Overview of Lease Agreements in FL
The relationship between a tenant and a landlord in Florida is defined by a lease agreement (or less commonly, a rental agreement). A lease agreement is a legally enforceable contract that outlines the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords under Florida law. While tenants often have understanding and expectation of the duties of their landlord in any given circumstances, landlords generally expect only that a tenant will perform all of the terms of the lease agreement in exchange for the right to possess the leased premises . The standard lease agreement between commercial landlords and tenants is governed by the applicable provisions of the Florida Commercial Landlord and Tenant Act and the Florida Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, both codified respectively in Florida Statutes 689.275 et seq. and 83.40 et seq. The outlined provisions contemplate marketing of premises to prospective tenants, entering into a lease contract, conducting business if you are a commercial tenant, maintaining and providing the necessary utilities, rent payments, sales, termination and injury to the premises, including security deposits. Primarily, Florida law provides that in the absence of a written provision to the contrary, tenants have specific duties to comply with the requirements of those Acts.
Military Duty: Legal Justification to Break a Lease
Having the ability to break a lease without a penalty is generally at the complete discretion of a landlord. Otherwise, leases are legally binding contracts and unless the lease provides a reason for a landlord to terminate or allow a tenant to break the lease term, the lease agreement typically controls what will occur when a tenant does try to terminate their lease.
However, one situation that will always free a service member from a lease is if the tenant is on active duty. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act ("SCRA") is a federal law that gives service members a legal right to terminate a lease if the service member is on active duty. For most service members, satisfying the criteria of being on "active duty" is not a problem. The bigger question is: what needs to be done after the service member is on active duty?
The SCRA contains the procedure for breaking the lease while the service member is on active duty. A tenant may break a lease at any time while on active duty under the act. To terminate the lease, the service member must provide the landlord with a written notice of termination, along with a copy of 1) the military orders or 2) a letter from the appropriate service authority, as defined in the SCRA, under the lease agreement. Once proper notice of termination is provided to the landlord, the lease will terminate 30 days after the date the next rent payment is due under the lease agreement.
Dangerous Living Conditions: Reason to Terminate a Lease
Florida’s lanlord-tenant laws require landlords to maintain their properties to a certain standard of habitability. This means that a landlord has a duty to provide a structure and keep up with its ability to be habitable. Some of the requirements are more of a health and safety issue than others, but they all must be maintained or the lease can be broken.
Some of the conditions that may justify breaking a lease: There are options for a tenant in Florida if his or her rental property has become uninhabitable. The tenant can either ask the landlord in writing to fix the problem or provide a notice that the problem does not get fixed, the lease will be broken. In some situations, courts have determined when a health or safety code is violated, a tenant can break the lease without giving the landlord a chance to fix it first.
In most cases, a tenant must give the landlord a chance to fix the problem. Generally, a 7-day notice satisfies the requirement. It is helpful if the tenant includes a request for the repair to be done by a specific date. If, after 7 days, the condition is not remedied, the tenant is usually free to break the lease. However, the statute of limitations for a breach of contract action is five years and case law says that a landlord may try to use the passage of time to argue should have fixed the problem.
Landlord Breach of Contract
A breach of contract claim in Florida has the following elements: If a landlord has violated the rental purpose provisions of the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, then a tenant has legal grounds to break the lease due to Landlord’s Breach of Contract.
If a landlord violates the tenant’s privacy or other rights, the tenant might have legal grounds to break the lease agreement under the Florida Residential Landlord/Tenant Act, or perhaps on the common law as an eviction defense or a claim for damages for breach of the lease.
The landlord is required by Florida Statute 83.53 to insert, and follow, the following privacy language in a residential lease agreement "A renteru2026may not intentionally prevent the person in possession from entering into the unit after having been requested to leave the premises by the person in possession and may not refuse to surrender possession upon receipt of the key." The rent statute also contains a similar provision regarding rent payments.
Florida law states that a residential tenant could break the lease agreement if: This is a violation of the tenant’s privacy rights.
What if the landlord intentionally refuses to enter a rental property, or otherwise intentionally violates a privacy right?
The court in Rumph v. Lafleurs LLC (4D21-1813), 47 Fla. L. Weekly D1178 (July 21, 2022), explained that a landlord could have a contractual obligation to give a tenant access to the rental unit.
"[T]he tenants in this case argue that the lease agreement contains a contractual provision requiring Lafleurs to enter the rental unit, and that the failure to do so evinced an intent to willfully and intentionally prevent them from entering the rental unit. They assert that the trial court was required to make a credibility determination to resolve this factual dispute, and that its failure to do so requires reversal.
We agree with the tenants’ contention. Lafleur’s alleged violation of a contractual provision in the lease agreement—namely, the condition of access to the rental unit—implicates a factual determination: did Lafleur willfully and intentionally prevent the tenants from entering the rental unit.
As to the rental unit’s access requirement, replicate United States—Florida Criminal Procedure Forms 12.15 a-e at 73-74, the lease agreement provided as follows: "The parties agree that the Tenant will have access to the storage area of the Apartment at all times. If the Tenant is unable to access the Apartment at any time, the Tenant will call the office or return to the office during normal business hours for assistance in entering the Apartment. The Tenant agrees that the Office Staff [sic] for the Apartment Complex is authorized to use its judgment and discretion in performing such services for the Tenant." (emphasis added).
As to the property manager’s authority, the lease agreement further provided as follows: "When requesting assistance from Office Staff, TCPM will act as the Agent of the Owner unless a notice of termination of agent is posted at the Rental Unit Office or delivered to the Resident. TCPM may also act on behalf of Owner as its Agent except where the Owner expressly retains discretion as to a particular matter with respect to the Apartment: * * * * 18 willfully and intentionally prevent tenants from entering their residence. The trial court did not make these determinations. See Daniels, 250 So.3d at 38.
The court in Rumph found that there were genuine issues of material fact as to whether the property manager, through its conduct, evinced an intent to willfully and intentionally prevent the tenants from entering their residence. Because the trial court failed to consider the evidence of potential violations of the tenants’ right to enter the premises that the tenants had put before the court, the Court found that the trial court failed to under Florida Criminal Procedure Forms 12.15 a-e at 73-74 correctly apply the law to the facts.
The Rumph decision illustrates that any intentional actions by the landlord that intentionally prevent a tenant from entering the property may lead to a tenant being able to break the lease agreement by means of a breach of contract claim for violation of their privacy rights.
Domestic Violence Protections: Right to Break a Lease for Safety
In Florida, specific statutory protections, both state and federal, exist for victims of domestic violence. Florida law gives the victim of domestic violence the right to break a lease to seek a safe haven for themselves and their children.
Florida Statutes § 83.671 states:
"In the event a person … is the victim of domestic violence, … the victim or the victim’s guardian ad litem may recover possession and terminate the rental agreement if the victim … complies with the requirements of this section. At the time of recovering possession, an eviction filing under s. 83.20 … in the absence of a current delinquency in rent, must be dismissed. For the purposes of this section, the term "domestic violence" has the same meaning as in s. 741.30."
A tenant is required to provide the landlord a Notice in writing that the tenant intends to terminate the rental agreement for the protection of the tenant against the domestic violence. Such notice only requires a statement that the tenant intends to terminate the rental agreement without further lease payments to the landlord . The notice must be provided to the landlord within 30 days of the rental agreement termination date.
The notice must be accompanied by a copy of a protective order that was issued against the tenant or family member residing in the rental unit within 3 months of the termination date. Alternatively, the notice may be accompanied by a form completed by the tenant’s attorney that states the tenant is a victim of domestic violence and that the attorney is representing the tenant in connection with the domestic violence matter. That form must be signed by the tenant and the attorney.
Finally, the tenant must be current in the payment of rent no later than 3 business days after the termination date set forth in the notice. If the rental unit is subject to a mortgage and the bank or lender provides the landlord with notice that a foreclosure is pending against the unit, then the landlord must exercise their rights as a lessor to avoid losing these rights against the bank. Failure by the landlord to do so will result in the lease having priority over a foreclosure attempt.
Mutual Agreement of Tenant and Landlord
It is not uncommon to have a lease where the tenant and landlord want to work out an early termination of the lease. Such a mutual agreement is the second legal ground in Florida for breaking a lease. It can be done before the lease start date or after the tenant has moved in. There are many circumstances where the landlord may be inclined to allow a termination of the lease, such as:
If both parties agree to early termination of the lease before the tenant moves in, this can be accomplished simply by not moving in on the scheduled move in date. But, since the landlord will likely want a written termination of the lease and return of the security deposit, a good idea is to get a signed termination agreement.
If the tenant has moved into the rental unit, the mutual agreement for early termination of the lease should also include any repairs necessary to return the unit to the same condition it was in when the tenant moved in. The landlord should also be careful in allowing this kind of termination because the request by the tenant to terminate the lease prior to the end of the term will, under Florida law, have to be met with a cause listed in the statute (unless there is an agreed reason for the termination).
For example, a good idea is to put in the lease that in the event the tenant wants to terminate the lease early, all the tenant needs to do is give 60 or 90 days’ notice and this notice will count as the cause required under the statute. Regardless, it is important to protect the tenant’s security deposit when the lease is terminated early.
Results of Unlawfully Breaking a Lease
In Florida, breaking a lease on rental property without legal grounds can have ramifications well beyond losing the security deposit. A tenant who vacates without legal grounds can be sued for three kinds of damages:
- Unpaid Rent. When a tenant breaks a lease for no legal reason, he or she is typically found liable for any future rents from the lease. The landlord is not responsible for re-renting the property and is entitled to damages from the tenant for the remaining lease period. Also, late rent may be charged if the tenant fails to pay full rent while a suit is pending.
- Re-Lessee’s Damages. When a tenant leaves before the end of a term lease, the landlord is generally entitled to keep the security deposit in order to cover the costs of re-letting the property. Re-letting costs include expenses for cleaning and advertising the property, as well as lost rent between the time a tenant vacates and the time a new tenant occupies the property.
- Consequential Damages. If a tenant’s actions caused damages to the property, the landlord may recover those damages as well. For example, if a tenant moved out before the end of a lease and left behind food and debris, the landlord had to pay $150 to have it cleaned, that $150 could be recovered from the tenant in addition to any months of rent remaining on the lease.
Actions to Take When Violating Your Lease
When you find yourself in a situation where you need to break your lease, the best course of action is to first give your landlord notice and allow him or her the opportunity to address the problem. In some cases, it may even be a simple matter that can be easily worked out between you and your landlord. While this may not be true for everyone, as long as you have a good relationship with your landlord, taking the time to talk to him or her while you think through your options can help you avoid additional complications and costs. A crucial step to take when you break your lease is to document everything, as this can help protect you from damaging litigation after you leave your rental property. Be sure to keep copies of your lease, all of your communications with your landlord and his or her agent, along with a copy of your intent to vacate letter . In the event that you are seeking legal counsel to help with your claim, you will need to have all of these documents to hand so that your attorney can review your case. If your landlord does not respond to your request, is unhelpful, or doesn’t keep up their end of the deal, you may be able to break your lease and move out without additional worries. However, in some cases, you may need to provide your landlord with advance written notice, so it’s important to know how much advanced notice is required. If the lease terms state that you must give your landlord a 90-day notice, for example, you are legally required to give them a 90-day notice. Conversely, if you have a month-to-month rental agreement, you may only be required to give a 30-day notice. If you do not provide enough notice, your landlord may be able to hold you liable for the remaining rent on your lease.