What is a writ of possession when evicting a tenant in Florida?
Attorney Tom Olsen: I have a rental property, and the one time I had to evict a tenant, it went all the way where I had to get a writ of possession. Let's remind the listeners again what a writ of possession is.
Attorney Caleb Maggio: The writ of possession is the document signed by the judge that directs the sheriff of the county to remove the tenant from that piece of property, and that's ultimately what you need before you can get the sheriff to help you remove that tenant.
Tom: It's a one-page piece of paper. It is taped to the front door or handed to the tenant by the sheriff, and it says, "Hey, we're coming back here in 24 hours. If you're not out of here, we're going to stand by and keep the peace while the landlord moves your stuff out on the curb."
Caleb: That's exactly right, Tom.
Tom: I literally had to do that one time with one of the tenants. Usually it doesn't go that far. Usually the tenant realizes that it's over, the gig is up, it's time to get out, but this lady, the tenant I evicted many, many years ago, she was an alcoholic, and so really didn't have the wherewithal to understand that the gig was up.
Caleb: Yes, unfortunately that happens sometimes. I do have about 50% of my eviction cases, when you're near in the end, the tenant realizes it's the end, and they'll go ahead and get out, and sometimes they'll even agree to go ahead and get out before then because they don't want an eviction on their record, and sometimes they'll even pay a little bit of rent, or you could just re-rent it sooner if they get out. That's always a solution you can go for.
Tom: In my situation, my personal eviction of the tenant, the sheriff was there. I came with the locksmith. We opened up the door, and she's walking around in a daze, and the sheriff says, "Ma'am, you're going to have to get out of here right now." She says, "Okay." She walks out the front door, and the sheriff goes, "Well, you may want to take your wallet and your cell phone with you." "Oh, okay." She walked back, gets those things, out the door she goes.
I have the locksmith start changing the locks, and me and some other people start putting her stuff out on the curb. A little while later, she's somehow on a bike, she's somehow got a buddy, and they're starting to put things on their bikes and trying to haul it away to wherever they went off to, I'm not sure where that was. Sad situation, but so many times in the law, things are settled in a gray area. It's a no winner no loser, but this is a situation where it's black and white. There's an end to it. Their stuff is out on the curb. This is it. This is the end.
Caleb: Right, Tom. Yes, evictions are very black and white.