Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

Our previous landlord did not give us our security deposit back. Its been over 30 days and she has not sent us anything in writing to tell us why. She only sent a text message saying we arent getting our deposit back because we didn't give 30 days notice therefore our lease was forfeited.

In January she started construction on the building where we lived and for 3 months.During this time there was little to no communication from her about the construction that was going on, we had to miss work go let the workers have access to our apartment for construction, we got sick from the fumes from the toxic volital organic compounds in the products that they used, they put plastic over our windows so we could not open windows and get fresh air in house, they disconnected our internet several times which interupted our work because we see clients online and a long list of other disruptive and unhealthy living conditions. In March she sent a text message to me andan email to my neighbors that the construction repairs were more than she expected and that she didnt know when/if they would be finished and that we needed to move out but did not give us a date we had to be out. When we contacted her and told her we wanted to discuss what was going on she avoided us until mid/late April.

When we finally did speak to her and told her of all stuff we had to suffer with and the fact that we lost income due to the construction she said she

couldnt give us a break on our rent so we told her we were looking for s nee place and we would let her know whe we were going to move. Our rent was due on May 1st which was a Friday we told her that Monday that we were moving June 1st, even though we werent sure we had a place to move yet. She didnt know that with our original lease we paid 1st,last and security deposit. So she got angry when I sent a copy of my original lease and an email that we were moving and why.

We left our old apartment emaculate and the realtor that walked us through said that the place looked amazing and we would here from our landlord for our security deposit back.

When I contacted her about it she told me I forfeited the lease because i didnt give her 30 days notice so I am not getting it back.

Since she told us we had to move in March, wouldnt that forfeit the lease on her end and therefore we didnt need to give a 30 day notice. I was only 3 days short of a 30 day notice. I'm not sure what our rights are. I still have copies of my original lease and the lease we signed when she purchased the property. Can you please give me some advice on what my next step is? Thank you .

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