Miami / Housing guide
Moving to Miami: A Planning Guide for Renters
Homzora editorial team · Updated October 5, 2026
Moving to Miami is mostly a sequencing problem. The apartment search, the deposit paperwork, the movers and the transit decisions all interact, and doing them in the wrong order costs money.
This guide sets out what to establish before committing to anything, what the real monthly cost looks like, and what to arrange in what order.
Before you look at apartments
Two things worth settling first, because they narrow the search rather than following it.
The total monthly figure, not the rent. Transit, utilities, parking and any recurring charge belong in it.
Whether you will drive. Miami is more car dependent than the other cities we cover, and that decision changes which neighborhoods are plausible more than rent does.
What transit actually costs
Metrorail and Metrobus are both $2.25 a ride, flat, with reduced fares at $1.10.
A monthly pass is $112.50, which is the most expensive of the cities we cover. Chicago is $75 and Atlanta $95. A seven day pass is $29.25 and a one day pass is $5.65, and pay as you go is capped at that same $5.65 a day.
Against that, Miami has something no other city we cover does. Metromover carries no fare at all, for anyone, and runs twenty four hours a day at three to five minute intervals through Downtown and Brickell. It is the only fare free rail service in any of our editions.
Transfers between bus and rail are free within three hours, and transfers onto Metromover are free. Transfers from Metromover onto rail or bus cost a full fare, because there was no fare paid to credit against.
One thing worth knowing: transfer discounts require an EASY Card, EASY Ticket or contactless payment. Paying cash means the full fare on every boarding with no transfers at all.
We do not publish commute times, because a door to door journey depends on walking distance, waiting, transfers and the hour you travel, none of which we have measured. Make the actual trip before committing to an address.
What you can be asked for at signing
Florida sets no statutory cap on the size of a residential security deposit, and we have identified no Miami or Miami-Dade ordinance imposing one.
That is a different position from several states. New York and Massachusetts cap at one month, Georgia at two. In Florida the total is whatever is agreed.
What Florida does require is disclosure. Within thirty days of receiving your deposit, or in the lease itself, the landlord must tell you in writing where it is held. Interest is owed only if they chose an interest bearing account or the lease requires it, so do not assume it accrues.
The thing to know before you ever move out
This is the most useful provision in Florida deposit law and almost nobody knows it before they need it.
A tenant who vacates before the end of the lease term, or who is leaving a periodic tenancy, must give at least seven days written notice before vacating, by certified mail or personal delivery, including an address where they can be reached.
A tenant who does not give that notice relieves the landlord of the thirty day claim notice requirement entirely. The deadline that would otherwise forfeit their claim simply does not attach.
It costs nothing to send. Put a reminder in your calendar the day you sign the lease, because it is the kind of thing you will not remember eighteen months later.
How the return actually works
Two paths, and which applies depends on whether the landlord intends to keep any of it.
If no claim is made, the full deposit comes back within fifteen days of you vacating. If a claim is made, the landlord has thirty days to send written notice of that intention by certified mail, containing statutory warning language that tells you about your fifteen day objection window.
Miss that objection window and silence counts as acceptance. Object in writing and the landlord must either return the money less agreed deductions or go to court.
And a landlord who sends no claim notice within thirty days forfeits the right to claim anything at all.
Arranging the move
Moving costs are the line people most often leave out, and the only way to price them is to get quotes for your actual distance and volume.
Get more than one. Ask each company what is included rather than comparing headline figures, since packing, stairs, long carries and insurance are priced differently. And book earlier than feels necessary, because the end of the month is when everyone moves.
Two Miami specifics. Many condo and apartment buildings require a certificate of insurance from the moving company, a booked elevator slot and approval in advance, and some restrict moving to particular days. Ask the building before booking the movers. And summer heat makes a midday move harder than the same job in March, so timing matters more here than in most cities.
Getting quotes for the move
Angi lists moving companies by area. Worth getting several quotes rather than one, and asking each what their figure includes, because packing, stairs and insurance vary more between companies than the headline rate does. If your building requires a certificate of insurance or an elevator booking, raise that on the first call.
Find moving companies on Angi →
Homzora earns a commission if you request a quote through this link, at no cost to you.
The day you get the keys
Florida has no mandatory move in condition statement the way Massachusetts does, which means no baseline record of the unit exists unless you make one.
Photograph every room, dated, including the things nobody photographs: inside cupboards, grout, marks on baseboards, the condition of appliances and air conditioning. Email them to yourself so there is a timestamp you did not create.
Pay particular attention to the air conditioning. In Miami it is a functional requirement rather than a comfort, and a system that has not been tested under load tells you nothing on a mild day. Run it and note what it does.
Notice if you are on a month to month arrangement
Thirty days written notice to terminate a month to month tenancy, which rose from fifteen days in July 2023. Sixty days for a year to year arrangement, and seven days for week to week.
Florida has no separate rent increase statute, so an increase on a periodic tenancy rides on the same notice. Miami-Dade previously required sixty days for month to month, and the statewide thirty day rule now controls.
A sequence that works
- Work out the total monthly figure including transit or parking before looking at anything.
- Decide whether you are driving, because it changes which neighborhoods work.
- Ask where the deposit will be held and whether it earns interest.
- Ask the building about move in requirements before booking movers.
- Get several moving quotes and ask what each includes.
- Photograph everything the day you get the keys, and test the air conditioning.
- Set a calendar reminder now for the seven day notice you will need to send when you eventually leave.
The short version
Budget the total rather than the rent. Miami has the most expensive monthly transit pass of the cities we cover at $112.50, and the only free rail service. No cap on deposits here, so check what is being asked. Photograph everything on day one because no mandatory condition record exists.
And the single most useful thing: seven days written notice with a forwarding address before you vacate, sent by certified mail. Without it, the thirty day protection on your deposit does not attach.
Our statutory and fare references, with every provision cited, are free to download at our Miami datasets.
Not legal advice. This page summarizes published provisions of Chapter 83 of the Florida Statutes and published Miami-Dade County fare materials as of September 2026. It does not evaluate any particular lease or tenancy. Consult a Florida attorney or a legal aid organization about your own situation.
Comparing possible destinations? Read Miami vs. New York Cost Of Living for metropolitan price comparisons, illustrative budgets and the limits of the underlying data.
Put your moving payments on a calendar
For a condominium rental, distinguish the owner or agent payment schedule from any separate building process. Ask the responsible parties to confirm application steps, access dates and moving reservations in writing. Do not assume a lease signature alone completes every arrangement needed for physical entry.
A dated cash schedule is more useful than one large total
Use the following worksheet after collecting the actual written payment requirements for your home. It is an illustrative planning exercise shared across Homzora editions, not a survey of local prices, a recommended deposit or a statement that every listed charge is permitted. Confirm applicable rules separately. The point is to see what leaves your account before the next reliable income arrives.
Begin with money that is available for the move after setting aside your other commitments. Do not include an expected deposit refund, an unconfirmed reimbursement or a future sale of furniture as though it has already cleared. Enter a future receipt on its expected date and test a second version in which it arrives later. This distinction matters even when your total monthly income looks sufficient.
| Timing | Assumed transaction | Cash movement | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before payments | Available moving funds | $5,000 opening funds | $5,000 |
| Fourteen days before entry | Deposit and moving reservation | $1,000 plus $100 paid | $3,900 |
| Two days before entry | Initial rent and utility allowance | $1,500 plus $200 paid | $2,200 |
| Entry day | Remaining moving balance | $300 paid | $1,900 |
| Three days after entry | Essential household purchases | $200 paid | $1,700 |
| Seven days after entry | Assumed income receipt | $900 received | $2,600 |
The assumed payments total $3,300. The $100 moving reservation is part of the $400 moving bill, so the delivery day balance is $300, not another $400. The assumed $1,000 deposit uses cash even if it may later be returned. Whether the $200 utility allowance contains a refundable deposit, a fee or both must be established from the real provider documents. These amounts deliberately separate a payment schedule from a final expense calculation.
Find the lowest balance before committing
In this example, the lowest balance is $1,700 before the assumed income arrives. If you want to retain $300 for unexpected needs, the remaining headroom at that point is $1,400. The reserve is still part of your money; do not subtract it as an expense and then count it again as a bill. Keep a separate column showing how much of the balance is committed or deliberately retained.
If opening funds were only $3,000 with every other assumption unchanged, the balance would reach negative $300 before the income receipt. Keeping a $300 reserve would require another $600 available by then, or equivalent agreed reductions or timing changes. A positive balance after payday would not solve the earlier shortage. Do not assume a provider will delay payment unless that change has been confirmed.
Make every row traceable
For your own version, add the payee, written amount, due date, payment reference and refund conditions. Record what a reservation payment will be applied toward. When an estimate changes, preserve the old version and explain which row changed. For a shared household, separate the person who pays the provider from the people who reimburse that person. Otherwise the same expense can appear several times or a funding gap can be hidden inside an informal promise.
Before sending money, verify the property, the person authorized to receive payment and the instructions through a contact method you have independently checked. A payment request arriving in an existing email conversation is not enough by itself to prove that new account details are genuine. Keep evidence of what you agreed and of the payment you actually made.
Connect the budget to the existing guide
Use the local sources and lease questions elsewhere in this guide to establish the actual terms, then enter the confirmed figures into this worksheet. Add storage, extra travel, overlapping housing payments, insurance or other services only when they apply to your move. Existing optional provider links can help you request quotes, but a quote is useful only when its scope matches the arrangement you intend to buy. Recheck the schedule after the first ordinary week in the home.
Related landlord workflow and records guide · Explore the Miami edition