Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

There are a few issues here. If your tenant was arrested and he was responsible for the water and electric and fails to pay them, then these services will get shut off and he will still owe them when he gets out of jail. If the lease is up and you are unwilling to continue to lease to him, you must store his personal items and follow the abandoned property statute 715.106 

I have postsed some of it here.

As for past rent you would need to sue him for that in either small claims court (if it is less then $5000) or county court ($5000 to $15,000). If you are concerned about his returning you could file a Complaint for Eviction for Failure to Pay Rent and include a 2nd count for rent monies and obtain a judgment. This would give you a Writ of Possession removing the tenant from the property as well as a money judgment if you are successful. However, enforcing that money judgment might be difficult if the tenant is in jail and he might not have anything to enforce it against, as he has a $4000.00 personal property exemption against his personal property before your writ could be used to sieze anything.

I would suggest you seek the assistance of an attorney for this matter.

715.106 - Form of notice concerning Abandoned Property to owner other than former tenant.�(1) A notice which is in substantially the following form given to a person who is not the former tenant and whom the landlord reasonably believes to be the owner of any of the Abandoned personal Property satisfies the requirements of s. 715.104:

Notice of Right to Reclaim Abandoned Property

To: (Name)

(Address)

When (name of former tenant) vacated the premises at (address of premises, including room or apartment number, if any) , the following personal Property remained: (insert description of personal Property) .

If you own any of this Property, you may claim it at (address where Property may be claimed) . Unless you pay the reasonable costs of storage and advertising, if any, and take possession of the Property to which you are entitled, not later than (insert date not fewer than 10 days after notice is personally delivered or, if mailed, not fewer than 15 days after notice is deposited in the mail) , this Property may be disposed of pursuant to s. 715.109.

(Insert here the statement required by subsection (2))

Dated: (Signature of landlord)

(Type or print name of landlord)

(Telephone number)

(Address)

(2) The notice set forth in subsection (1) shall also contain one of the following statements:

(a) �If you fail to reclaim the Property, it will be sold at a public sale after notice of the sale has been given by publication. You have the right to bid on the Property at this sale. After the Property is sold and the costs of storage, advertising, and sale are deducted, the remaining money will be paid over to the county. You may claim the remaining money at any time within 1 year after the county receives the money.�

(b) �Because this Property is believed to be worth less than $500, it may be kept, sold, or destroyed without further notice if you fail to reclaim it within the time indicated above.�