In Florida, landlord and tenant cases can get complicated due to issues with notices and legal requirements. In a case called Bell v. Kornblatt, a landlordâs eviction complaint was dismissed because the three-day notice to the tenant was defective. However, the court clarified that the notice requirement is not a matter of subject matter jurisdiction, but rather a condition that must be met before an eviction action can be filed. This means that even if the notice is faulty, the court still has the power to hear the case. In simple terms, the Bell case established that a three-day notice for eviction is not a strict rule, but different courts have interpreted and applied it in different ways. Some courts have dismissed cases if the notice was not perfect, while others have said that the tenant gave up their right to defend if they didn’t pay rent into the court. The law says that landlords have to mostly follow the rules for the notice, but some courts have been very strict about specific things, like the number of days in the notice or what the notice says. It’s important for landlords’ lawyers to pay attention to cases where the notice didn’t meet the rules, like if it told the tenant to leave or said they could stay if they paid rent. Some courts are strict about landlords giving tenants a proper three-day notice before evicting them. But there’s a debate about whether a tenant’s failure to pay rent can be used to waive this requirement. There’s also a law saying that if a tenant moves out and the landlord wants to keep their security deposit, the landlord has to notify the tenant within 15 days. If the landlord doesn’t do this, they can’t keep any of the deposit. Overall, different courts are handling these issues differently, and it’s unclear how it will be resolved. If a tenant wants to move out before their lease is up, they have to tell their landlord at least seven days in advance. If they don’t, the landlord doesn’t have to give them notice before keeping their security deposit. But not telling the landlord doesn’t mean the landlord can keep the deposit. If the tenant moves out at the end of their lease, the landlord has to send them a notice about the security deposit. If they don’t, they can’t keep the deposit, even if the tenant damaged the place. If the tenant doesn’t send a notice to the landlord, the landlord doesn’t have to give them notice, but they still can’t keep the deposit. If a landlord doesn’t give the right notice before taking a security deposit, they can’t keep the deposit, but they can still sue the tenant for damages. The court can also decide to make the losing party pay for the winner’s legal fees, but there are limits to this. A lease might also have a rule about who pays legal fees, and there’s a law that can make this rule apply to both the landlord and the tenant. If there’s a dispute over a landlord keeping a tenant’s security deposit, the court has to award legal fees to the winning side. Even if a lawyer worked for free, they can still get their fees paid. But there are some cases where a fee award isn’t allowed, like if the lease says the landlord can only get a certain amount of fees. In Miami Beach Equity Investors Limited Partnership v. Granoff, the tenant sued to get her security deposit back from the landlord and won. The landlord tried to argue again in court, but lost and had to pay the tenant’s legal fees. Sometimes, lawyers forget to ask for legal fees in these cases, and it can be confusing to figure out who actually won in the end. In one case, both the tenant and landlord were considered winners, so no one got their legal fees paid. Eviction cases can often surprise landlords and tenants with unexpected problems. For example, if the person filing for eviction is not the actual owner or has authority to do so, the case can be thrown out. In one case, the landlord’s wife tried to evict a tenant after her husband died, but she wasn’t the legal representative of his estate. The court gave her 30 days to prove she had the right to evict. In another case, a tenant didn’t pay rent on time but had spent a lot of money improving the property. The court didn’t evict them because the landlord would have benefited from the improvements if they did. This article talks about issues that can come up in cases between landlords and tenants. It’s important for lawyers to be aware of these issues because they can be complex. The article also says that many people in these cases don’t have a lawyer to help them. The hope is that this article can help lawyers be more aware of these potential problems. S. Sue Robbins has been a county judge in Marion County since August 2000. She used to be a lawyer in Marion County since 1981. This column is written by the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section. Its goal is to teach its members about duty and serving the public, improving the legal system, and advancing the study of law.
Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/land-mines-and-other-surprises-in-residential-landlord-and-tenant-cases/
Leave a Reply