Collecting tenants property tax portion

[Metalyear]

My tenant's commercial lease in Florida ended 12/08. A clause in the lease states he is responsible for property tax increase over the lease term of 5 years. Is there a time limit to charge him for these increases? I returned his security deposit within 30 days of the lease expiration.

[mazBut]

since his lease has been determined he is not bound to pay you increase in property tax any more

[Metalyear]

I paid the property tax for 2003 through 2008 (the lease term) and now want to collect the tenants portion as stated in the lease. Is there a statute of limitations to collect money from the lease contract? No limit was stated in the lease I drafted. On what grounds can the tenant refuse to pay his portion of the property taxes from 2003-2008. Lease ended 45 days ago.
Thanks.

[mazBut]

You cannot go beyong law. Yes, there is a limitation on recovery of such amount. Please check you state rules.
You may avail exemption from the clutch of statutory limitation provided you can justify the delay to court.

Usually, the limitation extends from one to 3 years.

While you are probably still well within the statute of limitations on contracts for most states, you have 2 other problems with trying to collect these now.

1) If this provision was noted in the lease, why have you not collected the excess property taxes from the tenant for the last 5 years? A judge will want to know why you have failed to enforce that part of the contract you had with the tenant. By failing to do so repeatedly (5 times now), you may have well set a precedent that shows he does not owe you those taxes. Do you have any correspondence with the tenant to show that you have made attempts to collect? Normally, if you allow a tenant to do something for that long a period without any attempts to enforce it, a judge will rule that you did not deem that provision of the contract as necessary and refuse to enforce the clause now.

2) You have already returned his security deposit. If you knew that this tenant still owed you this money, why did you not make an itemized deduction from this deposit for it? The deposit is there to enforce the tenant's performance under the contract. By returning it without a claim for these taxes, you essentially said you had no further claim against the tenant.

Trying to come back after the tenancy is over (after the fact), after you have returned the deposit without claim against it, and after you failed to enforce this provision for 5 years will be extremely difficult. I cannot see a judge allowing it. (my opinion) Sorry, but you should have been enforcing this provision throughout the tenancy.