[RPPTL LandTen] early termination fees....plus 60 days' notice? C'mon already...

Tue Jun 24 07:08:40 PDT 2014

I think some facts are necessary to fully determine the answer to your question. If you are asking can a landlord require a tenant provide 60 days notice to terminate a lease early and the two months early termination fee while the defendant remains there for those 60 days, the answer would be yes, meaning the tenant would pay a total of 4 month's rent to have the lease terminate early. The statute pretty clearly says that an early termination fee can require 60 days notice to initiate. If, however, the tenant simply leaves and provides notice that day, the landlord is only entitled to the rent for that month, plus the liquidated damages/early termination if it was agreed upon. Put simply, the statute seems clear that a landlord is entitled to rent for when the tenant uses the property through the end of the month in which it is used plus up to two months in damages, whether you call it liquidated damages or early termination.

If your question is if a tenant fails to provide 60 days notice and the lease goes month to month, I think that is a different answer. If the tenant leaves at the end of the lease, although not having provided a notice to terminate, you would be suing for damages under a month to month tenancy, not for early termination, and would only at best be entitled to an additional month in rent which is all the landlord would reasonably be allowed under the statute as presumably he would be notified the tenant is out well before 15 days before rent is due.

Again, need more facts to see if this answers your q, but I think it does.

James Zink, Esq.
Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc.
3111 South Dixie Highway, Suite 140
West Palm Beach, FL 33405
Phone: (561) 820-8902 x. 6025
Fax: (561) 820-8892

The information contained in this e-mail, including any attachment(s), is intended solely for use by the named addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, or a person designated as responsible for delivering such messages to the intended recipient, you are not authorized to disclose, copy, distribute or retain this message, in whole or in part, without written authorization from the sender.  If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately

From: landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org [mailto:landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org] On Behalf Of Anthony J. Horky
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 3:00 PM
To: 'RPPTL Landlord Tenant Committee'
Subject: [RPPTL LandTen] early termination fees....plus 60 days' notice? C'mon already...

Hello all.  I ask for some guidance on the following issue.

Residential tenant has liquidated damages addendum for early termination equal to two months' rent.  Paragraph 3 of the lease," Lease Term and Termination Notice Requirements" states that the lease will automatically renew on a month to month basis unless tenant provides 60 days' notice of termination or intent to move out.  In the early termination addendum, it states that landlord is entitled to all rent that accrued through the end of the month in which it retakes possession.

Landlord tells tenant he must give 60 days' notice and pay the 2 month early termination fee.  I don't think that is correct-the purpose of the early termination fees is just that, when a tenant decides to terminate the lease prior to the end of the term.

Your opinions on whether the tenant must give 60 days AND pay 2 months' rent is invited and greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Regards,

[cid:image003.png at 01CF8F93.75C198A0]

Anthony J. Horky, Esquire

Anthony J. Horky, P.A.

2255 Glades Road, Suite 324A

Boca Raton, Florida 33431

T: 561.989.3206

F: 561.952.0096

www.horkylaw.com<http://www.horkylaw.com>

This message and the documents attached to it, if any, are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is attorney-client privileged or confidential, and/or may contain attorney work product.  If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please delete all electronic copies of this message and its attachments, if any, destroy any hard copies you may have created and notify me immediately at: ahorky at horkylaw.com<mailto:ahorky at horkylaw.com>.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tax Advice Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS under Circular 230, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments), unless otherwise specifically stated, was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (1) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (2) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any matters addressed herein.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/landten/attachments/20140624/67385291/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3209 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/landten/attachments/20140624/67385291/image001-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3984 bytes
Desc: image003.png
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/landten/attachments/20140624/67385291/image003-0001.png>