The Florida Lemon Law applies to the purchase or lease of new motor vehicles sold in the state of Florida. Motor vehicles include cars, vans, recreational vehicles (motor homes or R.V.'s) and trucks with a GVW of 10,000 lbs. or less.
The lemon law provides that a manufacturer must repurchase a vehicle which suffers from a defect or condition which substantially impairs either use, value or safety which defect or condition continues to exist after a reasonable number of attempts to repair by the dealer or manufacturer and which was first reported during the first 24 months of ownership. Reasonable number of repair attempts are presumed if the dealer or manufacturer was given three opportunities to fix the same defect or condition or if the vehicle has been out of service for 30 or more days.
In order to be eligible for relief under the lemon law, an owner or lessee must have served the manufacturer with a defect notification (which is found in the back of the lemon law booklet provided at the time of delivery of the vehicle) and offered the manufacturer an opportunity for a final repair.
Application for relief must be made to the Department of Agriculture, Division of Consumer Services. Time deadlines apply to many aspects of the lemon law including filing the Request for Arbitration, reporting the defect initially and providing the manufacturer with notice and opportunity for a final repair attempt.