Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida
Leasing Agreement
I have been unable to get a hold of my old landlords for the past 3 months. Every contact number I have for them is disconnected, even their business number. Damion and I decided to move around the end of November, since we were unable to contact them we sent them a 30 day written notice with our rent checks for December. They cashed our rent check so I know they got our notice. I asked them to contact me in the letter so we could talk about the move out information (final walk through, prorated rent etc�) yet they didn�t contact me. I sent a second notice on December 23rd certified mail telling them we had signed a contract and were moving in on January 8th. I told them we would pay a prorated amount of 233.00 for the 8 days in January, I also requested they contact me so we could schedule a day to do the final walk through. They never picked up this letter. At the beginning of January I sent another certified letter with the prorated rent, keys to the house, and requested my security deposit and pet deposit amount (1200) be sent to my They picked this letter up from the post office and cashed my check, but yet they haven�t called. According to our lease they have 30 days to provide me with my security deposit.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Leasing Agreement
Florida statutes provide that the rental deposits must be returned unless the landlord provides you with written notice of their intent to keep the deposit citing the reasons for keeping the deposit (i.e. damages). If they fail to do this, you can sue for the return of the deposit. Please contact my offices to discuss this matter further.
Re: Leasing Agreement
Attorney's fees are recoverable so most attorney's will take take the case on a cost + contingency basis. Meaning that it will probably only cost you the filing fees.