The Tampa Bay Times reported recently of St. Petersburg city council member Steve Kornell who is seeking more oversight of big apartment complexes citing numerous habitability issues. Perhaps more disturbing is that residents within the units supposedly feel that if they report the issues they will be retaliated against. Florida Statute 83.64 specifically provides specifically provide for the protection of tenants who are retaliated against because they have complained to the landlord or to the local code enforcement agency in regards to material violations of housing standards.
It should be noted that proving a retaliatory eviction is no easy task and you should seek the advice of counsel as soon as possible so that your case can be prepared prior to any retaliation. In proving retaliation the tenant must show that but for the complaints they would have received different treatment. If the landlord can prove they are justified in seeking eviction for a lawful reason then the defense will usually fail. Now here is the tricky part, just because a landlord can terminate a lease for another reason, does not necessarily make that other reason non-retaliatory. In our next blog post we will discuss a case from Tampa where the circuit court, sitting in its appellate capacity, reviewed the evidence of retaliation and held that the evidence must be applied to the law to find retaliation (even though the lease term itself had expired).
When a landlord chooses to go into the business of renting properties in Florida they need to be prepared to follow Florida law. We don’t give low priced restaurants a free pass at health inspections in order to promote more people to provide low priced food. We shouldn’t give landlords who rent low priced housing a free pass on habitability issues. It’s a matter of safety and it’s a matter of following the law.
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