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  1. #1

    Unhappy Can Landlord Withold Last Month Rent Based Upon Notice Requirements

    My question involves real estate located in the State of: Florida

    My landlord had changed our agreement from a 1 year, to a "month to month" lease about a year ago after he began to have money trouble and he told me that he might need to move back in at some time in the near future. Our agreement had stipulated that my wife and I would give him 2 months notice prior to vacating the house.

    On the 4th of March he gave my wife and I notice that we must vacate the house by May 30th (actually just short of 3 mo.) because he was filing for bankruptcy and moving back into the house. My wife and I immediately began looking for a new rental and found one within 2 weeks. When I notified my landlord that we had found a new place and that we would be out of the house by the end of March (which we had already paid the rent for) he told us that he was going to withold the last months rent ($1750.00) which had payed him prior to moving in because we failed to give him the 2 months notice that we agreed to in the month to month lease.

    I am not sure, but it seems unreasonable to to give a tenant 3 months notice to vacate and still insist that they in turn give you 2 months notice prior to leaving. How can you give three months notice to a tenant and insist that they stay in the house for two of those months, is that not like giving 1 months notice?

    Does this landlord have the right to do this? Should I take him to Small Claims Court ( I believe he is not going to give back the security deposit either) or get an attorney?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    5

    Default Re: Can Landlord Withold Last Month Rent when

    That depends on the exact wording of the lease. If you are truly on a month-month basis, this is what the law says.

    If the lease does not specify that you are month to month or year to year, the law says that: If the rental agreement contains no provision as to duration of the tenancy, the duration is determined by the periods for which the rent is payable. If the rent is payable weekly, then the tenancy is from week to week; if payable monthly, tenancy is from month to month; if payable quarterly, tenancy is from quarter to quarter; if payable yearly, tenancy is from year to year.

    In addition, the rent you speak of may have been a security deposit, again this would be in the lease. If the lease is for a certain term, then you could always be a jerk and hold him to the original lease and refuse to move. The reason for this, is if he files bankruptcy, you are not going to get your money back anyway. If the lease says that it is from date x to date y, the landlord cannot force you to move before date y.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Can Landlord Withold Last Month Rent when

    I appreciate you trying to help Ernie but if you read my post I did mention that we previouisly had a year to year lease but then went to a month to month lease agreement last year. That agreement did stipulate that either the landlord or the tenant shall give 2 months notice in terminating the agreement. In other words, either he would give me 2 months notice to vacate or we would give 2 months notice that we were vacating the house. Since the landlord gave us notice first and the agreement says that landlord or shall give notice, not landlord and tenant shall give notice, he should not have expected 2 months notice from us. Also, the landlord did take first, last months rent plus a security deposit. Since we have payed for the month of March which is our last month he must pay us back that last month that he has been holding plus our security deposit (if he does not find damages).

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    California
    Posts
    540

    Default Re: Can Landlord Withold Last Month Rent Based Upon Notice Requirements

    Florida's Title VI Section 83.57 (3) says that for a month-to-month tenancy, you only have to give 15 days' notice.

    It seems to me that if the state gives you the right of 15 days' notice, the contract cannot take that right away. And even if it could, the coercive way he imposed the revised contract on you would argue against enforcing such a clause.

    So if you gave him notice on March 18, 15 days' notice would mean he could claim 2 days of rent in April.

    You might want to read section 83.49 on deposits.

    Keep in mind that if you go to court and lose, you can be required to pay his court costs plus reasonable attorney fees. I don't know whether he is allowed an attorney in Small Claims Court, but I am sure that if he loses in Small Claims Court, he is allowed to appeal to a superior court.

    You might just wait it out to see if he complies with state law concerning your security deposit. If he does not comply, you might want to try the Small Claims Court (after thorough preparation), figuring that if you hired an attorney, his bankruptcy might avoid paying your attorney, who might then turn to you for pay.

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