Can a tenant live in my rental property without power or water?
I have rental property, the tenant moved out at the end of May 2010 and I turned on the power and water in my name to comtrol the temp in the home. I discussed renting my house to a couple back in September 2010 but they never committed to a date when they would move in. On December 20th a utilities bill was issued and much higher than normal. I found out they had moved into my home without permission or notifying me. On 12/21 they had deposited the final amount required for the security deposit we had discussed and when I FINALLY got them to call me back, they promised to pay the full rent amount for Dec and Jan plus reimburse me for the utilities they used and transfer the utilities into their name. They kept assureing me this would be taken care of and pushing the promise date out. I had to turn my utilities off because I could no longer afford to pay the bill because it was so high. They are still in my house with no utilities and have not paid any utilities and only given ma $600.00 towards the December rent. So they owe me $100. For Dec rent plus the full amount of the Jan, Feb rent and utilities for Dec, Jan & Feb. In Florida, is it legal for them to live in my house without any utilities?
Comment on califdadof3's post
There is no contract, They never notified me they were going to ren the place or that they were moving in. The girl helped my cleaning lady and had a key to the house and just moved in one day.
Comment on Fr_Chuck's post
I am so over being a landlord. Laws protect the dishonest people and tenants not the landlord or property owner. As soon as probate is setteled, I am selling even if I do have to pay the IRS for taxes on it. After 16 years of renting the house, I never encountered people like this. Chuck, Thank you for the advise.
Comment on califdadof3's post
No I did not advertise. The woman was a friend of my sister-in-law and everything was discussed verbaly through my Sister-in-law. Because she was a friend, I even dropped the rent from $850. To $700.00 a month to help this person out so she could start saving a down payment to buy the house when I put it on the market in a year or so. So only my sister-in-law can verify the amounts agreeded upon for the rent and that she too tried to get her to commit to a date she would begin renting the house and she would not make a commitment to my sister-in-law nor myself. I was waiting for her to make the commitment to draw up a contract.
Comment on ScottGem's post
OMG, this is bad. I'll be contacting an attorney ASAP and on my way to FL. You are correct, I am naïve about all this and will be getting a realestate management company to handle this until I can get it sold. Thank you.
Comment on AK lawyer's post
Yes. I could no longer afford to pay the uilities without funds fron the tenant. That is why they were shut off.