[RPPTL LandTen] 7- day notice to withhold rent

[Martin Lawyer]

Not so.  The statutory language supports both of the notices I have attached to this e-mail.  My Notice to Withhold contains the statutorily supported statement:

I intend to exercise my legal rights and will withhold further payments of rent to you, and/or sue for injunctive relief in County Court, if reasonable efforts to make the required repairs are not completed within seven (7) days' time.

As a tenant advocate, I must be careful on which notice I advise my clients to use.

Please note also that the statute (and my notices) do not tell the landlord what to do  --  such is the landlord’s choice at the landlord’s risk of choosing wrong.  My notices simply describe the defect(s) in the premises.   The tenant has no right to require the landlord to use a particular method to correct the defect; but the tenant does have the right to have the defect corrected.


                      Marty

                     C. Martin (Marty) Lawyer, III
                     Florida Bar # 128095
                     Bay Area Legal Services, Inc.
                     1302  N. 19th St.,  Suite # 400
                     Tampa,  FL 33605-5230
                     (813)  232-1222, Ext.109
                      FAX:  248-9922

“Preserving Independence, Hope and Dignity”

From: landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org [mailto:landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org] On Behalf Of Alberto Cardet
Sent: Monday, 12 September, 2016 17:15
To: RPPTL Landlord Tenant Committee <landten at lists.flabarrpptl.org>
Subject: [RPPTL LandTen] 7- day notice to withhold rent

Is my understanding correct that when a tenant sends a landlord a "rent withholding letter", that in essence states that unless "X" is fixed within 7 days the tenant will not pay rent, what the tenant has actually done is terminate their tenancy pursuant to 83.56(1) and the tenant must vacate.  It does not give the tenant the right to remain on the property rent free indefinitely.



Cardet Law, P.A.
1330 Coral Way #301
Miami FL 33145
305-403-7783
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/landten/attachments/20160912/5f95fa0f/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 7DayNoticeW.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 37081 bytes
Desc: 7DayNoticeW.pdf
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/landten/attachments/20160912/5f95fa0f/7DayNoticeW-0001.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 7DayNoticeT.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 30319 bytes
Desc: 7DayNoticeT.pdf
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/landten/attachments/20160912/5f95fa0f/7DayNoticeT-0001.pdf>