As the number of Florida
pro se litigants increase, so does their need for research tools.
Since pro se litigants are nonlawyers, with little or no knowledge of
the law, access to understandable easy to use resources is vital.
Many pro se litigants are low income and therefore unable to pay for
a research service.
Legal research is rarely
easy or straightforward. Because American law stems from many sources
and develops in complex ways, thorough legal research requires
technical proficiency. And because the law is dynamic and often
unclear, thorough legal research also demands creativity and careful
thought.
Many consumers can easily
locate Florida Statutes when beginning their research, but
identifying the issue first may be more daunting. Florida Statutes
can be pulled up online as simply as entering the search string -
Florida Statutes online - into your favorite search engine. However,
the statutes themselves are not intuitively searchable, and its
difficult to know what you're looking for until you find it.
Narrowing the search from
the outset will help bring results that are more useful and less
daunting than a more general search. For example, suppose you were a
residential tenant and you had received a three day notice to pay or
quit. But, you, the tenant, did not want to pay because the landlord
had promised repeatedly to fix the roof, air conditioning, and the
hot water heater and had never done anything. How can a tenant find
guidance, (assuming the tenant cannot afford an attorney and does not
qualify for legal aid)?
Many consumers will
immediately take to the net to find answers. Some question and answer
sites have good answers and some don't. Finding the statutes could be
a good starting point. For that issue, use the search string -
Florida Statutes online landlord tenant - and you'll arrive at
Florida Statute Chapter 83 in its entirety. This is a lot to wade
through, and it is a better idea to do some general research first to
familiarize yourself with landlords and tenants rights and
responsibilities.
Read some articles from
authoritative sources. Authoritative sources are official government
sources like the Florida Bar site, or the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs.
In reading these articles
you may learn under what circumstances a tenant is allowed to
withhold rent and why. Spending time collecting facts, learning the
vocabulary, and then analyzing the facts will save hours of time
spent on dead end research. Many beginning researchers can find the
governing laws, statute, or ordinances, but struggle to find out how
to apply them. The actual procedure is often the most difficult part
in practical terms. These two broad areas of law are referred to as
substantive and procedural.
In our scenario, about
the tenant having been served with a Three Day Notice to Pay or Quit,
the researcher will soon find out through reading articles and
Florida Statutes, that a tenant can withhold rent if his rented
dwelling is uninhabitable. The researcher, may then wonder, what
exactly is considered "uninhabitable"? Is having no air
conditioning in July in Florida considered legally "uninhabitable"?
We all may well agree that no A/C is torture, but the law doesn't say
so. In fact, Florida landlord tenant laws demand that a dwelling have
heat, but air conditioning is not a requirement for habitability. Hot
water and a non-leaking roof are generally considered requirements
for a habitable dwelling. See 83.51 Landlord’s obligation to
maintain premises.— for more information.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0083/Sections/0083.51.html
If a residential tenant
needs to withhold rent because the landlord won't make necessary
repairs or if the dwelling is uninhabitable, the rent should be
deposited with in the registry of the court. And the tenant should
have notified the landlord in writing previously and the landlord
failed or refused to make things right. If the tenant has placed the
rent in the registry of the court, and the judge finds that the
landlord has neglected his obligation to maintain the property, the
judge can then decide how the rent money should be disbursed.
Exact procedures for
withholding rent can sometimes be found on the clerk of court's
website (depending on the county). Pinellas Counts provides some good
information and forms for landlords and tenants. Notes on the form
for withholding rent state:
A Tenant cannot withhold
rent from the Landlord without sending notice and allowing the
Landlord time to cure the non-compliance, violation, or default of
its obligations. Failure to send the required notice to th e Landlord
has significant impact on a Tenant’s rights under the rental
agreement and Florida Statutes. If the non-compliance is not remedied
within the time period specified by statute (or such longer time as
may be granted in your written rental agreement) and the Landlord’s
failure to comply renders the dwelling unit untenantable and the
Tenant vacates, the Tenant may vacate and withhold all rent, or, if
the failure to comply does not render the dwelling unit untenantable,
rent may be reduced in proportion to the loss of rental value caused
by the non-compliance. If the Landlord’s violation of its
obligations is not remedied, but the failure to cure the
non-compliance does not render the dwelling unit untenantable, the
Tenant may remain in the dwelling unit and the rent shall be reduced,
until the violation is cured, by an amount in proportion to the loss
of rental value caused by the failure to cure the violation. In any
legal proceeding, however, the Tenant will have to pay all past due
rent, and rent as it co mes due during the legal proceedings, into
the registry of t he Court. The Tenant should, therefore, deposit all
rent as it comes due in a separate bank account until the Tenant's
disputes with the Landlord have been resolved.
For the text of Florida
Statute 83.51(1), and the grounds for withholding rent, see the note
to Form 3. SOURCE: Sections 83.56 and 83.60, Florida Statutes (2007).
Legal information can be
found in many places. Diligent and persistent search pays off when
you find the answers to troubling legal questions. Keep an open mind,
frame the issues, and remember there may be more than one right
answer to any legal question. Visit FALDP to find legal information for Florida pro se litigants.
