Florida Broken Lease and Security Deposit

I was required for work to move from Florida to Virginia back in May causing me to break my lease early. I was out of the unit May 28 with the keys being return by mail on June 3. On July 30, I was sent a letter concerning the deposit which listed my full deposit amount plus $150. My question is when does the clock start ticking for the landlord on returning the deposit? I have copied s. 83.49(3)(a) below which seems to be the pertinent section. Does the clock start on my vacating or on termination of the lease?


(3)(a) Upon the vacating of the premises for termination of the lease, if the landlord does not intend to impose a claim on the security deposit, the landlord shall have 15 days to return the security deposit together with interest if otherwise required, or the landlord shall have 30 days to give the tenant written notice by certified mail to the tenant's last known mailing address of his or her intention to impose a claim on the deposit and the reason for imposing the claim. The notice shall contain a statement in substantially the following form:

[sunlover]

That section may not apply as you broke lease. The Landlord suffered damages due to this breach. Your lucky he has not sued you for entire rent for full term of lease

The clock start upon vacating and returning the keys (possession) to the LL. The section you posted says he had 30 days to impose a claim on the money. That same statute (further down) also says:

If the landlord fails to give the required notice within the 30-day period, he or she forfeits the right to impose a claim upon the security deposit.

Copy this statute in full, highlight this part, mail it to the LL by certified mail, return receipt requested with a demand for the return of your entire deposit.

That statement should have been returned to you by July 3rd. Since that was a holiday weekend, you should have gotten this notice by the 6th at the latest. The 30th is way past that time limit.

[sunlover]

Once more this applies in "normal" situations! This is not normal. There was a breach of lease. The posted statute may not apply and even if it does the Landlord can sue for unpaid rent for entire lease or until unit is rented. If he has unrented units he does not have to fill OP's first!

What about the section just below:

(5) Except when otherwise provided by the terms of a written
lease, any tenant who vacates or abandons the premises prior to the
expiration of the term specified in the written lease, or any
tenant who vacates or abandons premises which are the subject of a
tenancy from week to week, month to month, quarter to quarter, or
year to year, shall give at least 7 days' written notice by
certified mail or personal delivery to the landlord prior to
vacating or abandoning the premises which notice shall include the
address where the tenant may be reached. Failure to give such
notice shall relieve the landlord of the notice requirement of
paragraph
(3)(a) but shall not waive any right the tenant may have to the
security deposit or any part of it.

This seems to say that breaking a lease early has no bearing on the deposit and therefor does not give the landlord an extra month to deduct from the deposit.

[sunlover]

Your breaking rules but trying to use rules to save yourself. By breaking the lease without agreement to do so does not release you from the terms of lease! All the statutes in the world you post wont change that.

Hey I was put in an impossible situation, get transferred for work, or not have a job. I gave the rental company 60 days notice. I've been paying on this apartment since and they have JUST now started to advertise it. The place probably won't get rented since it went into the foreclosure process just after I moved in.

[sunlover]

I understand but you never got them to agree to let you out of lease so your on the hook for entire lease term regardles of how much notice you gave. Furthermore there might have been ways to protect yourself but you failed to use them. You might talk to your employer since he caused this problem

Ordinarily, I agree with Sunlover. But the LL clearly forfeited the right to impose any claim on that deposit when he failed to send the statement within the time limit. You shouldn't have broken your lease. A job change doesn't excuse you from the legal obligation therein. The LL, in FL, has NO obligation to look for a new tenant per state law. Yes, you were on the hook for the entire amount. And had the LL sent you that statement within time, or even close to it, he could have held you liable for all of it. But since he didn't, and assuming you did give him proper notice, he has no claim on your deposit now.

Lesson to LLs: Make sure you mail those deposit statements out within your state's time limits. The penalties for failing to do so can be stiff.

[sunlover]

Tenant can certainly try to claim the deposit in small claims. Guess what happens next? LL counter sues for rent for rest of lease term. Forget the deposit you got off cheap. Take an agressive stance on this can wind up costing you much much more