College Dorm Laws

[BusinessKid89]

I currently attend a college in central Florida. The college as been building two new men's dorms for the last year or so, and it was expected we could move in for the Fall 2007 semester. However, as often happens, things got delayed, and we ended up staying in the house dorms on the other side of campus. They have already sold the house dorms that we are staying in and they no longer belong to the campus as on January 1st, 2008.

They got CO as of today, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007, for the new dorms that they were building and they sent out a letter that we are to start moving this Friday afternoon and have to be out by Sunday, Dec. 9.

This is affecting a large number of the male students. We all have final exams next week with many papers to do, and many of us work out of town on the weekends and are unable to meet these demands.

Can they legally give us such a short notice to move out, and such a small window to do so?

[OHlandlord]

Normally, a new owner of a property cannot give the existing tenants such a short period to move out. If a lease is in effect, most places require that the new owner honor the existing lease until it's expiration. If no lease is in place, and the tenant is at at-will tenant (month-to-month), the new owner usually must provide 30 days notice to vacate. I say "usually" and "most" because many states have their own laws specifically for college rentals, vacation rentals, and hotels/motels (seperate from residential rental laws). You should read through FL state law to see if there is a seperate section pertaining to students. LL-Tenant law for your state can be found under FL Statute Ann. 83.40 to 83.682. There may be another section also for student rentals. I hope this helps. You may also want to contact your student union and ask if they can help. Most universities have a housing office that can give free advice.

[BusinessKid89]

Our school is not that organized in general. I don't think we even have a student union or housing office. Everything is ran through "student life". And when I talked to the person in charge of "residents", she said she could give me until Monday.

[OHlandlord]

Call the local Legal Aide and ask if you (as a student) qualify for free legal aide. You may well be able to get an appointment to speak to a lawyer for free about the laws there. There may also be a tenants advocacy group in your city who could help you. Try an online search or ask at your local library.