Planning a Move? What Florida’s 50-Mile Relocation Rule Requires First
A job offer lands three states away, a new relationship pulls someone toward a different city, or family ties tug at a parent to come home. Ordinary reasons to move, except when a parenting plan is already in place. Does packing up really require a judge’s blessing first?
Fifty Miles, Measured in a Straight Line
Florida Statute Section 61.13001 applies to any parent under an existing time-sharing order who wants to relocate more than 50 miles from their current home for 60 days or longer. Here is the part that catches well-meaning parents off guard: that distance is measured as the crow flies, not as a drive. A route that looks reasonable on a map app does not tell you whether the statute applies. Cross that 50-mile threshold, and the relocation law kicks in whether the move is to the next county or across the country, aside from temporary absences for things like vacation or medical care.
Notice Comes Before the Moving Truck
Once the statute applies, a parent generally cannot just go. Relocation requires either a written agreement from the other parent that satisfies specific legal requirements, or court approval secured beforehand. Without an agreement, the relocating parent has to serve formal written notice, usually by certified mail, at least 60 days before the planned move, and that notice must lay out real details rather than vague plans:
- The new address and the intended moving date
- The specific reasons behind the relocation
- A proposed revised time-sharing schedule that accounts for the new distance
Silence Has Consequences Too
The other parent gets 20 days after being properly served to file a written objection. Nothing filed within that window can lead a court to treat the move as presumptively in the child’s best interest, which makes staying quiet a genuinely poor strategy for a parent who actually opposes the relocation. If an objection does get filed, the relocating parent has to wait, and the burden shifts entirely to them to prove at a hearing that the move is made in good faith and serves the child’s interests.
Skipping the Process Rarely Ends Well
Moving without following this statute is not a paperwork technicality a court will overlook. Florida judges have held parents in contempt over unauthorized relocations, sometimes with fines or an order to bring the child back to the original location. In more serious situations, an unauthorized move has become evidence supporting a shift in majority time-sharing toward the parent who stayed put.
Whether you are the one hoping to relocate or you just received a relocation notice you do not agree with, Florida’s 50-mile rule leaves almost no room to improvise your way through it. Our Boca Raton child custody attorneys at Schwartz | White help clients throughout South Florida work through exactly these situations, and we would welcome the chance to talk through your specific plans.
Source:
flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2016/61.13001
