Eviction Process Question (Fla)

[Doug Block]

I'm currently going through the eviction process. I hired an agent, not a lawyer, to help on my behalf since I am out of state. All paperwork has been properly filed and the tenant was given their 5 day court order to file a response and pay the overdue rent to the court registry if they would like a hearing. They did file a response; however, they did not put any money in the court registry.

Florida law specifically states "Failure of the tenant to pay the rent into the court registry pursuant to court order shall be deemed an absolute waiver of the tenant's defenses. In such case, the landlord is entitled to an immediate default for possession without further notice or hearing thereon."

However, the judge set a court date and my agent filed a notice for me to appear by phone since I was not local. Now the judge is considering tossing the entire case because I was not present in person.

Do I not have any rights here to dispute this? The law states that if the tenant does not put up the overdue rent, there should be no hearing, yet the judge schedules one and now I'm at risk of starting all over again??

Anyone been in this situation? I'm speaking with a lawyer tomorrow, but curious about what possibilities there are out there.