Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

I am renting a mobile home from someone who happens to be a second cousin, who owns several properties and rents out mobile homes in parks, he bought the property from my father and my uncle's widow after my uncle passed away tragically. I was forced to move from my home, a home which was supposed to some day be mine according to my Grandmother's will, but that is another story. I am disabled, my life partner is also disabled, we are both on Social Security. About 3 weeks ago we started hearing tapping and knocking sounds from underneath our mobile home and thought it was the other renters playing jokes on us, but after investigating, we realized that there was a wild animal living under our mobile home between the insulation and the flooring, it was keeping us awake at night and definitely not helping our health issues. I called the landlord about it, and he said he was away for the weekend and would come back on Monday with some dogs and "chase" the animal out, that he would take care of it. Well, Monday came, and went, and he never came by. I began to smell an odor a few days later, and at first thought it smelled like something electrical burning, I called the landlord to come and check out the odor, and he checked the power box and the water heater and said everything was fine. Over the next 24 hours from then, which was this past Tuesday, the smell got much stronger, so I called him, he came the following morning and said he smelled nothing, and tried to blame it on the septic, which he supposedly fixed but actually had some guys dump some dirt on it when it was backing up, that again is another story I will not get into. I knew it was not the septic as I grew up on this property. By that same evening the smell had gotten so bad that I went outside near where the animal was spotted before, the animal he never got rid of, and there was a terrible fowl odor of urine, excrement, and whatever scent marking this animal is doing, and it is unbearable, the animal was directly under my bedroom and the odor is coming directly into my entire mobile home, especially inside my bed room and main bathroom. I told the landlord Wednesday about what I had finally pinpointed and was no longer able to keep from knowing due to the noxious odor and he told me to have my partner to go underneath the mobile home and pull the animal out, that the animal would most likely leave soon in a week or two on it's own if not, that the smell would go away, that he has dealt with dead rats in the walls before and knows all about it and firmly left it at that. My partner has Cardiomyopathy, and back problems, and is unable to do anything, and I thought to myself that it is the landlords responsibility. So, after getting highly upset, and unable to deal with it anymore, I had my partner call the landlord, and then the landlord sent one of his henchmen over with an animal trap and told us we would have to trap it ourselves, and when I told him that the landlord was going to have to do something about the odor causing health hazard, and then he said that if the landlord had to do something, then it would force us to have to move somewhere else. I have permanent nerve damage in my back, permanent spinal and neck issues, TMJ, as well as other ongoing health problems that are keeping me ill, and I can not handle this stress. Last night I had trouble sleeping, my lungs started itching, and I had heart fluttering / palpitations. My partner and I both are having headaches from this, and feel seriously disgusted, distressed, and sick from it. I called my father, and had him talk to our landlord, since he knows him better than I do, and he told my father that he was over here and did not smell anything and that it was just going to go away. My landlord refuses to deal with this, and I can not handle it, this is not the only thing has has "let go" when it comes to the maintenance, repair, and pest control of my mobile home. When it comes to the other renters, he has given them new girdles for this trailers, and mine has only a partial girdle, which is old, exposed, and missing in some areas, he also knows about openings in the insulation beneath, and many other problems that need repair but has done nothing about it. I feel like because I and my partner are disabled, and the fact he is related to me, he feels that he is allowed to treat me however he wants and that I have to put up with it. I want to scream. It's not fair. I want to find some way to resolve this issue, I fear if I push the matter further he will threaten to or possible try and evict me. I have been living here for 5 plus years, I pay my rent on time, I pay him every month, in fact, I am the best renter he has, as his other tenants are constantly late and many times delinquent on paying him, and I pay $700.00 a month, for a ratty, moldy, rotting, roach, ant, wild animal, urine and excrement, infested trailer. I am at my whits end here, please tell me what I can do to make this right. I may have suffering due to disabilities that I have no control over and only God can fix that, but there has to be some of the suffering going on in my life right now that I can try and end. Please, tell me what to do here. I need help. Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration.


Asked on 9/01/12, 12:20 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

R. Jason de Groot R. Jason de Groot, P.A.

You must give the landlord 7 days written notice that you are going to pay to have the animal removed and then deduct it from the rent. Either that or get another place to live.

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Answered on 9/04/12, 1:11 pm


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