Can landlord charge unreasonable rent amount?

In Florida, there is not law that dictates how much a landlord can charge for rent.

John: Can a landlord charge an unreasonable rent in Florida, and what would be considered unreasonable?

Attorney Tom Olsen: John, in the state of Florida as far as I know there are no statutes or case law that prohibit you from charging anything you want to as far as rent is concerned. You can put on there $20,000 a month and your perspective tenants have a right to say yes or no. If you got an existing tenant in there that's paying $1,000 a month and their lease comes to an expiration and you say, "Hey, to renew it, it's going to be $20,000 a month," there's no law in the state of Florida that I know that would prohibit you from doing that. Does that answer your question?

John: It does, but then I do the Google searches and they say that case by case some judges may consider that duress or an unreasonable term, even though there's some statutes [crosstalk] earlier in the conversation.

Attorney Tom Olsen:: John, let me say what those cases might be referring to. Occasionally in a residential or a commercial lease signed by the landlord and a tenant, it says at the end of that lease some language like this. "Tenant shall have the option to renew for five years at a reasonable rent." Now, in that situation I would have preferred that they would have put with the actual dollar amount of the next five years would be, but sometimes they don't, sometimes they just say reasonable and that is one place where the courts can get involved. If the landlord tried to overcharge the tenant, the court could say, "No, that's not reasonable."

John: Understood. Okay.

Attorney Tom Olsen:: All right, John, thank you for calling.

John: Thank you.