I’m a Florida landlord. Thanks to Florida law we don’t have the problems landlords have in other states. But you must follow the procedures. For example, on an eviction you must list the county the property is in. XXX Parkway Blvd, Unit 2, Wakulla County, Florida, 32327. Fail to put down the county and you’re back to square one and the tenant gets about another six weeks of free rent and opportunity to run down the property.
Having said that, I’ve reduced my evictions to zero. I did this by insisting on two month’s rent in advance as a deposit. So, to move in is three month’s rent. The number of scofflaws who apply drops to zero. Drug users, alcoholics and your typical crazy simply can’t come up with that much money. Incidentally, I’ve been able to rent my properties before I even list them. Often the outgoing tenant knows someone, and I often get calls from renters who left years ago looking to come back.
We have rental properties in upstate NY. Good Cause just passed downstate so it will be filtering in up here. Namely the TENANTS have the say so over whether or not they will continue to stay just as long as they continue to pay their rent (late). The landlord has no option to non-renew PITA tenants. If you do take them to eviction court, they can claim a hardship (can’t find other housing in school district, etc) so will be allowed to stay rent free for up to a year at your place.
We are NOT allowed to collect two months sec dep here (one month max/application fees $20 max/late charges max of $50 or lesser of 5% of rent) AND have to return any sec dep in 14 days. Only one month (Thanks Peekaboo James).
We have to give them up to 90 days notice to leave/rent increase depending on length of tenancy. Tenant only has to give you 30 days notice no matter what.
No “3 days to pay or quit” like it used to be. Now it is 6 day late notice and 14 days to pay or quit.
Around here the tenant pool is about 5 miles wide and 1 inch deep. Same old multiple baby mama/daddy drama, majority of applicants are on some sort of assistance or have no visible means of supporting themselves. We get a lot of bums from down south who can’t be self supporting and come here specifically for the “resources” aka handouts.
Attorneys say don’t DARE put down “winning party will recoup legal fees” as if they rule against you they can judgement you for 3X the legal expenses incurred by the tenant (in other words you will be funding Legal Aid)
And then there’s the fake ESA fiasco. Received FAKE ESA “documentation” the other day and she already started throwing the “D” word around (discrimination) before she had even completed my 49 question automated prequalification form (before they even get a showing or application).
Watch out. Just b/c you’re in Florida, these same policies infiltrate into red areas. No one is safe as long as there is a single Marxist in gov’t, federally or locally.