Ok... we signed a written lease, that is month to month, on a Mother-in-Law suite. We agreed to pay a first and last. The landlord is terminating our lease, and has claimed that the law is to give 15 days to vacate the premises NOT 30. Is this legal? Or will he have to return our deposit? How does this work?

He said he would be lenient and we could stay through our deposit time, as long as we were quite and had no company or anything, but he makes life very difficult... so... anyone knows the FL statute on this situation? I could really use some insight and some help with this situation.

The deposit is for damage done so he should return it minus any damages.
If he says you can use it toward more time then make sure you get specifics in writing such as the new move out date and maybe see if you can even get a written promise that he will not evict you within the time.
A 15 day eviction order for Florida is more than sufficient.

There was another question about this, but I think it was from the tenant side. The statute says that notice must be given at least 15 days prior to the end of the rental period. So, if you renting on a calendar month basis, then you must be given notice 15 days prior to the end of the month. If you were given notice (in writing) prior to 7/16 then you need to be out by 7/31. However, if you were given notice AFTER 7/16, then you can legally stay to 8/31, but you will still have to pay rent for August.

Why is he terminating your lease and when did he give you written notice.

Here is the fla eviction law if it helps in your situation

Florida Evictions

I think it is three day eviction as scott said prior to the end of the rental period

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

why is he terminating your lease and when did he give you written notice.?

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OK, the paper he handed us today 7/17 but is dated on 7/15 says that "...terminated because you invalidated the agreement by hosting guests on July 10 through July 13"

In the lease it says that they have to be aware and agree to the fact that people would come over, he was aware, and verbalize an agreement with us, but we never had it in writing that it was OK for people to come and stay... so we can't prove that he said they could. So now he is evicting us.

Previous to that, in the month of July, He tried to raise our rent (which is fixed) due to the cost of energy usage. We pay a set amount for ALL INCLUDED. And we were never warned that we were using too much. So we refused to pay the extra, and three days later he hands us this notice for eviction.

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Originally Posted by N0help4u

The deposit is for damage done so he should return it minus any damages.

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We paid both a clean-up deposit and a first and last. He said he would return our clean up if it was clean... but he never said anything about the last months rent deposit... see... he's trying to evict us by July 31.. We already paid for the month of July. So what about our August rent? He also verbalized claims of if we don't leave within the 15 days our depoist for rent would be used to do the "3 day eviction" to cover court costs... so he is trying to get away with all that extra month's worth of rent.

Often when utilities are included a landlord will require no guests or inform him first because of the added expense of the utilities. He has no way of knowing how much your utilities are going to go up especially when you have an extra person. Many landlords will charge an extra fee for guests when the utilities are included so you very well do owe him for the utilities. I think staying there to 'use your deposit' may not be a good idea.

He would owe you last months deposit since you paid up on that. He could deduct for utilities though,

Ok, the focus here is on the date of service. If you can prove that he didn't serve you until 7/17, then you MIGHT be able to forestall vacating until the end of August. The problem is that if you count the 17th, that makes 15 days. Since the statute says at least 15 days, I would be inclined to not include the date of service. But I don't know what your local court will say so I would check with them.

Since you are on a month to month basis, both of you can terminate the lease at any time, subject to the 15 day rule. Now if you aren't out by 7/31, then he files for eviction and gives you a 3 day notice. If you still don't vacate he's got to go to court for an eviction order. This means a hearing. At the hearing you explain to the judge that you were not served until 7/17 and that wasn't 15 days prior to the end of the rental period. If the judge interprets it the way I do, you get to stay until 8/31. If he doesn't, he issues an eviction order for a few days hence.

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Originally Posted by N0help4u

Many landlords will charge an extra fee for guests when the utilities are included so you very well do owe him for the utilities.

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Excatly. He used to rent this space to single mid 40's women. He was well aware of the fact that 2 persons (my wife and I) would be living in the space, we had offered ahead of time to confirm that he didn't want more than the desired amount, he increased it by $100 and we agreed to pay it. 6 months down the road he wants even more, and that was before the guests stayed.

I just want to make sure that there is a law or stipulation that says that if we leave before the 1st of August that we are entitled to the last months deposit. He's a sneaky dude and "knows the laws better" as he so put it... so I'm trying to do my homework =)

Of course with a written "month to month" the can raise the price with a 30 day notice. They can not do that on a year lease. So in fact all they have to do is give you a notice of pay increase unless of course there is a set rate for a longer period

Well, all that was said is that we would have to pay for the Kilowatts and hour extra from the difference of last year...

Which for him is good because he was gone half the year, For Example, this month the bill had ~2300 kilo/hour used... last year he wasn't in the state so it was ~250 kilo/hour... therefore we have to pay both ours and his and his wife's usage... see the unfairness?

I wouldn't mind paying an extra 50-100 dollars.. but $400 isn't in my extra price range.

If you paid First AND Last, and you move out before 8/1 he owes you a refund on the last months rent. As for the security deposit, you do a wlak through and note any damages. He then has those damages repaired and deducts them from the deposit, returning the balance to you. If the repairs exceed the deposit he could sue you for the difference.