How we verify homes
Florida does not license recovery residences. The Department of Children and Families licenses substance abuse treatment providers — clinical programs — not sober living homes. There is no state license for a recovery residence to hold, and any platform telling you it verified one is describing something that doesn’t exist.
What does exist is voluntary certification through the Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR), the state affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences. Under Florida law, a licensed treatment provider can’t refer a patient to a recovery residence that isn’t FARR certified — so if you’re coming from treatment, you’ll likely need a certified home.
We are not affiliated with FARR or NARR, and we don’t help homes get certified. We built our own standard instead, and we apply it to every home before it lists.
Our verification, step by step
Application
The homeowner submits their property, house rules, resident agreement, admission criteria, and compliance documents.
Walkthrough
Someone from our team walks the property — in person, or by live video with the homeowner. We see the rooms, the common areas, and the condition of the house. Every home on this platform has been walked through. There are no listings here that nobody has looked at.
Verification interview
We go through the house rules, the resident agreement, the structure level, and the admission criteria with the homeowner directly. This is a conversation, not a form.
FARR check against the public record
If a home tells us it's FARR certified, we don't take their word for it. We cross-reference their documentation against FARR's public directory of active certified residences.
Listing goes live
Only after verification is complete. A completed application doesn't publish a listing on its own.
Ongoing
Compliance documents are tracked with expiry dates, and we follow up when they lapse.
What we confirm
- We've been inside the home — in person or by live video walkthrough
- The legal entity operating the home, and who is responsible for it
- FARR certification against FARR's own public directory, not just the operator's paperwork — and every listing links straight to that directory so you can check it yourself
- Written house rules and a resident agreement on file
- Stated admission criteria — minimum stay, gender policy, medication policy, and who the home cannot accept
- Structure level, described consistently with how we present it to residents
- Compliance documents, with expiry dates tracked
You can check any home’s certification yourself in FARR’s public directory.
What we don’t do
A walkthrough is not a safety inspection. We’re not building inspectors or fire marshals, and we don’t certify that a property meets code. We don’t run criminal background checks on staff. We’re not a certifying body, and our verification isn’t a substitute for FARR certification or for your own judgment.
We also can’t tell you whether a home is right for you. We can tell you we’ve been there, that the homeowner is who they say they are, and that what’s published on the listing is what they told us to their face.
Our verification isn’t a checkbox or an automated scrape. Someone from our team sits down with the homeowner and goes through their house rules, their agreement, and who they can and can’t take. It’s slower than automating it. That’s the point — a home nobody talked to isn’t a home we can tell you anything about.
If something’s wrong
If a listing’s information doesn’t match what you find, tell us: hello@newlysober.co or (561) 235-2320.