How to Terminate The Residential Lease And Exercise Tenants Rights In Landlord Tenant Disputes In Florida

There are many landlord now renting real estate that seem to believe that their only obligation in the landlord tenant relationship is to collect the rent. As a result, such landlords are utterly unresponsive to tenant complaints and concerns. However, if a landlord fails to comply with the residential lease agreement or fails to otherwise provide a habitable dwelling unit, there are several statutory remedies available to the residential tenant. The following suggestions will help exercise tenants rights in landlord tenant disputes in Florida.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Where the landlord is guilty or some wrongful act or committed some other default or neglect resulting in an unsafe or uninhabitable dwelling unit, the residential tenant has the option to terminate the residential lease. This behavior by the landlord includes the landlord's failure to comply with his or her obligation to maintain the premises as well as its responsibility to materially comply with the lease. While the landlord usually understands that material violations such as failing to provide hot water and heat are serious problems, many landlords fail to realize that many small violations occurring together also constitute a material violation.

2. Should this unfortunate landlord tenant dispute occur, the tenant must understand his or her obligations under Florida law. The tenant must provide the landlord with written notice in order to terminate the lease as a result of the landlord's acts or omissions. The statutory tenant notice must specifically identify that material violations that exist and give the landlord at lease seven days to remedy such violations. The notice must also unequivocally state that in the event the non-compliance is not fixed within the seven day grace period, the tenant intends to terminate the lease.

3. When the landlord receives the tenant's non-compliance notice, if the landlord takes reasonable steps to cure the violation(s) within the seven day grace period, the tenant is not permitted to terminate the residential lease agreement. Additionally, if the non-compliance is not within the landlord's control, the residential lease cannot be terminated by the tenant.

Tips & Warnings

• This notice can be hand delivered or mailed by the tenant to the landlord. However, if the tenant mails the notice, the tenant should mail the notice using certified mail and a copy should be kept.
• If the notice is mailed, five additional days must be added to the landlord's seven day grace period to remedy the non-compliance.
• If the tenant has actual knowledge that the landlord is in material non-compliance but pays the rent nonetheless, the tenant will be deemed to have waived the right to terminate the lease for that specific default or non-compliance. If, however, the non-compliance is continuing or if another event of non-compliance occurs, the tenant can terminate the residential lease agreement for the subsequent or continuing violations.

Resources

• 3 Day Eviction Notice