Unbelievable Florida security deposit claim lawsuit!!!

[Marc Brandon]

Attention all Florida investors/landlords regarding making a claim on tenant's security deposit!! 

I obtained an eviction judgment against a former tenant who failed to pay rent in St. Petersburg, Florida (Pinellas County). After obtaining the judgment, but without my knowledge, tenant's attorney filed a "notice of last known address change re: security deposit" in the eviction case, listing an address belonging to an LLC located in another Florida county. Since I never received a copy of this notice, I was unaware of the address change or that the tenant assigned her security deposit claim rights to the LLC.

Within 30 days of tenant moving out of the property, I sent her a notice of intention to impose a claim on security deposit, via certified mail, to the tenant's last known address since I was unaware of the address change notice. The notice of intention to impose a claim on security deposit was returned to me as undeliverable by the USPS.

Now the LLC has filed a lawsuit against me for not returning the security deposit and/or for not sending the notice, via certified mail, to the LLC's address. Unfortunately it will be my word against the attorney regarding whether I ever received the notice and therefore knew about the address change. As a result, I will end having to pay the full amount of the security deposit and attorney's fees and costs to the attorney, even though I believe I fully complied with Florida law regarding this matter. To make matters worse, I discovered that this same law firm filed over 80 of these type of lawsuits against landlords just in 1 Florida county courthouse. Unbelievable!!!!

I welcome any feedback from other landlords regarding this type of case. Marc Brandon 

[Matt Devincenzo]

Quote from @Marc Brandon:

...he/she must send a written notice to the tenant's "last known address" within 30 days, via certified mail.

... I sent the notice to the tenant's last known address, via certified mail, I cannot prove that the attorney never sent me the address change notice and therefore run the risk of losing the case at trial. 

 I think this is a fatal flaw in your logic...the American legal system does not burden you to prove you never received notice, it burdens them with proving you did. You seem to have met the standard of the statute since ypu sent notice to the last known address. You didn't know about the new address, and they have to prove you did. 

Have you gotten a consult with your own attorney to discuss the merits of the case? Like I said I'd spend more defending myself before I'd ever consider settling.