Should an attorney prepare the 3 day notice to pay rent or vacate in Florida?

Attorney Tom: In your experience, are landlords preparing their own three-day notice to pay rent or is that something that you would recommend that an attorney do?

Attorney Caleb: I would recommend an attorney do that, Tom. The main reason is I've had a lot of clients come to me with their own three-day notices after the fact. They're tricky because a lot of landlords will put on everything they're owed, base rent, late fees, utilities, all of the above. If your lease doesn't have very specific language, the only thing you can put on that three-day notice is base rent, so you want to consult an attorney to see if your lease has the right language so you can include everything.

Tom: As you said, this three-day notice to pay rent or vacate is the foundation of your eviction action. You have to attach a copy of it to your complaint. The bottom line is if your three-day notice was done improper, then what happens?

Caleb: The court's going to kick back your entire complaint, dismiss it completely, and you'll have to start from square one again. You'll have to redo your notice, wait the three days, refile the eviction. It slows down the process, and you lose your $200 filing fee.

Tom: Caleb, back in the day I used to do eviction actions, and my experience with tenant eviction actions is often the tenants do not file an answer to your eviction complaint, and that means you're going to win by default. Let's say, for example, the tenant does not file an action to your eviction complaint. Is a judge still going to review the three-day notice, and potentially, dismiss your case even if the tenant has not filed an answer?

Caleb: The judge should, Tom. It doesn't always happen, but there's always that chance, and the beautiful thing about Florida for landlords is that you get a lot of those defaults for nonpayment of rent.

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