Did you know that there were over 10,000 evictions in Florida last year? The state has almost doubled their eviction rate since 2019.
If you are a property owner in the state, there is a much more likely chance that you will have to deal with evictions of your own.
How do you make sure you have a smooth eviction process? What rights do you have as a landlord to do this?
This brief guide should answer those questions and more.
Write Down Your Reasoning
The first thing that you need to do is to write down the reason why you want to evict your tenant. There has to be legal ground to evict them and you are required to present this to a tenant in writing before you have the right to kick them out.
Make sure that you know what legal ground you have when it comes to this. Reasons for evicting someone in Florida could include failing to pay rent on time, violating your building's rules, damaging your apartment, and more.
Once you are confident your reasoning will hold up in a court of law, write it down and serve it to your tenant within the legal time period. We will talk more about that below.
Know Your Notice Duration
Next, you need to be aware that a tenant is not just going to leave tomorrow even if you do have written notice. They have a right to a few days before they have to leave in some cases. In other cases, they even have the right to fix whatever mess they got themselves in to get to this point.
If it is just about not paying the rent, a landlord has to give a tenant three days to vacate their apartment before facing an eviction lawsuit.
However, with most other problems, there needs to be at least seven days notice. This is true whether the situation is curable or not. In Florida, a landlord has the option to give someone a curable or non-curable situation.
An example of a curable situation may be someone having a pet they are not supposed to in their apartment. The landlord could then send a written notice to those tenants saying they have seven days to get rid of the pet with the threat of eviction if they refuse.
However, not every situation is curable. Instances where tenants cause damage to the apartment or the building itself could be grounds for a landlord to send out an unconditional notice. That means that the tenants have seven days to vacate no matter what before facing an eviction lawsuit.
Get Help With Evictions
These are the main things to keep in mind when dealing with evictions in Orlando. Landlords must remember that written legal notice is required. Then, they need to determine what type of notice is most appropriate for their tenant eviction.
Do you need help from experts to handle evictions? Message us here to find out how we can help you.