Kendall Lemon Law

Kendall consumers file with the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, administered by the Florida Office of the Attorney General in Tallahassee. Before reaching the Board, you must first apply to any state-certified informal dispute settlement program the manufacturer operates, such as BBB AUTO LINE. After arbitration concludes, an appeal can be filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. Hearings for Miami-Dade cases are typically held in the Miami area or by videoconference rather than in Tallahassee, so the travel burden for Kendall residents is minimal.

Florida's lemon law focuses on whether a nonconformity substantially impairs use, value, or safety, not on how the vehicle is driven. Daily stop-and-go on Kendall Drive and the Turnpike can accelerate transmission overheating and HVAC strain, exposing underlying manufacturing defects sooner than in lighter-use markets. Manufacturers occasionally argue that severe-duty cycles caused the failure, but if the defect is a factory design or materials problem and the dealer cannot fix it within Florida's three-attempt or 30-day-out-of-service threshold, it remains a qualifying nonconformity.

Florida requires three repair attempts for the same nonconformity, followed by written notice to the manufacturer by certified mail offering a final repair opportunity. Alternatively, 30 cumulative days out of service within the 24-month rights period also establishes the presumption. Kendall owners should keep every dealer repair order, even ones marked no problem found, because the Arbitration Board counts documented visits even when the dealer denies a defect existed. Texts and emails with service advisors can corroborate dates if paperwork is missing.

Florida's lemon law has no separate used-car chapter, but coverage transfers with the vehicle during the original 24-month Lemon Law Rights Period that began at first retail delivery. If you bought a used vehicle in Kendall while it was still inside that window, you remain a covered consumer for defects reported in the window. Once the 24 months expire, the statute no longer applies. For older used vehicles, Kendall buyers typically rely on the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, or any remaining manufacturer warranty.

Florida gives you one year after the 24-month Lemon Law Rights Period expires to request arbitration with the New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, or one year after the final action of a certified informal dispute procedure. That generally translates into a three-year outside window from original delivery. After a Board decision, any circuit-court appeal in Miami-Dade County must be filed within 30 days. This is one of the shortest filing windows in the country, so Kendall owners should act quickly once the rights period ends.

Yes, if they substantially impair use, value, or safety and the manufacturer cannot fix them within Florida's repair-attempt thresholds. Kendall's extreme summer heat and limited overnight cooling can expose defective battery thermal-management designs that surface as range loss, reduced-power warnings, or limp-mode events. The lemon law does not exclude defects that appear only in hot, humid climates. As long as the defect is reported within the 24-month rights period and three repair attempts plus the final-repair notice are completed, the case can proceed to arbitration.

Yes. Florida's lemon law expressly covers consumers who lease motor vehicles for at least one year under a written lease where the lessee bears repair responsibility, or under a lease-purchase agreement. Lessees have the same rights to repurchase or replacement as buyers. Refunds in the lease context generally include the cash down payment, monthly payments made, and lease payoff to the lessor, less the standard mileage offset. The lease assignee, typically the manufacturer's captive finance arm, is required to cooperate in unwinding the lease.