Florida Commercial Leases and the Federal Hemp Ban: What Landlords and Tenants Should Do Before November 12, 2026
Short answer: Section 781 of Public Law 119-37 narrows the federal definition of hemp effective November 12, 2026. On that date, finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container stop being lawful hemp and become controlled substances under federal law. Congress is considering a delay to December 11, 2026, but as of September 1, 2026 that delay is not law.
For a Florida commercial lease, the effect is simple and harsh. A use that is permitted today becomes an unlawful use on the effective date. Landlords who signed a hemp or CBD retailer are looking at a default under their own compliance clause. Tenants who assume the change cancels their rent obligation are usually wrong.
If you own retail or industrial property in Hillsborough County and one of your tenants sells delta-8, THCA flower, or hemp-derived THC beverages, the next ninety days matter more than the last three years did. The same is true from the other side of the table. If you run that shop, your lease is about to describe a business you cannot legally operate.
This post covers both sides. Landlords first, then tenants. The law is the same for everyone, but the moves are not.
What actually changes on November 12, 2026
The change came in through appropriations, not through a standalone hemp bill. Section 781 of Public Law 119-37, the continuing appropriations package signed on November 12, 2025, rewrote the federal definition of hemp and gave the industry a one-year runway before it took effect.
Two things change at once:
- The plant standard moves to total THC. The 2018 Farm Bill measured delta-9 THC alone at 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. The new definition uses a total THC standard that accounts for THCA, which is the conversion loophole that built the THCA flower market.
- Finished products get a hard per-container cap. Hemp-derived cannabinoid products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of combined total THC per container fall outside the hemp definition. A single ten milligram hemp beverage is roughly twenty-five times that limit.
Anything outside the new definition is not merely unregulated. It is a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act. That distinction is the whole ballgame for a lease, because commercial leases almost universally require the tenant to comply with federal law and to refrain from unlawful use of the premises.
Key dates at a glance
| Date | What happened or happens |
|---|---|
| November 12, 2025 | Public Law 119-37 signed, including Section 781 redefining hemp, with a one-year delayed effective date |
| August 8, 2026 | Senate preserves continuing resolution language delaying most restrictions to December 11, 2026 |
| November 12, 2026 | Current statutory effective date of the narrowed hemp definition |
| December 11, 2026 | Proposed delayed effective date, not yet law as of September 1, 2026 |
Where Florida law already sits
Florida is not starting from zero. Section 581.217, Florida Statutes, is the state hemp program, and Florida already permits retail sale of hemp extract only where the product meets state testing, total THC, labeling, and permitting requirements administered by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Florida has read total THC to include THCA for retail purposes, which has already put pressure on high-THCA flower at Florida retail counters.
The practical result is that many Florida operators have been living in a narrow lane for a while. The federal change does not adjust that lane. It closes most of it.
For Florida commercial landlords: what to review this month
You are not the regulator, and you are not required to police your tenant's inventory. But your lease, your mortgage, and your insurance policy all care whether unlawful activity is happening on your property. Five documents deserve your attention before the effective date.
1. The use clause, read narrowly
Pull the lease and read the permitted use verbatim. There is a meaningful difference between "retail sale of hemp and CBD products" and "general retail." A narrow use clause tied to a product category that is about to become unlawful is a problem for the tenant and an opportunity for you to renegotiate on clear terms. A broad use clause means your tenant may be able to pivot inventory and stay, which is often the better commercial outcome.
2. The compliance with laws covenant
Nearly every Florida commercial lease requires the tenant to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and to avoid unlawful use of the premises. After the effective date, continued sale of noncompliant product breaches that covenant even if rent is paid in full and on time. Rent current is not the same as lease compliant. That is the covenant most landlords forget they have until they need it.
3. Notice and cure, and a Florida statute most landlords misread
Section 83.20, Florida Statutes, sets out the causes for removing a nonresidential tenant. Subsection (2) covers nonpayment after three days' written notice. Subsection (3) covers a material breach other than nonpayment after fifteen days' written notice.
Here is the part that trips people up. Subsection (3) says on its face that it applies only when the lease is silent on the matter or when the tenancy is an oral one at will. If your lease contains its own notice and cure provision, that lease provision governs, not the statutory fifteen days. Read your lease before you calendar a notice deadline, and be precise about the method of service the lease requires.
4. Your guaranty and your security
If a principal personally guaranteed the lease, that guaranty does not evaporate because the tenant's product line became illegal. Confirm the guaranty was properly executed, confirm whether it is a payment guaranty or a performance guaranty, and confirm whether it survives a termination or only a default. A tenant who is about to lose its business is a tenant whose guarantor is about to become your only real source of recovery. Locate the original now, not in February.
5. Your lender, your carrier, and forfeiture exposure
Commercial mortgages routinely include covenants requiring the borrower to keep the property free of unlawful activity, and some include express controlled substance provisions added after state marijuana laws expanded. Property insurance policies often exclude losses connected to criminal activity on the premises. And federal civil forfeiture law reaches real property used to facilitate a controlled substance offense.
I am not raising forfeiture to be dramatic. In practice it is rare against a landlord who acted in good faith and took steps once on notice. But the phrase "once on notice" is doing real work in that sentence. Knowingly permitting a tenant to continue selling Schedule I product after the effective date is a materially different posture than not knowing. Document what you did and when.
The move most landlords should make
Send a neutral, non-accusatory letter to every hemp or CBD tenant now, before the deadline, identifying the effective date, confirming the compliance covenant, and asking the tenant to describe in writing how it intends to comply. You learn who has a plan and who does not. You create a record. And you open a negotiation while the tenant still has inventory, cash, and options, which is when you are most likely to get a clean surrender, a lease amendment, or a negotiated termination fee instead of an empty suite and a collections file.
For Florida hemp tenants: your real options
Start with the uncomfortable part. In Florida, the fact that a change in federal law destroys your business model does not automatically end your lease or your rent obligation. Courts do not rewrite commercial leases because a deal went bad. Understanding that clearly is what lets you negotiate well.
Frustration of purpose is a real doctrine, and a narrow one
Florida recognizes both impossibility of performance and commercial frustration of purpose. The Second District addressed both in Home Design Center-Joint Venture v. County Appliances of Naples, Inc., 563 So. 2d 767 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990), which remains a common starting point in Florida commercial lease disputes.
Florida courts apply the doctrine narrowly. The frustrated purpose generally must be the essential purpose of the contract, understood by both parties, and the frustrating event generally must not have been reasonably foreseeable when the parties contracted.
That foreseeability requirement is where most hemp tenants will struggle. The statutory change was enacted on November 12, 2025 with a published effective date a year out. A lease signed in 2026 for the sale of intoxicating hemp products was signed with the deadline already on the calendar and widely reported. A lease signed in 2021 sits differently. Ask your lawyer to look at the execution date first, because it may matter more than anything else in the file.
Force majeure usually will not carry you
Most commercial force majeure clauses list weather, war, labor disputes, and acts of government, and then add a sentence stating that the clause does not excuse the obligation to pay rent. Read yours to the end. The carve-out is often in the last line.
Your personal guaranty follows you
If you signed a personal guaranty, closing the store does not close that exposure. Dissolving the tenant entity does not either. Any exit strategy that ignores the guaranty is not a strategy. It is a delay.
What stays legal, and why that matters to your lease
The new definition does not ban hemp or CBD. Products at or below the 0.4 milligram per container threshold remain within the definition, and non-cannabinoid hemp products are unaffected. Many operators will have a smaller but lawful business on November 13.
If that is you, your lease problem may be narrower than you think. It may be a use clause problem rather than a survival problem, and a use clause is amendable. A landlord who would rather keep a paying tenant than market a vacant suite in a soft retail market has an incentive to sign that amendment.
If you need out, negotiate now
Your leverage is highest while you still have inventory to sell, cash in the account, and time before the date. It drops sharply the day after. Realistic outcomes to put on the table include a negotiated termination with a defined fee, a surrender in exchange for a release of the guaranty, a reduced footprint at a lower rent, an assignment or sublease to a replacement tenant you help find, or an amendment broadening the permitted use so you can sell something else.
A practical sixty-day checklist
- Pull the lease, all amendments, the guaranty, and the estoppel certificate into one file.
- Write down the lease execution date. It drives the foreseeability analysis.
- Read the permitted use clause, the compliance with laws covenant, the default and notice provisions, and the force majeure clause, in that order.
- Landlords: confirm mortgage covenants and insurance exclusions relating to unlawful activity.
- Tenants: have your supplier confirm in writing which SKUs comply with the new definition.
- Put your position in writing to the other side before November 12, not after.
- Have counsel review any proposed amendment, surrender, or termination before anyone signs.
I spent 2008 through 2012 watching what happens when property owners and business tenants wait for clarity that never arrives on the schedule they hoped for. The parties who did well were rarely the ones with the strongest legal position. They were the ones who read their documents early, made a decision, and papered it while the other side still had reasons to deal.
Frequently asked questions
Does the federal hemp ban automatically terminate my Florida commercial lease?
No. Nothing in Section 781 of Public Law 119-37 terminates leases. The lease continues under its own terms. What changes is that a permitted use may become unlawful, which can trigger the compliance with laws covenant and the default provisions already in the lease.
Can a Florida tenant stop paying rent because its hemp products became illegal?
Generally no, and doing so unilaterally usually creates a second default on top of the first. Florida recognizes frustration of purpose and impossibility, but courts apply both narrowly, and the foreseeability of a change enacted in November 2025 with a published effective date is a significant obstacle for leases signed after that enactment.
How much notice does a Florida landlord have to give a commercial tenant for a non-rent breach?
Section 83.20(3), Florida Statutes, provides for fifteen days' written notice to cure a material breach other than nonpayment, but by its own terms that subsection applies only when the lease is silent on the matter or the tenancy is oral at will. If the lease contains its own notice and cure provision, the lease governs. Read the lease before calendaring any deadline.
What is the new THC limit under the 2026 federal hemp definition?
Finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products may contain no more than 0.4 milligrams of combined total THC per container, and the plant standard moves to a total THC measurement that captures THCA rather than measuring delta-9 THC alone.
Is the effective date November 12 or December 11, 2026?
The statutory effective date is November 12, 2026. Continuing resolution language would move most restrictions to December 11, 2026, and the Senate preserved that language on August 8, 2026, but it is not law as of September 1, 2026. Plan for November 12.
Does a personal guaranty survive if the hemp business closes?
Usually yes. A guaranty is a separate contract with the landlord. Closing the business or dissolving the tenant entity does not by itself discharge the guarantor, and a release generally has to be negotiated.
Can a landlord and hemp tenant just amend the lease instead of fighting?
Often, and it is frequently the better outcome for both. Common approaches include broadening the permitted use, reducing the leased footprint, setting a defined termination fee, or documenting a surrender in exchange for a release. Any of these should be drafted and reviewed before signature.
Review your lease before the deadline, not after it
Dunivan Law represents Florida commercial landlords and business tenants in lease disputes, defaults, evictions, and negotiated terminations, with a practice centered in Hillsborough County and the greater Tampa Bay area.
Contact Dunivan Law to schedule a consultation. Call 813.252.0239 or visit dunivanlaw.com.
