In the Florida landlord-tenant laws, you have a right to evict your tenant. There could be several reasons for an eviction, including failure by the tenant to meet their rent obligation and excessive property damage.
Florida, just like other states, has an elaborate and detailed eviction process. You must follow this process for the eviction to be successful. Otherwise, the eviction will fail, and you may even find yourself fighting a lawsuit.
Your Reason
Do you have a legally justifiable reason to evict your Florida tenant? To evict a tenant, you must have a legitimate reason to begin the eviction process. You can’t simply evict your tenant because you no longer like them.
Here are some examples of legally justifiable reasons:
- Nonpayment of rent
- Excessive property damage
- Carrying out unauthorized alternations
- Violating the terms of the lease
You must ensure that you aren’t violating the lease yourself that’s because the tenant can use that as defense to fight off or delay their eviction.
Florida tenants law have their own rights once they sign the lease. One of these rights is the right to live in a habitable rental unit. If you fail to provide one, your tenant has the right to withhold rent. In such a case, you cannot try to evict the tenant for failure to pay rent as you necessitated that.
Eviction Notice
For those tenants that are non-payment of the rent, you must serve the tenant a 3-Day Notice. The notice simply tells the tenant that they have 3 days to either pay the rent due or move out. If the tenant doesn’t pay the rent due or move out, you can continue with the eviction process.
For lease violations, such as having unauthorized pets or operating an unauthorized business, you must serve the tenant with a 7-Day Notice. This notice gives the tenant an option to either fix the violation or move out. If they don’t take either option, you can move to court to file for their eviction.
For holdover tenants, the eviction type depends on the length of the lease. For monthly agreements, you must serve a 15-day Notice to Quit. For weekly agreements, you must serve them with a 7-Day Notice to Quit. And for annual leases, you must serve the tenant with a 60-Day Notice to Quit.
Summons & Complaint
If the tenant doesn’t move out or fix the violation, you can move to court and file a complaint. Once you file it, the court can take up to 3 days to serve it to the tenant. In most counties, the filing fees are about $185.
Next, the Summons and Complaint will be issued to a process server to serve it to the tenant. The tenant will then be required to provide the court with an answer within 5 days. If they don’t provide one, the court will probably rule in your favor. However, if they do, then the process may take several weeks to conclude. In their response, the tenant may fight the eviction by putting up defenses.
In Conclusion
As a Florida landlord, you are allowed to evict your tenant if you have a legally justified reason. However, you must follow a specific process to ensure it is successful and to avoid lawsuits.
We hope this post was helpful and informative! If you still have further questions, contact Lamar G Property On Us.
