My tenant with a 12 month lease abandoned the property and trashed the place. He was current with the rent. He owes about $8,000 in future rent payments unless I can lease the house.

Since I did not have to evict him, how do I proceed to collect?

You will most likely want to consult an attorney on this since your damages may well exceed you states limit in small claims court.

Make sure you take plenty of photo's of the damages and keep all of your receipts for repairs.

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Originally Posted by xocy

My tenant with a 12 month lease abandoned the property and trashed the place. He was current with the rent. He owes about $8,000 in future rent payments unless I can lease the house.

Since I did not have to evict him, how do I proceed to collect?

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You'll have to take a close look at this - you will get less money in Small Claims. You will get more money in a superior court but you will need an Attorney. Also, can you collect from him? A larger Judgment won't do you any good if you can't collect. For that matter, could you collect a smaller Judgment - ?

You would have to decide which option makes sense.

It's my understanding that in FL you don't even need to attempt to mitigate your / their losses and re-rent the unit prior to the original end date of their lease.

So you can tabulate the lost rent, all your damages and sue them for the total. As prev. posters have pointed out... you'll have to weigh out dollar amounts and what limits are for small claims vs. higher courts, etc.

One other question... do you know where he is?