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The information for this article was condensed, with the author's permission, from the Renters' Rights "On-Line" Handbook. "The Most Comprehensive Guide on the WWW for Florida Tenant/Landlord Relations." The Online Handbook contains more detail, more information, and citations not included here. Visiting their site is highly recommended.
When disputes arise between a landlord and tenant, the first place to refer
to is the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, at Chapter 83, Part II
of the Florida Statutes.
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Florida and federal law prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color,
national origin, sex, handicap, familial status, and religion. Various local
laws add prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of age, pregnancy,
marital status, sexual orientation and other factors. Check your local codes
for details.
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A rental agreement provides for the rental of a specified place for a specific amount of time. An agreement for a year or longer must be in writing, but a shorter agreement can be either written or oral. If the agreement doesn't specify the rental period's length or how the lease will end, then the payment schedule sets it (see section on tenancies). The landlord should specify all rules and fees that he plans to impose.
Oral Leases and Periodic Tenancies
An oral agreement means that you don't write anything down. These leases have the advantages of being uncomplicated and usually not committing the tenant for the summer, when most college students leave town. But, be careful. It might be hard to hold your landlord to any promises that you don't write down.
Unless you and your landlord agree otherwise, the schedule of rental payments will set the duration of the lease. Thus, if you pay monthly, then your existing lease runs through the end of the month.
Your landlord may raise the rent under an oral lease, unless you both specifically agreed that he couldn't. Your landlord must give you the same notice for a rent increase that he would for a termination (see the section on tenancies) in order to give you an opportunity to move out.
Written Leases
A written lease contains obligations for both the landlord and the tenant. Unless the lease says differently, the landlord cannot raise the rent during its term. But, unlike most oral leases, written leases usually commit a tenant to rent payments for a fixed amount of time, whether or not he lives in the apartment. In Florida, a landlord doesn't have to make any special efforts to re-rent your place if you move out early.
A written lease also minimizes disputes by recording both parties' responsibilities in writing.
Lease Provisions
Florida law requires both landlord and tenant to exercise "good faith" and honesty in their dealings. Naturally, the law prohibits unconscionable lease clauses, which means clauses which would "shock the conscience" of an ordinary person.
More specifically, a lease may not preclude any rights in the Landlord/Tenant Act, or limit any other legal liability of the landlord or tenant. Any lease clauses which do these things are unenforceable. (See Florida Statutes sections 83.51 and 83.52 for a list of some unenforceable obligations.)
Illegal Lease Provisions
Your landlord may not charge you more than his damages, but these may include his trouble in getting another tenant and in cleaning your apartment.
Some phrases to watch out for are "liquidated damages" and "forfeiture to the landlord in the event of a breach of the lease."
The security deposit consists of any money which the landlord holds on behalf of the tenant to protect himself from unpaid rent or damage to the apartment. The tenant may not defeat the purpose of the deposit by using it as the last month's rent.
All security deposits are refundable. Also, your landlord must inform you in advance about the conditions under which he will refund your deposit.
The landlord can't automatically take the deposit because you breach the lease. He can only take compensation for his damages.
Always get a receipt for the deposit, although you can simply write this into the lease.
Florida law specifies how your landlord may keep your deposit money. If he puts it in an interest-bearing account, then he must pay you either 5% interest, or 75% of the account's interest rate, whichever he wants.
Return of the security deposit
1. Notice by landlord: After you move out, your landlord has 15 days to either notify you by certified mail of any deductions he means to make and why, or to return your deposit. If your landlord fails to send you this notice within the 15 days, then he forfeits his right to take any deductions at all.
2. Return of deposit money: Unless you object, he then has 30 more days following his first notice to return the balance of your deposit.
3. Objections: If you have objections to your landlord's calculation of damages, you must make them within 15 days of receiving his notice of deduction, or you forfeit your right to object.
4. Court Costs: If your landlord neither returns your deposit, nor sends you notice of why he is keeping it, then you can take him to court. In court, the losing side will have to pay the winner's court costs.
5. Moving out early: If you move out before your lease ends, or if you have an oral lease, then you have to give your landlord a special notice in order to hold him to the 15 and 30 day time limits. Notify him by certified mail at least 7 days before you move out. If you don't give him this notice, then you free him from the 15 and 30 day requirements for returning your deposit balance. However, he will still owe it to you. Of course, if you do move out early, then your landlord may deduct from the deposit the rent which you still owe him.
Ask to accompany your landlord when he inspects your apartment's condition upon your moving in and when you move out. When you move out, clean the whole apartment thoroughly, including the bathroom and kitchen walls, appliances (including the range, oven and refrigerator), floors and furniture. The most common problem in recovering a security deposit is proving the condition upon moving out in comparison with moving in. Therefore, take photos and have witnesses who are not tenants examine the apartment and sign statements about its condition.
Be careful when you pay your deposit money to another tenant who then provides the deposit to your landlord. The landlord is only obligated to return the deposit to the actual lease-signer. Therefore, if you are in this situation, or you sublease from someone else, you can play it safe by getting a signed receipt for your deposit.
Small Claims Court
If you go to small claims court over your deposit, try to bring these documents:
1. The receipt showing that you paid your deposit.
2. A copy of your rental agreement.
3. The damage report which you made upon moving in, including any photographs.
4. Any signed statement by your landlord and/or a witness concerning the condition of the property upon moving out.
5. Your landlord's notice explaining how he is holding the security deposit.
6. Your notice to quit. Your notice of lease termination, and notice of forwarding address.
7. The landlord's notice of intent to claim the deposit.
8. Your objection to the landlord's claims, and your request for a detailed response to your objections.
9. A copy of the check for any refund which you did receive.
10. A copy of any authorization by a co-tenant for you to receive his or her share of the deposit.
11. Any certified mail receipts.
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Tenant's Duties
The tenant must keep his part of the building clean and sanitary, use appliances carefully, notify the landlord of needed repairs, not damage any part of the premises, and act and require guests to act so as not to disturb the neighbors.
Landlord's Duties
Florida law divides your landlord's obligations into 2 categories. You are allowed to withhold rent if he breaches the obligations in the first category, but not if he breaches the ones in the second category:
A) Obligations which justify withholding rent for breach:
The landlord must keep your housing in conformity with all housing and health codes. If these don't exist, he must maintain the structural components and plumbing in good repair.
Exceptions: The above requirements don't apply to mobile homes owned by the tenant, and they may be modified in writing for duplexes and single family homes.
B) Lesser obligations (which don't justify withholding rent):
The following duties do not apply to single family homes or duplexes or to mobile homes owned by the tenant, and the parties may modify them in writing for other types of rentals. Your landlord is responsible for:
However, although the landlord's must arrange these services, he can require the tenant to pay for them.
A tenant can enforce all of these obligations in court. However, the tenant
can use only those in section 'A' as defenses to an eviction proceeding for
non-payment of rent.
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There are two different kinds of tenancies, tenancies of specific and of nonspecific duration.
1. Tenancy of Nonspecific Duration:
A tenancy of nonspecific duration may be either written or oral. Either you or your landlord can terminate such an arrangement upon the following notices:
| Rent pay period | Necessary Notice |
| week to week | seven days notice |
| month to month | fifteen days notice |
| quarter to quarter | thirty days notice |
| year to year | Sixty days notice |
Either party must provide notice at least this far in advance of the next rent payment date in order to terminate the lease. This means that with a month to month lease, if either party wants to end the lease October 1st, they must notify the other party on or before September 15th. If one party gives notice on September 17th, that party cannot end the lease, without the other party's agreement, before November 1st.
If you give this notice by personal delivery or certified mail, then it will also satisfy the notice requirement for getting your security deposit back. Be certain to include your forwarding address.
If you receive your housing as a benefit with your job, and so don't pay a money rent, then the rental period is the same as your pay period. However, if you get fired or quit part way through the pay period, then you will owe your landlord the pro-rated rent for the rest of the period.
2. Tenancy of Specific Duration:
An oral or written lease containing a specific duration may specify the terms for ending the lease. (Remember that any lease for more than one year must be in writing to be binding.) The lease could also end automatically at the end of the lease period and not require either party to notify the other.
If you remain in your apartment after your lease ends, that makes you a holdover
tenant. Your landlord may evict you and collect double the usual amount of rent
for the period during which you held over. If you breach your written lease
by moving out before the term, your landlord can hold you liable for the remainder
of the rent. However, he has an obligation to make a good faith effort to find
another tenant. This means making the ordinary effort to rent which he would
for any apartment. If he does re-rent, then you are only liable for the rent
which you would have paid during the months when the place was vacant.
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Unless your written lease prohibits it, you can find another tenant to take over your lease after you move out. There are two kinds of such arrangements "subleases" and "novations."
1. Novation:
This is the best arrangement for the tenant. A novation replaces your lease with a new one between your landlord and the new tenant, eliminating all of your obligations. Your landlord returns your security deposit to you and collects another one from the new tenant.
For a novation, you must get your landlord and the new tenant to sign lease agreements for at least the remaining part of the term of your own lease. Also have the landlord sign a release, releasing you from all rental obligations.
Most landlords do not like to sign a novation.
2. Subleases:
This is the most common type of subletting. It is a contract between the tenant moving out and the one moving in for the remaining portion of the primary lease. The subtenant takes over and agrees to pay rent to either the primary tenant, or directly to the landlord. Usually, the subtenant pays less than the full amount of rent.
In this case, you, the primary tenant, are acting like a landlord to the subleasing tenant. It might be a good idea to collect a security deposit from your sublessor, and to document the condition of the place at the time you move out.
Remember that your landlord can still hold you, the person who signed his lease, responsible for any damage which your sublessor commits. You would then have to sue your sublessor for the money.
Note: If you are a sublessor and pay a security deposit to the primary tenant,
you may want to get a statement authorizing you to collect the tenant's deposit
from the landlord when you move out. You probably will also want to document
the apartment's condition when you move in.
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Reasons for Eviction
1. Non-Payment of Rent
After you miss a rent payment, your landlord must give you notice and wait three days, not counting Saturday, Sunday or legal holidays, before he can evict. He must mail or give this notice to you, or leave it at your residence, and it must specify the amount due and the deadline for payment.
If you pay rent within the three day limit, then your landlord must drop the eviction proceedings. If your landlord accepts rent from you even after the three days, then he gives up his right to evict or end the agreement during that rent period.
2. Violating the Rules
This means violating either your lease agreement or the Landlord-Tenant Act.
The Act divides tenant breaches into two categories, curable and noncurable. (Curable means that the tenant gets a chance to solve the problem.)
Curable noncompliances include: unauthorized pets, unauthorized guests, and not keeping the dwelling sanitary.
In the case of a curable condition, your landlord must give you seven days in which to fix it. However, if you commit the same noncompliance again within twelve months, your landlord may then evict you without another chance to cure.
In this situation, your landlord must leave you a notice specifying the noncompliance and explaining that unless you take care of it within seven days the lease will end.
Noncurable noncompliances include: Intentional misuse of the landlord's or other tenants' property, and repeated unreasonable disturbances. In these cases, your landlord just has to leave you a note containing the seven-day notice and specifying the problem.
3. Abandonment
A third legal justification for eviction occurs when the tenant leaves the dwelling for more than one half of a rental period without paying rent or giving his landlord written notice that he would be gone.
Defenses to Eviction
If these apply, you can use them to defend yourself against an eviction:
1. Improper notice: If your landlord didn't give you three days notice before evicting you for not paying rent.
2. Acceptance of rent payment: If your landlord accepted rent from you while knowing that you were in noncompliance with the lease agreement. By doing that he gave up his right to evict you during that rent period.
3. Breach by landlord: If you can show the court that your landlord breached and that you gave him seven days notice about it, then you will not owe the rent. However, you will still have to pay that rent to the court during any legal proceedings.
4. Retaliation: Your landlord may not evict you as a retaliation for organizing tenants or filing legitimate complaints. However, just because you filed complaints doesn't mean that he can't evict you. You have to prove that he evicted you for complaining. (Your landlord also can't penalize you in other ways for being a squeaky wheel. He can't raise your rent, make unreasonable requests to inspect your place, or in any other way treat you differently from other tenants.)
5. No noncompliance: If you go to court and prove that you did not commit the alleged noncompliance, then your landlord cannot evict.
Eviction Proceedings
Florida law prohibits landlords from evicting tenants without going through the court system (self-help evictions). Your landlord can't evict you without a judge's order. And if the sheriff shows up to evict you, he also must have a court order. The only exception to this is if you have legally abandoned your place.
This is what happens during an eviction:
1. Tenant's notice of problem: In order to be able to defend yourself, you must already have given your landlord a notice saying you intended to withhold rent unless he fixed a specific problem.
2. Landlord's notice of nonpayment: Your landlord must give you notice specifying his complaint, such as nonpayment of rent or breach of the lease, and telling you that he would evict you if you didn't take care of it.
3. Landlord files complaint: After your landlord has waited the required number of days and you haven't left, he will file a complaint with the county court. You will receive a copy of his complaint and a summons to appear in court.
4. Tenant's answer: To contest the eviction you must file an answer with the court within five business days. The answer needn't be elaborate. In order to be allowed to present your case in court, you will also need to deposit any outstanding rent with the clerk of the court.
5. Notice of hearing: If you don't answer, the court will issue your landlord a final judgment allowing him to have the sheriff evict you. If you do answer, then you will receive a "Notice of Hearing" setting a hearing date.
6. The hearing: If you win at the hearing, great! If you lose, then you will owe double the rent for the time which you stayed over, your landlord's legal expenses, and possibly court costs. If you don't appear at the hearing, then you lose automatically.
At any rate, if you lose at any stage, your landlord will begin eviction. He
may either change the locks on your apartment and assert a lien on your possessions
for the money which you owe him, or remove all your belongings and leave them
on the property line, where he won't be responsible for what happens to them
-- check your local laws.
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Your landlord may enter at any time to take care of emergencies. An emergency should be something serious and requiring of immediate attention, like leaking gas, or a broken water pipe.
After giving you reasonable notice, he can enter to make repairs, decorate, or show your place. The statutes define reasonable notice as being 12 hours in advance, and reasonable time of inspection as between 7:30 AM and 8:00 PM. It would also be reasonable for you to require your landlord to enter only in your presence, or, if, because of an emergency, he entered with you absent, to leave a written explanation.
He may also enter if you leave your place for more than one-half of a rent
payment period without giving him notice or keeping the rent current.
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Landlord's Liability
The landlord has a duty to exercise reasonable care to inform his tenants of any hidden dangers and to repair dangerous defective conditions when the tenant gives him notice of their existence.
In common areas of the property, such as hallways shared by several tenants, the landlord must inspect the areas and make necessary repairs. However, he is only liable for injuries which occurred while the property was being used in the manner for which it was intended.
Your landlord is also liable for any negligence he commits while doing repair work in your apartment.
Finally, your landlord may even be liable for crimes committed against tenants by strangers, when they were reasonably foreseeable, and the landlord's negligence allowed the crime to happen.
Tenant's Liability
The tenant generally has responsibility for the areas under his own control, except for hazards caused by structural defects, dangers which the landlord knew about but did not reveal when he rented the apartment, violations of the law, and dangers caused by the landlord's negligence.
However, you, the tenant, are responsible for the safety of visitors to your
apartment.
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Major Changes to Rental Unit
Don't make any major structural changes which your landlord will have to undo, unless you get his permission first. He can charge you for any work required to return the unit to its condition at the time when you moved into it.
Occupied or Unlivable Apartment
If the place is unlivable or occupied, then your landlord has breached the contract and you are freed from obligations.
If you still want to move in, then notify your landlord of the place's condition by certified mail. You can then hold him liable for your alternative housing costs, although you have an obligation to minimize these costs.
Fire, Flooding and Other Unavoidable Disasters
If damage occurs (not due to your fault) which "substantially impairs" your
use of your place, then you may end the lease agreement and move out. You also
have the option of using only the undamaged portion of your unit, and having
the rent reduced proportionately.
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The following list of both the landlord's and tenant's responsibilities and rights is not necessarily all inclusive, however, it gives an overview according to Florida Statutes:
Landlord Responsibilities and Rights:
ACCESS: 7:30 AM to 8:00 PM for repairs, improvements and inspections
APPLY WITH APPLICABLE HOUSING AND HEALTH CODES
COMMON AREAS: Keep clean and safe
EXTERMINATE: Rats, mice, roaches, ants, termites, bedbugs
GARBAGE REMOVAL
HEAT DURING WINTER
RUNNING WATER
HOT WATER
LOCKS AND KEYS
SMOKE DETECTORS: Single family home and duplexes
Tenant Responsibilities:
ACCESS: Shall not unreasonably withhold consent
APPLIANCES: Use and operate in a reasonable manner
COMMON AREAS: Keep clean and safe
COMPLY WITH APPLICABLE HOUSING AND HEALTH CODES
CONDUCT: Do not disturb the neighbors or allow your guests to do so
DESTRUCTION: Do not destroy, deface, damage, impair, or remove any part of the premises or property of the landlord; Do not allow others to do so
GARBAGE: Remove in a clean and sanitary manner
PLUMBING: Keep fixtures clean and in repair
PREMISES: Keep premises which you occupy and use clean
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****The foregoing is not intended as an exhaustive review of renters' and landlords' rights and duties under the law in Florida. This information is not to be regarded as legal opinion applicable to all circumstances. Each factual scenario is different and requires unique and individual advice. The information provided herein should not be relied upon and any person with inquiry or concern should consult an attorney.
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The on-line handbook from which this article was condensed was put together by Florida PIRG and it includes a renter's' resource list and more information for renters. To order a printed copy of the "Renters' Rights" Handbook, send a check or money order for $5.00 (printing and shipping) to:
Florida PIRG Education Fund
704 West Madison St.
Tallahassee, Fl 32304
ATTN: Renters' Rights Handbook
The Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund is the research and education arm of Florida PIRG http://www.pirg.org/floridapirg/index.htm, one of the state's leading environmental and consumer watchdog organizations. You can visit the Renter's Rights handbook at http://www.pirg.org/floridapirg/consumer/renters/rrpage1.htm.
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