Orlando Lemon Law

All Florida arbitration cases are filed with the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, administered statewide by the Office of the Attorney General. Orlando-area hearings are typically conducted by a regional panel in Central Florida, so you usually do not have to travel to Tallahassee. Before filing, you must send the manufacturer written notice by certified mail of a final repair attempt. If your manufacturer participates in a state-certified informal dispute settlement program such as BBB AUTO LINE, you must use that program first. Civil suits in Orange County Circuit Court are generally limited to appeals from arbitration or claims outside the lemon law statute.

Extreme and repeated heat-soak in uncovered tourist-corridor lots can accelerate failure of head units, telematics modules, and 12V auxiliary batteries. Florida's lemon law does not require you to prove that climate caused the failure, only that a covered defect substantially impairs use, value, or safety and arose within the 24-month rights period. If your infotainment system blacks out, backup camera fails, or vehicle refuses to start after multiple documented dealer visits for the same issue, you likely have a qualifying nonconformity regardless of where you park. Keep every written repair order to establish the pattern.

Once the New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board accepts your case, Florida law requires a hearing within 40 days and a written decision within 60 days. Central Florida hearings are typically scheduled in Orange or Seminole County to avoid Tallahassee travel. If your manufacturer's certified informal program (such as BBB AUTO LINE) handles your case first, expect roughly 40 additional days. Realistic total timeline from filing to a Board decision is three to five months, plus a 30-day window for either side to appeal to Orange County Circuit Court for a trial de novo. Pre-arbitration certified-mail notice and document gathering may add another month.

Florida's lemon law covers EVs the same as gasoline vehicles. Software-related defects that substantially impair use, value, or safety (such as repeated stop-safely-now alerts, drive-unit faults, or infotainment failures that disable critical features) can qualify after three repair attempts for the same nonconformity. The clock is the 24-month rights period from original delivery. Over-the-air software updates that fail to fix the issue still count as repair attempts only if you bring the car to a service center and a written repair order documents the visit. Keep records of every service-center visit and every documented bug report.

Florida's lemon law applies statewide, so it does not matter whether you bought in Orange, Osceola, Seminole, or Lake County. You file once with the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board regardless of the dealership location. Repair attempts at any authorized franchised dealer in the manufacturer's network count toward the three-attempt or 30-day-out-of-service threshold. Keep written repair orders from each location, because the Board considers the total pattern across all dealers, not just the selling dealer. Vehicles bought at Kissimmee rental-fleet auctions are generally not covered because the lemon law applies only to first retail sale for personal use.

Florida gives you only one year after the 24-month Lemon Law Rights Period expires to file with the New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, or one year after the final decision of a certified informal program. That effectively gives most Orlando consumers up to three years from original delivery to invoke arbitration. After a Board decision, either party has 30 days to appeal to Orange County Circuit Court for a trial de novo. This is one of the shortest filing windows in the country, so once you suspect a lemon, send your final-repair certified-mail notice immediately rather than waiting for one more dealer visit.

Orlando consumers who prevail receive either a comparable replacement vehicle or a full refund of the purchase price including sales tax, title, registration, dealer documentary fees, and finance charges, reduced by a mileage offset calculated as miles driven multiplied by the base sale price divided by 120,000. Attorney's fees and costs are recoverable from the manufacturer separately under the statute, so most qualifying consumers pay nothing out of pocket. The Florida Department of Legal Affairs can also assess civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation against manufacturers, but those penalties fund the state Motor Vehicle Warranty Trust Fund rather than the consumer.