|
Article
and Video Courtesy of Channel 10 Connect
By
Lindsay Ubinas
/ Scott Farrell
Published
August 11, 2010
|
 Watch
VIDEO
|
If you rent a home or condo in
Florida
- the question you should ask yourself - how well do I know my
landlord's finances? Why? Because as of July 1, 2010,
Florida
law now allows condo and homeowners associations the right to come
after a tenant for unpaid condo/homeowners' fees. Letters are
already flying out from law firms throughout the
Sunshine
State
threatening thousands of renters with eviction if they don't start paying
their landlord's fees. There are over 300,000 households who
rent in the
Tampa
Bay
area, so it is likely you, or someone you know may be affected by this new
law.
|
If
you receive one of these letters demanding you pay your
landlord's fees - don't, I repeat, don't put the letter in
your drawer and expect it to go away. The homeowners
association has the ability to evict you for non-payment.
Your first call should be to your landlord to demand that
he/she/it pay the fees within 48 hours. Make sure to
tell the landlord you will be verifying that they have
paid up the delinquent fees in full with the homeowner's
association.
Remember
if your landlord is not paying their homeowner's fees
on time - there is a good chance
|
|
|
the
landlord is also not paying their mortgage on time. The problem
there - you have no way to verify whether the mortgage on your rental
property is current. In short, you could pay the delinquent
homeowner's fees and still be evicted by the bank if the landlord fails to
pay the mortgage.
If you
decide to pay the delinquent homeowner's fees,
Florida
law allows you to deduct the amount of fees paid directly to the
homeowner's association from your rent. For example, if the
delinquent fee is $500 and your monthly rent is $1000. You would pay
the association $500 and the balance of your rent ($500) would be
paid to the landlord as rent.
The
long and short -- a landlord who fails to pay their homeowner's fees
after repeated warnings from the homeowners association is probably a
landlord you want to cut ties with when you can.
|
