Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

Tenant window AC unit in rental

Tenants added large window ac unit. I rent a small house with a small ac unit. My tenants have placed a second large ac unit in the kitchen window. My electric is included in the rent. Can I charge them for the increase in the electric bill with the new large unit they have added? Does this unit stay when they move out? Can I evict them. There was not provision for this in the lease. Can I demand that they remove this unit.


Asked on 9/24/08, 6:51 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

William Gwaltney William W. Gwaltney, Attorneys at Law

Re: Tenant window AC unit in rental

Without a provision in your lease related to increased utilities, no window units allowed etc. you may be hard pressed to do anything during the current lease term. At best you might be able to get them to remove the unit. Another consideration is whether window units are allowed in the community. If not you may be able to use this as leverage to have the tenant remove the units. Before eviction though you would likely need to give them a time to fix the problem.

With regard to whether the units stay after the lease, you again need to look at your lease. However, if they fight it I doubt that a judge would award you the window units as a permanent fixture, although I have seen situations where this occurred.

I recommend that you have an attorney review your lease contract(s) and pay a small fee to have them tightened up and protect you as much as possible.

If you need further assistance please feel free to call my office. I have quite a bit of landlord tenant experience and could assist you with your contracts.

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Answered on 9/24/08, 10:42 am


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