How Do You Go About Evicting A Family Member Who Has Never Paid Rent, And Does Not Want To Leave In The State Of Florida?

Dutz

Same problem here, and also in Florida.

Cvillecpm

Guys - you are mixing apples and oranges...EVICTION is the actual ejectment of a TENANT from a rented property usually by a court order and the use of a police officer.

Removing someone who is not a TENANT - does not pay rent, has no written agreement, no property utilities in their name - is not an EVICTION.

That said - changing the locks on the property is the easiest way to remove a guest or invitee

frommetoyou

the above comment about the difference between real tenants and the (described as) invitees is false information and could cause you a little legal trouble yourself if you follow the advise. There are several ways to go about evicting someone which all basically boil down to a breach of contract or agreement, be it written or oral. There is where the problem lays. For family members and such you can assume that it was an oral agreement which is and was subject to interpretation by all parties involved, and in a sticky situation involving hurt feelings, in court you can probably foresee there being a little bit of lying or misdirection by one or all parties involved. You must submit a written eviction notice to the court for them to process. Once the document is submitted and presented to the tenant he or she has a certain time to respond, usually 5 days, and then the process of eviction can take place through the courts and through the courts only. The best you can hope for with no kind of objections raised in the matter of time is about 20 days start to end. DO NOT CHANGE THE LOCKS, PLACE TENANTS BELONGINGS OUTSIDE, OR SHUT OFF ANY UTILITIES TO THE TENANTS USED QUARTERS (even if paid by and in th name of YOU) because doing so IS ILLEGAL and WILL ONLY BACKFIRE.


Section 83.67, F.S.
Florida Law does not allow a landlord to force a tenant out by:

*
Shutting off the utilities or interrupting service, even if that service is under the control of or the landlord makes payment;
*
Changing the locks or using a device that denies the tenant access;
*
Removing the outside doors, locks, roof, walls or windows (except for purposes of maintenance, repair or replacement); and/or
*
Removing the tenant's personal property from the dwelling unless action is taken after surrender, abandonment, recovery of possession of the dwelling unit due to the death of the last remaining tenant in accordance with section 83.59(3)(d), or lawful eviction.

If any of these occur, the tenant may sue for actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus court costs and attorney's fees.