Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

Re: Landlord keeping $1400 deposit plus some

When your landlord keeps part of the deposit, the landlord has to notify you in a very specific way. This is laid out in Florida Statutes 83.49. You can find the Florida Statutes on the state's website called "Online Sunshine".

As you can see, the landlord has 30 days to send you a certified mail letter telling you why the deposit was kept. The statute even has a form letter for the landlord to use. If you left your forwarding address with the landlord, and you did not get this letter by certified mail, then you are entitled to your deposit. You can sue and get it, and will even have a judgment for court fees entered. In court, the landlord can make a counter claim for damages, but because the deposit is deemed to be your property held by the landlord, you will still get your court fees awarded and will have the opportunity to have a judge decide about the carpets.

If the landlord properly notified you about the claim on your deposit, or did not have your forwarding address, then you do not have an easy in to court. You might still want to go to court, though.

If you leave things as they are and refuse to pay the charge, your landlord will probably send a collections agency against you. The collections agency has to follow laws on debt collections. It will give you a chance to dispute the debt by sending a letter, and you should do that if you honestly don't think you should have been charged. The collections agency then has to consider what you sent, but is extremely unlikely to back off. So, in all probability, if you ignore this bill, then your credit score will be hurt.

If your landlord noticed you about the deposit, you can still go to court and dispute the bill and the charge made to your deposit. (You should have been given 15 days to complain by letter to your landlord about the charge to your deposit, and I assume that you did so.)

The amount of money at stake here is so high, that I strongly recommend that you have a lawyer assess your case. If you have a strong case,it would be a shame not to have known. Many lawyers offer a free initial consultation where the lawyer assesses your chances of winning in court and quotes you a price for services. Then you can decide whether you want to pay this or fight it.