The commercial litigation and real estate attorneys at KALIS, KLEIMAN & WOLFE regularly represent landlords and tenants in lease violations matters relating to residential and commercial real estate. Often, a requirement to enforce a breach of a lease covenant is the sending of a proper notice. The content, the timing and method of serving these notices is documented in Florida Statutes – Title IV, Chapter 83.56 – Landlord & Tenant Termination of Rental Agreement.
Florida has two types of lease violations, “curable” lease violations and “incurable” lease violations:
Curable lease violations are lease violations that tenants can cure or fix or should be permitted to fix. These can include things such as harboring a pet, failing to maintain a healthy and sanitary condition of the property, subletting without permission, and or failing to grant landlord access to the premises. When a resident is not in compliance with a curable lease violation, a statutory “Seven-Day Notice of Noncompliance with Opportunity to Cure” must be served. This notice is basically a warning notice and informs the resident what they need to stop doing, fix or cure in order to be compliant, if they do not cure the noncompliance, the lease may be terminated and the tenant could be evicted. If the tenant fixes the violation, but then allows a similar violation to occur within a twelve-month timeframe, the landlord can choose to evict the tenant without the opportunity to correct the violation. This then would be considered an incurable lease violation.
Incurable lease violations are lease violations that tenants cannot cure or fix or are repeated violations. This can include things like intentionally damaging the property, ongoing noise violations, or criminal or illegal activities. In this case, upon learning of the lease violation, the landlord can immediately give the tenant a Seven-Day eviction notice.
Depending on your situation, there are a several options for landlords to serve eviction notices in Florida and there are also a few options available to the tenant to respond. It is important to hire an experienced landlord and tenant attorney to assist you in your lease matter before things get out of hand.
If you are a landlord or if you are a tenant who is facing a lease violation matter and want to understand your legal rights, contact the experienced Landlord and Tenant Attorneys at KALIS, KLEIMAN & WOLFE, the South Florida-based law firm today at (954) 791-0477.