The life layer
The Florida home maintenance calendar
A Florida house runs on a different clock: the furnace you don’t have is replaced by an AC that never rests, the seasons are wet and dry rather than warm and cold, and two of the year’s most important dates are set by statute. This is the Florida-specific calendar — the things a northern owner’s checklist doesn’t mention, season by season.
January – March
The dry season: paperwork, pollen, and the odd freeze
Property taxes are due March 31
Florida bills in arrears with a statutory early-payment ladder (FS 197.162): 4% off in November, 3% December, 2% January, 1% February, due March 31 before delinquency. If you escrow, your lender handles it; if you don’t, February is your last discounted month.
The freeze nights are real, briefly
A handful of nights most winters dip below freezing here. The drill is short: cover tender landscaping, disconnect hoses, know where your irrigation cutoff is — running sprinklers on a freeze morning ices the street and the lawn. Homes here aren’t plumbed like northern ones, but a hard multi-hour freeze is a pipe-wrap night for exposed lines.
First AC service + the pollen wave
Service the system before cooling season starts in earnest — and brace for the live-oak pollen dump (roughly February into March), which coats screens, clogs gutters, and turns everything chartreuse. A rinse and a gutter pass after the oaks finish saves the fine mesh of your life outside.
Termite inspection before swarm season
Late winter into spring is when termites announce themselves. An annual inspection is standard Florida ownership, and if the home carries a termite bond, keep it current — letting a bond lapse is cheap to do and expensive to undo.
April – May
Pre-season: everything hurricane, done early
Hurricane prep happens NOW, not in June
Season opens June 1. Before it: trees trimmed away from the roof, shutters or panels test-fitted (find the missing wingnuts in April, not in a watch), generator run under load, fuel plan, and a full photo/video walkthrough of the house and contents stored in the cloud for any future claim.
Insurance review — including the flood waiting period
Review policies before season, not during: new flood coverage typically carries a waiting period measured in weeks, so the decision can’t be made when a storm has a name. Our insurance guide covers the levers; this is the calendar slot to pull them.
Irrigation audit — the rain sensor is the law
Florida has required a working rain-override on automatic sprinkler systems since 1991 (FS 373.62) — and a stuck sensor quietly waters your lawn through August thunderstorms at your expense. Test it, check heads and zones, and set the controller for the watering-day rules your utility or water district publishes.
June – September
The wet season: managing water in all its forms
The AC condensate line is the whole ballgame
Your AC runs constantly and dehumidifies as it cools; the condensate drain line grows algae and clogs — among the most common Florida service calls, and the classic cause of a mystery ceiling stain. A cup of vinegar down the access tee monthly, filters changed on schedule, and eyes on the drain pan turn a $0 habit into avoided drywall work.
Hold the humidity line
Inside air at roughly 50–60% relative humidity is the mold line. Watch closed rooms, closets against exterior walls, and the attic. Leaving for weeks? Set the system so humidity is controlled in your absence — the snowbird guide covers the empty-house version of this in full.
Lawn season, the Florida edition
St. Augustine grass fights chinch bugs in the hottest months and fungus in the wettest ones; the summer rain usually waters better than your controller does. And after any named storm passes, walk the roofline and lot with your phone — small documented damage now beats discovered damage at resale.
At the beaches: salt is a maintenance category
Within the salt-air zone, corrosion is its own calendar: rinse the AC condenser coils on a schedule, hit garage-door hardware and exterior fixtures with a hose, and expect coastal paint and metal to age on an accelerated clock. It’s the ownership tax on the ocean breeze — manageable, but only if it’s scheduled.
October – December
The payoff season: collect your discount, close the loop
Pay the tax bill in November
Bills land around November 1 and the statutory 4% discount belongs to that month. On a typical Northeast Florida tax bill that is real money for the cost of paying five months early — the rare line item where Florida pays you for punctuality.
Second AC service + the small stuff that floods houses
The cool-season service checks heat strips you’ll use ten nights a year. Same visit season: flush the water heater, replace rubber washing-machine hoses with braided lines, and clear the dryer vent — the unglamorous trio behind a remarkable share of home-damage claims everywhere, Florida included.
Dial irrigation back, wrap the year
The lawn goes semi-dormant; most controllers can drop to a fraction of summer watering (your district publishes the seasonal rules). Heading north for the winter? Run the snowbird departure checklist — water off, humidity managed, a human checking monthly. And with renewal season, update the wind-mitigation paperwork if you improved anything this year.
The part nobody tells you
The expensive failures in Florida houses are rarely the storms — they’re slow water: a clogged condensate line dripping into a ceiling for a month, humidity nobody managed in an empty August house, a stuck rain sensor irrigating through the rainy season. The whole calendar compresses to three habits: flush the AC drain, hold indoor humidity under about 60, and put eyes on the house — yours or someone else’s — every few weeks without fail. Do those and the rest of this page is fine-tuning; skip them and no hurricane kit will save the drywall.
Where the maintenance clock starts at zero: 2022+ builds
Maintenance questions, answered straight
When is hurricane season in Florida?
June 1 through November 30, with the local historical peak in the August–October window. The calendar’s whole argument is that preparation belongs in April and May: shutters fitted, trees trimmed, generator tested, insurance reviewed — because none of it is available, cheap, or calm once a storm has a name.
How often should you service an AC in Florida?
Twice a year is the standard rhythm here — the system works harder than anywhere north of you. Between services, the homeowner jobs matter more than the tune-ups: filters on schedule and the condensate drain line flushed regularly, because the algae clog is among the most common Florida AC failures and it announces itself through your ceiling.
When are Florida property taxes due, and what is the November discount?
Due March 31, billed in arrears starting around November 1 — and Florida Statute 197.162 sets an early-payment ladder: 4% off in November, 3% in December, 2% in January, 1% in February. Paying the November bill in November is the standard local move.
Do Florida homes need a termite bond?
It’s not legally required, but in this climate an active termite protection plan — inspection plus a renewable bond or warranty — is standard practice, and buyers routinely ask for the bond’s status during a sale. An annual inspection is the floor; keeping an existing bond current is nearly always cheaper than re-qualifying a lapsed one.