Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida
I have sent a Notice of Intent to Impose Claim on Security Deposit to a former tenant that occupied a rental property in Florida. The tenant did not provide a current address, so we sent the notice via certified mail to the address on file (that of the rental unit). Tracking of the letter suggests that the postal service forwarded the letter to a different address and attempted to deliver the letter, but thus far delivery attempts have been unsuccessful. Florida statute provides the tenant 15 days from "receipt" of notice to object in writing. Does the attempted delivery constitute "receipt" of notice? In this situation, how much time must pass before the claim on the security deposit can be finalized? Does it remain open indefinitely even when the tenant's whereabouts are unknown or the tenant won't take delivery of the notice?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Tenant must give change of address. Your attempted compliance should suffice.
The tenant is required to give you a new address. I would send the letter regular mail too to the old address and mark on it change of address requested and forwarding requested. See if that generates a response. I would not withdraw the security deposit claims until after you straighten this out. Wait another 30 days after sending out the regular mail notice.
I think I would go with Mr. Stein. If you make every effort to contact - then after 30 days, you should be fine.
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