Debt Collection Laws in Florida
If you're dealing with debt collection in Florida, here's what actually protects you: a cap on how much of your paycheck can be garnished, a base amount of home equity and bank funds creditors can't touch, and a deadline after which a debt lawsuit generally can't succeed. Current as ofJuly 2026 — sourcing for each section is linked below.
How much of my paycheck can be garnished in Florida?
If you support a child or other dependent and take home $750 a week or less, ordinary creditors can't touch your paycheck at all in Florida — this is called 'head of family' status. Earn more than $750/week and you can still be protected, unless you specifically signed a written waiver giving that up.
That waiver has to meet real formatting requirements to count: it needs to be a separate document from the credit agreement itself, printed in at least 14-point type, and signed by both sides. A waiver buried in the fine print of your loan contract generally doesn't hold up.
If you don't qualify as head of family, you fall back on the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act cap: the lesser of 25% of your disposable weekly earnings, or whatever your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour, a $217.50/week floor).
Tier: Federal formula, with a minor state-specific add-on — see the full 20-state ranking.
Can a creditor take money from my bank account in Florida?
If you qualify as head of family, your paycheck stays protected for 6 months after it lands in your bank account in Florida — even mixed in with other money — as long as you can show it's your wages. You can also protect up to $4,000 of personal property, plus up to $5,000 of vehicle equity, if you skip the homestead exemption.
That 6-month post-deposit exemption (§ 222.11(3)) is genuinely more generous than what most states offer — a lot of states treat your wages as fair game for a levy the moment they hit your bank account. Florida gives head-of-family filers a real window here, as long as you can show the money traces back to exempt wages.
One thing to know about the $4,000 personal-property exemption under § 222.25: you only get it if you're not also claiming the homestead exemption. It's a trade-off between the two, not something you can stack on top of homestead protection.
Is my home protected from creditors in Florida?
There's no dollar limit on how much home equity Florida protects from a forced sale — one of the strongest homestead protections in the country, written into the state constitution. The only limit is on land size: half an acre inside a city, or 160 acres outside one.
Because there's no cap on value, a Florida homeowner with a fully paid-off, high-value house inside the acreage limit can generally keep it even after a large civil judgment against them — which is exactly why some people relocate to Florida before a lawsuit or bankruptcy filing. Federal bankruptcy law has its own separate residency and look-back rules aimed squarely at that kind of pre-filing move, though, so it's not a simple loophole.
If your land later gets annexed into a municipality, you keep your original, larger acreage allowance — you're not forced down to the half-acre urban limit just because city boundaries expanded around you.
How long can a debt collector sue me in Florida?
A collector has 5 years to sue you in Florida over credit card debt or any other written contract, and 4 years if it was only a verbal agreement. (A 2023 law, HB 837, gets misread as having shortened this — it actually only shortened personal-injury deadlines, not debt.)
| Debt type | Statute of limitations |
|---|---|
| Credit card / written contract | 5 years |
| Oral contract | 4 years |
| Promissory note (written) | 5 years |
HB 837 (2023) gets misread a lot as having shortened debt-collection deadlines across the board — it actually targeted personal-injury and negligence claims (§ 95.11(3)), cutting that specific period from 4 years down to 2 for anything that happened on or after March 24, 2023. Contract debt was never part of that change.
See how Florida's 5 years deadline compares to all 20 states.
Does Florida have its own debt collection law beyond the federal FDCPA?
You're covered even against your original lender in Florida, not just outside collectors — the state's own law bans the same abusive, deceptive, and misleading tactics the federal FDCPA bans, but reaches further than federal law does.
That distinction actually matters if you're dealing with harassment directly from the original credit card company or a hospital billing department — not a collection agency. You still have a real state-law claim in Florida in that situation, even in cases where you wouldn't have a federal FDCPA claim against that same original creditor.
Where can I find free or low-cost legal help in Florida?
If you're dealing with a debt lawsuit, garnishment, or collector dispute in Florida, a good starting point is the state bar's lawyer referral service or one of the legal aid organizations below — both can point you to self-help court resources even if you don't qualify for free representation.