Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

Re: 30 days without AC

Hello: Since I do not have all of the facts of your situation, I cannot give a formal legal opinion. I can mention some parts of Florida's laws re: landlord/tenant. Your remedies for the lack of a working a.c. depend on what you want to do in regard to your lease. Do you want to stay or leave? Do you want to stay and get reimbursed for thirty days rent?

If you wanted out of the lease, you could send the landlord notice of that and the reason is his/her failure to make the premises livable. If a premises does not have certain systems such that one cannot substantially reside there, it could be called a "constructive eviction". Of course, not having a.c. may or may not render the premises untenable, I have not researched this. I submit no a.c. in the winter or no heat in the summer would negate this argument.

If you want to stay there, you might demand to be reimbursed for rent monies during the time there was no a.c. Or, you may hold your rent for the present month to negotiate a reimbursement for the time with no a.c. The latter action is risky as ll may file for an eviction. If you choose to not pay for the present month, the proper method is to pay the rent money to the clerk of court and they put it in a court registry until a hearing is held. Your leverage over the ll may get him/her to settle with you,that is, ll will not want to go before the judge.

'Hope this helps. Tom Rosenblum