In Florida, must a landlord supply heat and air conditioning to the rental unit?
Attorney Caleb Maggio: Tom, we were talking about A/C and Florida.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay. All right.
Caleb: I just wanted to clarify-- [crosstalk] Yes, go ahead.
Tom: Let me restate for the listeners out there, okay? The question is, here in the state of Florida, if you're a landlord, are you obligated to supply air conditioning and heat to any residential rental property?
Caleb: Tom, for heat, the answer is always yes. For air conditioning, it depends. You are permitted to rent a property with no air conditioning. However, if you rent with air conditioning at the commencement of the lease, then you are required to maintain that A/C, or the tenant can withhold rent and/or terminate the lease agreement on you.
Tom: Got it. Let's say you're a landlord, and you are maintaining the air conditioning system. One day, you get that call that the air conditioning system is dead, and the landlord goes out and reprices a new air conditioning system for $10,000 or $15,000, and saying, "I'm not going to pay $10,000 for a new air conditioning for this rental property." What would the landlord do?
Caleb: Well, the landlord could try to repair the unit. Outside of that, the landlord could allow the tenant to withhold rent in proportion to the value of a working A/C unit, but the landlord has to be prepared also to allow the tenant to terminate the lease, which in Florida, more times than not, I'd suspect a tenant is going to end up terminating the lease on you in that scenario.
Tom: I bring that up because the cost of a new air conditioning unit here in the state of Florida is just astronomical these days, so I can imagine that there are some landlords out there that might not be able to afford to put a new air conditioning unit in a rental property.
Caleb: That's right, Tom, and I've had a lot of landlords who install cheaper units that just don't get to all areas of the property, and that's been a battle between the landlord and the tenant. That's a bit of a gray area because, yes, you've installed A/C, but now the question is, is it sufficient for the size of the unit?
Tom: That's a great point. Have you actually had that issue come to light before?
Caleb: I have, Tom, and ultimately what ends up happening in that situation, if the tenant wants, they will decide to terminate the lease. You could go to court on that issue, but that's a particular issue that would probably require expert testimony, the expert being anyone that's licensed to install and repair A/C in Florida. That gets a little expensive, especially for an issue that is a bit smaller monetarily like this, so a lot of times, people won't opt to do that. It's much easier to just go find somewhere else to live and go find a new tenant to rent to.
Tom: I'm just curious about a situation-- let's just say the landlord knows that he's got an undersized air conditioning unit in the rental property, and let's just say the landlord knows that unit will never get below 78 degrees, which is still pretty warm. Would the landlord be obligated to disclose that defect to the future tenant?
Caleb: Yes, Tom. If you're going to rent to somebody under the guise that you have sufficient A/C for the entire property, and the tenant then moves in and discovers you do not, that would be a scenario where the tenant could go ahead and withhold rent or terminate the lease agreement. As a landlord, you want to be up front about that because if you are, and they accept it, and maybe you even have something in writing to that effect, then the tenant isn't going to be able to complain about it later.
Tom: Caleb, I want to take that a step farther, okay, and that is this, is that it's expensive for a tenant to move their stuff from one place into this landlord's new unit. If the tenant gets in there and says, "Man, this is not what I bargained for. I know it has air conditioning, but I expected something that would get below 78 degrees in the summertime." Yes, you're saying the tenant's got the remedy to break the lease and move somewhere else, but they've also got damages of what it costs to move there and what it costs to move somewhere else. Can that be a measure of damages?
Caleb: Yes, Tom, that's what we call consequential damages. Essentially, that means as a consequence of an act of a landlord, you've now incurred these additional things, and so there has to be some causal nexus between the landlord's breach and your damages. In this case, that would be, "Now I have to pick up my stuff and move." That is a valid basis to go ahead and try. Not all courts and judges are going to side with you on that, depending on how far you want to go. Oftentimes, it may not be worth spending a lot of money on a smaller amount of money to try to recover, but it is possible.
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