Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida
rental deposit & last month of rent
Our rental agreement expired 12/31/08. We gave landlord a 60 day notice that our last day would be 3/31/09. She has our deposit of $1350.00 and since she lies & cheats everyone out of their deposits, we told her to keep the deposit for our last month of rent, and promised to have a cleaning service come in when we leave. We have damaged nothing & have always paid rent on time for the last 3 yrs. She says ''no'' and wants us to pay anyway, and has threatened to take us to small claims court. She says that even though the contract expired, we automatically go on a month to month (we signed nothing agreeing to this), and that all in the contract still stands. She is demanding we pay the rent and she will no doubt keep our deposit, even though we told her we would do a walk-thru and attend to anything she finds unacceptable. Legally, can she take us to court and make us pay, when our contract has expired with her and nothing has been signed agreeing to a month to month? We are in Florida (St. John's County).
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: rental deposit & last month of rent
She is correct about the law. Unless your lease says otherwise, you can't just use your security deposit as the last month's rent. Make sure you take photographs of the rental property before you leave. If she wishes to keep any portion of your deposit after you move out, she has to send you notice. You then have the right to object. Check out the Florida statutes to understand this procedure. If she doesn't give your security deposit back and she is withholding it illegally, you can take her to small claims court.
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