!! I Need Help With My 1st 3 Day Notice, for Florida Rental.

[Jon S.]

This isn't what I was hoping to be doing today, but here goes! 

I have a tenant in a newly renovated detached mother in law suite, well kept, well maintainanced unit, whose rent of $950 is due on the 10th of each month. 

The tenant keeps the unit clean but otherwise has not been a great tenant. The lack of communication with this tenant has been a problem since the beginning. Her unit is clean, but I learned from another tenant on the property that she has been keeping 3 additional occupants there who are not on the lease, her mom, her boyfriend and her nephew. This isn't the first time I have addressed additional occupants with her, as I personally ran into her boyfriend coming out of the apartment a couple months ago in the morning, and asked if he lived there and he said yes, and he gave me his drivers license. She is the only one on the lease. I have spoken to her about additional occupants before, but she outright denies that there are any other occupants there. So I'm not pleased with her as a tenant in terms of honesty or communication. Now she is seriously late on rent as well. 

This month, on June 11th, she dropped a rent check in my mailbox for only $400, without any explaination as to the lack of full payment.

I texted her and asked for an explaination, she said she had a family emergency and that she would be paying the rest and the late fees. By text I asked when she would be making that payment, she didn't respond to the text. 

I went out of town the same day, and upon returning on the 17th, there was no balance of rent check in my mail box. I called and there was no response.  

Now I am looking up the documents for serving a 3 day notice and reading Florida Statutes.

How does the payment of $400 effect the 3 Day Notice Process? 

If she wants to make another partial payment, how does that effect the 3 Day Process?  

So far, I have found this form for giving 3 Day Notice; is it a good form? Is there a better form? http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/0/0...

For the Rent Amount Due, do I write just the rent of $550 or do I write $685? Remaining unpaid RENT is $550, but with late fees of $135 ($100 plus $5/day) it is $685 today, and $5/day higher for each additional day she is late.  

I'm planning on filling out a 3 day notice and personally delivering it, and if she is not home, then I will tape it to her door and take a photo. 

Rent is due on the 10th, the lease began Dec 10 2015, I recieved first month rent plus one month rent as deposit. 

She was on time Jan, Feb. Mar. 

Late in Apr (4 days late on $200 due to emergency - I waived late fee), 

Late in May (5 days late on full amount, and she paid the full rent plus late fee), 

Late in June (without any explaination she paid $400 rent, and owes $550 rent, $100 flat late fee, and $5/day additional late fee from the 12th to date of payment.  

The form has in the bottom right corner, this wording: "This form was completed with the assistance of: Name: Address: Telephone Number:" Should I just ignore that area and leave it blank, or should I delete that from my copy of the form? 

Can someone walk me through this process?

Thank you 

[Gustavo Figueiredo]

If you accept any payments while you are trying to evict someone you're will loose. But before swnding the 3 day notice you can collect partial payments and swnd the eviction notice based on the amount due. You're can also use different strategies to evict your tenant. Occupants not on the lease is one. But remember after sending the notice don't collect anymore. Also if it's a first time ofense you should send a disturbance notice. Second ofense lease violation notice with option to cure. And finally on the third time the 3 day notice to quit. If you send to notice to quit when it first happens you probably will struggle in court(except for non payment). Make sure you keep a pretty good record of what you doing. My suggestion would be to implement a system where you would send notice to quit on the very first day when the lease is considered late. Make sure to communicate with yor tenants and make they understand you are running a business, "your business" and as such you have a system to follow. I hope this helps and good luck.

One final tought. Evicting someone some times can get ugly and stressfull specially if you don't know what you doing. I think a money expended with a eviction lawer is a money well invested. Can cost you much more in lawsuits vacancies, etc..