3 ways for a landlord to retake possession of their rental house from their tenant

Attorney Tom Olsen: Talk about evicting a tenant, or if you're a landlord, regaining possession of your rental property, whether it's a house or a condo, really, there's only three ways as a landlord for you to retake possession of your rental property. One is that the tenant walks up and hands you the keys and says, "By the way, I'm gone, bye-bye."

Attorney Chris Merrill: Voluntary.

Tom: Yes. Two is the tenant abandons your rental property, and the Florida statutes defines for us what an abandonment is, and three is you go to court and you get a court order to kick your tenant out of the rental property. Those are the only three ways.

Chris: Correct, because there is no self-help.

Tom: Exactly, so what we're saying is that I've had-- I had a client many, many years ago, that she rents out a house and struck a deal with the tenant that rent's going to be $3,000 a month, but in return for that, tenant, I will keep the electric in my name, the landlord's name, and I'll pay the electric bill. That's how we'll work this deal. Sure enough, the tenant quit paying rent and the landlord is calling me and say, "Tom, I'm not getting any rent. Do I really have to continue to pay the electric bill on this?" The answer is-

Chris: Yes.

Tom: -yes, because as a tenant, there is no self-help. You cannot just turn the power off or change the locks. There's only three ways to get your tenant out of there. They voluntarily move out, they abandon the property, or you get a court order.

Chris: Correct.

Tom: I'm sure my client as a landlord learned her lesson about that, to never do that again, to offer to pay that the landlord pays the electric bill.

Chris: Exactly. Because that's really put the landlord in an especially bad situation, because they again needed-- now it's in their name and now it's, "Okay, what do I do?" Most situations, of course, with the landlord-tenant relationship, it's the tenant putting their-- they're doing the utilities in their own name, and that's the way it should be.

Tom: Now, our previous caller was alluding that it takes a long time to evict a tenant. The good news is that the Florida statutes have written to speed up the process of evicting a tenant here in the state of Florida. If things go smoothly, it might take you 15 days, 20 days to get a court order evicting your tenant. Some people might say, "Tom, 15, 20 days, man, now why does it take so long?" Well, compared to the most things in the law, that is like a lightning fast.

Chris: It is. It is.

Tom: Yes.

Chris: Believe it or not, it's pretty speedy in and of itself, and compared to other areas, lightning speed.

Tom: Exactly. Now, when you watch a lot of movies and TV shows, they talk about-- or part of the plot line is how long it takes to evict a tenant, sometimes years and years and years, but as a general case, that is not going to be true here in the state of Florida. If you need some help, if you're a landlord out there, if you need some help evicting your tenant or issues with your tenant not complying with the terms of the lease, here at the Olsen Law Group we can assist you with that. Call the Olsen Law Group anytime at 407-423-5561 or contact us through our website, olsenlawgroup.com.

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