Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

I have a small 12 lb dog. Whenever I moved to the community I live, I signed papers and the security lady ,in an orientation meeting, told me that I had to pay $75 dog fee for one year for my dog. She also told me that I had to signed a pet registration agreement for my dog. I went to the complex office the same day I moved (august) and I did.

By January of the next year, I saw a noticed all over the complex saying"please pay dog's fee by January 31st , or else you would be in violation with a fine of $1000"

I did ignore this , since I payed already in august for my dog for year , as the security lady said.

After 3 months in march, the association sent me a letter saying that I was in violation for my dogs annual fee. So I went to the office to make sure this was for me. I had a long discution with the president of the association, by telling him that I was not notified about this. That I did not know that I had to pay again for my dog after 4 months. He never understood. He only wanted me to pay the fine.

I talk to the owner of the apartment and the only thing he said was : " it is ok, it is ok.Do not worry about that".

So, I assume he would take care of the matter.

Now that I am willig to renew the contract, the president of the association did not aproved it for the same reason.

By the way , I did not have a notification of this but 8days before the contract expires.

My question is, what are my rights? I am in the middle of a two people who are not right and I am getting the consequences.(?)

I am not willing to move neither for many reasons, including cost, time and money.

Do I have the right.to stay one more year since the owner did not notified me?

Do I have to pay the dog's fee , even though they did not tell me ?

To my understanding , the association is "stealing" the money for not to tell people about this.....

Can you please help me and tell me what should I do?

Thank you.


Asked on 8/15/16, 7:17 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Barry Kaufman The Law Office of Barry W. Kaufman

You ignored a notice. You should have gone right then to the apartment complex manager and determined whether you owed the fee. The likelihood is that the agreement, the fees, everything, is in your lease. Statements such as "don't worry about it" mean nothing when it comes to leases and contracts. Also, the likelihood is that the $75 covered that part of the year between the time you moved in and the time the fees were due. My advice is to either pay what the association says you owe in order to stay, or start looking for a new place.

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Answered on 8/15/16, 7:32 am


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