Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

I rent out a room in my house. My fiance and I are the ones renting the house from the homeowner and they have given us permission to rent out a room to someone without them being on the lease with us. Currently we are renting to a man and we have a month to month contract (rental agreement) with him. We have allowed his wife and child to come visit from Washington, staying in another extra room of ours starting June 26th until August 7th. We wrote a rental agreement for his wife and child as well, with the end date being August 7th. They have violated rules listed in the lease and now they are refusing to leave. They asked us if they could stay until the 20th and we declined based on violations of the rental agreement (such as not abiding by rules, damaging property). Is there anything I can do to get them to leave right now? They are not legally residents of my state (Florida) because they are from Washington and have not changed their plates or driver licenses, etc...Am I correct on that? Basically my questions are what can I legally do right now to get them to leave and does them not being a legal resident of FL make it possible for me to get the sheriff to remove them? Thanks.


Asked on 8/08/13, 9:50 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Barry Stein De Cardenas, Freixas, Stein & Zachary

They are legally residents of Florida as long as they live in your house. The changing of plates and driver's licenses only affects governmental entities and they are likely required to change them but have not. They are not illegal residents as they have a lease. Your choice to get rid of them is to file an eviction case against them. It appears from what you said that the lease is over you should give them notice that they are holdover tenants and for the time they remain they are responsible for double the rental, depending on what your lease agreement provides. Give them 15 days notice and file suit after that.

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Answered on 8/08/13, 9:59 am


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