FL tenant abandonment statues

[James Strawser]

My senior tenant decided to not sign a new lease agreement with increased rental charge as of June 1st. I served him a notice of termination of the verbal agreement in May. Asked him to sign new lease, he declined and said "no you will have to evict me and you cant because of COVID-19". On June 17th I still have not received any rent or a new signed lease. I went to the property to do some maintenance and checked on the tenant. I ended up calling EMS to have him taken as he was barely conscious on tue floor. He is still in the hospital as of today.

Can I take back over the property in 14 days as abandonment? If he is still away from the property and behind on June rents.

Do I need to give notice at the hospital he is at that he has an avandoned the property and not paid rent?

What have other landlord's done in this situation?

An attorney has only said that we could sue the tenant for June's rent and that is all no eviction at this point in time.

According to what I have read in the FL statues it appears legal and justified. Although I may only be looking at it through my own eyes of wanting my property back.

I am under the FHA loan, and doing house hacking on this triplex.

Thanks for any information given!

[Mike S.]

I would start an action for eviction for holdover tenant with damage for double rent.

It will cost you a little bit of money to file with the court and have the paperwork served ($235 in Broward County), but at least you will have the ball rolling.

Most counties have started the eviction again since June 1st, other will in July 1st. However, they were all accepting the filing and issuance of summons. So if you file now, you should probably have proof of service in two weeks, and 5 days later you can file for default for the eviction, and 20 days for the double rent damage for the holdover period.

An abandonment is creating more problems as you will have to deal with the properties left in the house that you will have to sell at auction and advertise. You will also have an angry tenant who will probably sue you back claiming that it was force majeure as he was incapacitated and you knew about it.