

Debt Validation and Disputing a Debt

A third-party collector must send written notice of the debt within five days of first contacting the person, stating the amount owed and the creditor’s name, unless that information was already in the first communication. The person then has 30 days after receiving the notice to dispute the debt in writing. A timely written dispute obligates the collector to stop collection until it mails verification, such as a copy of the account statement or the signed agreement.

Separate from a dispute, the consumer can send a written demand that a collection agency stop contacting them. Once the letter arrives, the agency may contact the consumer for only three reasons. It may confirm that collection is stopping, say that the agency or the creditor may use a remedy it ordinarily uses, or announce that a specific remedy is coming, such as a lawsuit. When a consumer debt is sold or assigned, the new owner must send written notice of the assignment at least 30 days before taking any collection action.

Disputing a debt does not erase it, and a cease-contact letter does not prevent a lawsuit. Both tools control the collector’s behavior.

Can You Record Debt Collection Calls in Florida?

Recording a collection call without the caller’s consent is generally illegal in Florida. Florida is an all-party consent state under its wiretapping law, § 934.03, so secretly recording a phone conversation is itself a crime and can expose the person to civil liability, even when the collector on the other end is breaking the law.

The evidence that proves collection abuse does not require secret recordings. Voicemails are fair game because the collector left them voluntarily. Phone logs showing call frequency and timestamps, text messages, letters, and emails all document violations without consent problems. A contemporaneous written log of each call is admissible and persuasive if it records the date and time along with the caller and what was said.

Collection-abuse claims are won on ordinary records: a phone bill showing repeated calls in one afternoon, a voicemail left after 9 p.m., or a letter overstating the balance. A claim built on a secretly recorded call fails, because the recording is inadmissible and the recording itself exposes the person who made it to liability.

Suing a Debt Collector Under the FCCPA

A person subjected to prohibited collection conduct can sue the collector or creditor for damages. Under § 559.77, a successful claim recovers actual damages, statutory damages up to $1,000, court costs, and attorney fees, and a court may add punitive damages for outrageous conduct. The claim must be filed within two years of the violation, twice the one-year window the federal act allows.

The fee-shifting provision is what gives these claims practical force. Consumer attorneys take collection-abuse cases on contingency because the statute pays their fees, so a person with documented violations can usually find counsel without paying hourly rates.

A collection-abuse claim also changes settlement talks on the underlying debt. A documented counterclaim, even one worth only the $1,000 statutory maximum plus fees, often moves a collector to discount the debt or drop the account, because defending the claim costs more than the account is worth. Complaints can also be filed with the Florida Attorney General and the Office of Financial Regulation, which track collector misconduct even when they do not intervene in individual cases.

Can a Debt Collector Sue You in Florida?

A debt collector or creditor can sue in Florida at any time before the statute of limitations expires. Florida’s statute of limitations on debt allows five years to sue when a written contract exists and four years otherwise, measured from the last payment or default. Filing suit on a time-barred debt is itself a collection violation.

In an ordinary civil case, the person has 20 days after service to respond before the creditor can seek a default judgment. Small claims cases run differently: the summons sets a pretrial conference within 50 days of filing, no written answer is required, and the defendant’s first obligation is appearing at that conference.

Credit card lawsuits brought by debt buyers often fail when the buyer cannot produce the signed cardholder agreement or a documented chain of ownership. Responding to the suit beats ignoring it, because an unanswered suit ends in a default judgment. A collector that wins its lawsuit becomes a judgment creditor with the same collection tools as any other.

How Judgment Collection Begins

Collection does not start the moment a judgment is entered. Florida procedure gives either party 15 days after the judgment is filed to serve a motion for rehearing. Most creditors wait for this period to expire before beginning collection. A creditor can, however, record a certified copy of the judgment in the county records immediately. The statewide lien on personal property is different: that judgment lien certificate cannot be filed until the judgment is final, the rehearing period has run, and no stay is in effect.

The lawsuit itself, from complaint through discovery to final judgment, can take months or years, and the decisions made during that period affect which assets are still reachable once collection begins.

The creditor’s first step is typically requiring the person to complete a fact information sheet, a sworn financial disclosure listing assets, income, bank accounts, real property, and business interests. Most final judgments order the form completed within 45 days. The information in this form guides the creditor’s collection strategy. Failing to complete the form or making false statements can result in contempt sanctions.

The creditor’s collection options depend entirely on what the fact information sheet and other discovery reveal. A person with unprotected bank accounts faces immediate garnishment. Someone whose assets fall within Florida’s exemption categories presents a much harder target.

Default Judgments

A default judgment is entered when the defendant fails to respond to a lawsuit within Florida’s procedural deadlines. Default judgments carry the same enforcement power as judgments obtained after a full trial. A person who simply missed the deadline can move to vacate the judgment, but must prove three things: excusable neglect, a meritorious defense, and prompt action. A person attacking the judgment as void does not have to prove any of the three.

What Happens After a Judgment Is Entered

A creditor who acts quickly after a judgment is entered can garnish bank accounts, record liens, and send the fact information sheet before the person has time to respond. A garnishment writ can issue within days of the judgment becoming final, while liens, discovery, and proceedings supplementary unfold over weeks to months—the earliest tools are the ones that reach unprotected bank accounts.

The Creditor’s Collection Tools

Florida gives judgment creditors six main collection tools: judgment liens, liens on receivables and other payment rights, garnishment, execution and levy, proceedings supplementary, and asset freezes.

Judgment Liens

Recording a certified copy of a judgment in a county’s official records creates a lien on all non-homestead real property the person owns in that county. The creditor must record separately in each county where the person holds real estate. A real property judgment lien lasts 10 years and can be extended for an additional 10 years by re-recording before expiration.

For personal property, the creditor files a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State. This lien encumbers non-exempt personal property statewide and lasts five years, renewable for another five. Judgment lien renewal requires strict compliance with statutory procedures, and a lien that lapses before renewal loses its priority.

A judgment lien does not by itself transfer property to the creditor. It prevents the owner from selling or refinancing encumbered property without addressing the lien. The lien also establishes the creditor’s priority relative to other creditors. First to record is first in line.

Judgment Liens on Receivables, Rents, and Royalties

Since July 1, 2023, a Florida judgment lien certificate also attaches to accounts receivable, payment intangibles, and their proceeds. The Judgment Lien Improvement Act made these payment rights reachable for the first time. Covered rights include payments due for goods sold or services rendered, royalties, lease payments, and contract payments such as settlement installments.

The creditor cannot simply demand the money. Enforcement requires judicial process, most often proceedings supplementary, and once the creditor serves the third party who owes the payments, that party must stop paying the person until a court rules on who gets the money.

Three limits protect the person on the receiving end. A lender with a prior perfected security interest in the same receivables gets paid before the judgment creditor. Payment rights that a married couple owns as tenants by the entireties can defeat a judgment against one spouse. And amounts owed for personal services may qualify as exempt head-of-household wages.

How Garnishment Works

Garnishment is the most common collection tool and typically the creditor’s most productive one. A writ of garnishment directs a third party holding the person’s money, usually a bank or employer, to freeze and turn over those funds.

A bank served with a writ freezes the person’s account, and the account holder has 20 days after receiving the creditor’s notice of garnishment to claim any applicable exemptions. A garnishment writ reaches only debts the third party owes the person when the writ is served, so recurring payments require a new writ each time. The one exception is wages: a single continuing writ served on the employer captures non-exempt earnings each pay period until the judgment is satisfied.

Florida provides strong garnishment protections. A person who provides more than half the support for a child or other dependent qualifies as head of household. Head-of-household wages up to $750 per week in disposable earnings are fully exempt. Higher earnings can be garnished only if the person signed a separate waiver document printed in at least 14-point type, and even then no more than the federal garnishment limit allows.

Social Security income and annuity payments are also exempt. Required retirement distributions deposited into a segregated account generally keep their protection, while money the account holder chooses to withdraw generally does not. Property held jointly by married couples as tenants by the entireties cannot be garnished for the individual debt of one spouse.

Execution and Levy

A writ of execution authorizes the county sheriff to seize non-exempt personal property, including vehicles, equipment, inventory, and valuables, and sell it at public auction. The execution and levy process requires the creditor to identify specific property for the sheriff to seize.

Execution reaches shares of corporate stock, and the auction buyer steps into the shareholder’s position. A debtor who owns all the stock of a private company can lose the company itself, including its bank accounts, at a sheriff’s sale.

Membership interests in multi-member LLCs and limited partnership interests cannot be levied. The creditor’s remedy is a charging order, a court-issued lien that redirects distributions to the creditor without transferring ownership or management rights, and the creditor cannot foreclose on the charged interest. A general partnership interest is different: a court can order it sold at foreclosure, and the buyer takes the partner’s economic interest as a transferee.

Execution is less common than garnishment because personal property often has limited resale value and the process is expensive. The sheriff must physically locate and take possession of the property, store it, advertise the sale, and conduct the auction. After deducting costs, the remaining proceeds go to the creditor.

The person can claim Florida’s $1,000 personal property exemption to protect household goods and personal effects, plus an additional $4,000 exemption if the person does not claim or receive the benefits of a homestead exemption. The $4,000 exemption does not apply to a child support or spousal support debt.

Proceedings Supplementary

When standard collection tools fail, the creditor can initiate proceedings supplementary. This court proceeding, authorized by § 56.29, allows the creditor to examine the judgment defendant under oath, compel third-party testimony, and ask the court to order asset turnover or set aside transfers.

Proceedings supplementary are the most powerful creditor remedy under Florida law because they reach assets that garnishment and execution cannot. A creditor reaches a third party who received the person’s property by having the court issue a Notice to Appear, served like a summons, which orders the recipient to explain under oath why the assets should not go toward the judgment. Florida courts still call this impleading the third party. Courts can also enter money judgments against third-party transferees, reverse fraudulent transfers and conversions, and impose charging orders on partnership or LLC interests.

A creditor can use the same proceeding to pierce a debtor company’s corporate veil, asking the court to hold the owner or a successor company liable for the judgment as the debtor’s alter ego. Courts require proof for that step: the company must have been the debtor’s mere instrumentality, used improperly, in a way that caused the creditor’s loss. When the judgment debtor is a company and the sheriff finds nothing to levy on, a companion statute, § 56.10, also lets the court place the company’s assets in a receiver’s hands.

Creditors who cannot collect through garnishment or proceedings supplementary sometimes file an involuntary bankruptcy petition to access the broader recovery powers available to a bankruptcy trustee, including the ten-year lookback for self-settled trust transfers.

Asset Freezes

A creditor can obtain a pre-judgment or post-judgment asset freeze by petitioning the court. An asset freeze prohibits the person from transferring, selling, or dissipating specific property while the creditor pursues collection. Post-judgment freezes typically require the creditor to show that the person is concealing or depleting assets. Under state law, the creditor must post a bond to compensate the person if the freeze turns out to be unwarranted—a requirement that deters many creditors from pursuing this remedy.

How Long Judgments Last

A Florida judgment is enforceable for 20 years from the date of entry. The 20-year period, set by § 95.11(1), cannot be extended by any renewal procedure. A creditor’s only path past the 20-year mark is filing a separate lawsuit on the judgment, before it expires, to obtain a new one. Judgment liens operate on shorter timelines: real property liens last 10 years, personal property liens last five, and both must be independently renewed to maintain the creditor’s priority.

The statute of limitations for debt governs the deadline for filing the original lawsuit, not the judgment’s enforcement period. A five-year-old debt that produces a judgment on the last day before expiration becomes a 20-year obligation.

Post-Judgment Interest

Florida judgments accrue post-judgment interest at a rate set quarterly by the state’s Chief Financial Officer. Under § 55.03, the rate is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discount rate averaged over the preceding 12 months, plus 400 basis points. A judgment starts at the rate in effect when it is entered and then adjusts every January 1, apart from a few kinds of clerk-entered judgments that keep their original rate. Interest keeps accruing for the judgment’s full 20-year life.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay a Judgment in Florida?

A person cannot be jailed for failing to pay a civil money judgment in Florida. The Florida Constitution prohibits imprisonment for debt, and nonpayment by itself triggers neither an arrest nor any automatic seizure of property or wages. The unpaid judgment sits on the public record, accrues interest, and waits for the creditor to act.

The real jail exposure comes from disobeying court orders, not from owing money. Ignoring an order to complete the fact information sheet, lying under oath about assets, or refusing a turnover order can all support contempt sanctions, including incarceration until the person complies. The safe course is to comply with every court order while claiming every available exemption.

A Florida judgment leads to jail only when the debtor defies a specific court order entered during collection, and compliance ends the exposure.

Many creditors holding smaller judgments never pursue collection at all, because the legal work costs more than the likely recovery. Creditors also hesitate to push a person into bankruptcy, where the judgment would likely be discharged.

How Creditors Find and Reach Your Assets

A judgment creditor has to locate assets first and then get past Florida’s exemptions to take them.

How Creditors Find Assets

Florida law gives judgment creditors extensive discovery tools to locate assets. Beyond the fact information sheet, creditors can subpoena bank records, depose the judgment defendant and family members, request copies of tax returns and financial statements, and search public records. Those records show real property, vehicle titles, and business filings. Asset searches conducted through third-party services can reveal accounts the person assumed were private. Social media posts are also a common source of financial information for creditors investigating a person’s assets and lifestyle.

A debtor’s own loan file is another source of evidence. Personal financial statements once given to a lender, sometimes with generous asset values, resurface at the deposition. The creditor uses them to argue the assets exist and to challenge the person’s credibility when the values suddenly shrink.

Can a Creditor Take Your House?

A judgment creditor generally cannot take a Florida homestead. Florida’s homestead exemption is among the strongest in the country, protecting a person’s primary residence from forced sale regardless of its value, though exceptions exist for mortgage foreclosure, property taxes, and contractor liens.

Can a Creditor Take Your Car?

A judgment creditor can seize a person’s vehicle through a writ of execution directed to the county sheriff, but Florida law limits the practical value of vehicle seizure as a collection tool. Florida protects $5,000 of motor vehicle equity under § 222.25(1), and most financed vehicles have little or no equity left once the lienholder is paid.

A leased vehicle cannot be levied at all because the person does not own it. Whether a creditor can take a car depends on the vehicle’s equity, the exemption amount, and whether pursuing a levy is worth the likely recovery.

The 2023 lien law also closed a title loophole. A judgment lien does not bind a later buyer unless it appears on the vehicle’s certificate of title, and before 2023 no clear procedure existed for adding it. A creditor can now have the lien noted directly with the state title agency, or by court order in proceedings supplementary, so selling the car no longer washes the lien away.

How a Judgment Affects a Spouse

A judgment against one spouse does not automatically become a judgment against the other. However, the creditor may attempt to reach marital assets depending on how they are titled. How a judgment affects a spouse depends on whether the assets are held as tenants by the entireties and whether the non-judgment spouse has any independent liability.

Becoming Judgment Proof

A person is effectively judgment proof when substantially all assets and income fall within Florida’s exemption categories. Being judgment proof does not eliminate the judgment; it remains on the public record and accrues interest. But it deprives the creditor of any practical collection remedy and creates powerful leverage for settlement. Florida is one of the hardest states to collect a judgment, and few states match the combination of unlimited homestead, uncapped wage protection, and broad tenancy by the entirety coverage.

Settling a Judgment

A creditor facing an effectively judgment-proof individual has strong incentives to accept a negotiated payment rather than continue spending money on fruitless collection. Settling a judgment for less than its face value is the most common resolution when the person’s assets are well protected. The settlement amount depends on the person’s exemption posture, the judgment’s age, and the creditor’s assessment of future collectibility.

The discount tracks the documentation. A creditor shown a homestead deed, entireties account statements, and head-of-household pay records will discount far more deeply than one hearing bare assertions that everything is protected. With that paperwork in hand, the creditor’s lawyer can see that nothing is reachable now and that interest is accruing only on paper.

Out-of-State, Deficiency, and Government Judgments

Some judgments follow different collection rules: judgments entered outside Florida, deficiency judgments left over after a foreclosure or repossession, and judgments held by the federal government or its agencies.

Enforcing Out-of-State Judgments

A judgment entered in another state must be domesticated in Florida before the creditor can use Florida’s collection tools. Enforcing foreign judgments in Florida requires filing the judgment with a Florida court under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. A person who wants to contest the judgment must sue within 30 days after it is recorded, challenging the original court’s jurisdiction or the judgment’s validity, and record a lis pendens against it.

Once domesticated, the judgment carries the same weight as a Florida judgment, but Florida’s exemptions, including homestead, apply to protect Florida assets. The 20-year period runs from the date the original court entered the judgment, not from the date the judgment is recorded in Florida. Recording does not shorten it either: once a judgment is domesticated in Florida, it can be enforced here for the full period even if the state that entered it would no longer enforce it under its own shorter deadline.

The judgment must reach the Florida records before it expires in the state that entered it. A creditor who instead sues on the foreign judgment within five years gets a new Florida judgment with a fresh 20 years.

Deficiency Judgments

A deficiency judgment arises when collateral sold at foreclosure or repossession does not cover the full debt. Florida allows deficiency judgments on residential mortgages, vehicle loans, and commercial debt. Valuation rules differ for each, and so do the rules on timing and limitation periods. Once entered, a deficiency judgment becomes a standard money judgment subject to all the same collection tools.

Federal Judgment Collection

Federal agencies collecting civil judgments operate under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act, which grants broader powers than state law, including pre-judgment asset freezes without bond and judgment liens that last 20 years and can be renewed once for 20 more. State exemptions still apply, but through a federal choice-of-law rule. The debtor picks either the federal bankruptcy exemptions or the exemptions of the debtor’s home state, and home state means wherever the debtor was domiciled longest in the 180 days before the action.

A recent arrival gets Florida’s exemptions only once Florida has been the debtor’s domicile for more of that window than any other state. Tenants by the entireties property is handled separately. Federal remedies against property a debtor co-owns with someone else reach only as far as the law of the state where the property sits allows, so entireties property in Florida keeps Florida’s protection whether or not the 180-day test is met.

IRS Tax Debt Collection in Florida

The IRS has collection powers that go beyond what any private creditor can do in Florida. Federal tax liens attach to nearly every asset the person owns, including property that would be exempt from private creditors. IRS collection in Florida operates under rules that partially override homestead protection, pierce tenants-by-the-entireties ownership, and bypass head-of-household wage exemptions through administrative garnishment.

SBA Debt Collection

Small Business Administration loan defaults follow a specific collection chain from lender to SBA to the U.S. Treasury. SBA debt collection involves the Treasury Offset Program, which intercepts tax refunds and Social Security payments, and administrative wage garnishment that bypasses Florida’s head-of-household exemption entirely.

A defaulted COVID EIDL loan moves through the same Treasury collection process, but personal exposure depends on the $200,000 personal guarantee line and on which Florida exemptions survive federal collection.

How Collection Tools, Exemptions, and Settlement Interact

Each of Florida’s collection tools meets a matching defense. The homestead exemption defeats real property liens and execution against the home. The head-of-household exemption defeats wage garnishment. Tenants-by-the-entireties ownership defeats garnishment of joint accounts and seizure of jointly held property. Retirement accounts, annuities, and life insurance cash value are exempt by statute from ordinary judgment creditors, though the IRS can still reach them. Whether retirement money stays exempt once withdrawn is unsettled.

In a typical scenario, a married person in Florida with two minor children has a $50,000 credit card judgment entered against them. The creditor garnishes their joint bank account held as tenants by the entireties—the garnishment fails because the judgment is against only one spouse. The creditor then garnishes wages, but the person earns less than their spouse, cannot claim head-of-household status, and loses 25% of take-home pay.

Rather than endure an ongoing garnishment, the person negotiates a lump-sum settlement for half the judgment amount. The creditor accepts because a lump sum now is more valuable than years of incremental wage deductions.

Effective asset protection works best when assets are positioned within these exemptions before a judgment is entered, although Florida law leaves meaningful options even after one exists. The goal is to use the legal protections Florida provides rather than to hide anything. A person whose assets are properly structured transforms a 20-year judgment from a serious threat into a manageable problem that can be resolved through negotiation on favorable terms.

How Long Does a Creditor Have to Collect a Debt in Florida?

A creditor has five years to sue when a written contract exists and four years otherwise, measured from default or last payment—and once it wins a judgment, twenty years to collect it. The five-year and four-year deadlines come from Florida’s statute of limitations on debt, and they control only the right to file the lawsuit. A collector that sues after the deadline has passed commits an FCCPA violation of its own.

The 20-year period measures something different: how long a judgment remains enforceable once a court enters it. A debt sued on in its fourth year can produce a judgment that stays collectible for two more decades.