I live in Florida. I need to break my lease. There is an stipulation on my contract that says... "tenant must first submit such request in writing to the office. resident must give 60 day written notice and remarketing fee of $250. The charge will in no way release the resident of his/her obligation to pay rent under the terms of the lease until the apt is re-rented or the lease expires, whichever may come first"... On another paragraph says.. "there is a strcit no lease break policy, under any circumstances"... and repeats what I stated before. I went to the office to speak to the former manager (we don't have one now) and she was very nice and basically said that I needed to give the 60 day notice and pay $250 and she will have the guys work on the apt asap to try to rent it out quick because of the location of my apt and because we were always on time. The manager left and the leasing agent says what she told me is no longer valid because she was the only one with the authority to make those arrangements and that she doesn't know for sure what my charges will be if I break the lease. That's what bothers me because I need to have at least an idea on what I will end up paying. I spoke to another property manager (from another place) and she said that my contract is not valid because it doesn't have a termination fee/liquidated damages clause in case I need to brake the lease and that by law every contract in Florida has to have one since 2009.
Thanks for your help.

Not 100% certain on this but when there is a state law it is unnecssary to repeat that law in a contract. Understanding the New Liquidated Damages Law Your contract may not be valid but it would be up to you to prove that in court. What the old manager said would happen is actually the worst case scenario so any new manager can't make it worse. Here is what could happen, you give notice and pay $250 but , in soft market, no renter is found and you pay full rent until the lease runs out, so what did you get for your $250. Only the slim possibility of a renter taking youtr apartment off your hand. When is this lease set to expire anyway?

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Originally Posted by jeanethr

... There is an stipulation on my contract that says... "tenant must first submit such request in writing to the office. resident must give 60 day written notice and remarketing fee of $250. The charge will in no way release the resident of his/her obligation to pay rent under the terms of the lease until the apt is re-rented or the lease expires, whichever may come first"...
...
I spoke to another property manager (from another place) and she said that my contract is not valid because it dosn't have a termination fee/liquidated damages clause in case I need to brake the lease and that by law every contract in Florida has to have one since 2009.

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Ok, the argument goes something like this. Fla. Statute 83.595 requires that the remedy of an early termination fee

"is available only if the tenant and the landlord, at the time the rental agreement was made, indicated acceptance of liquidated damages or an early termination fee. The tenant must indicate acceptance of liquidated damages or an early termination fee by signing a separate addendum to the rental agreement containing a provision in substantially the following form:
[see statute]."

Since the lease doesn't have an addendum containing language in substanually that form, they cannot charge what amounts to an early termination fee. When was the effective date of the lease?

But whether the ETF clause applies, you are still obligated to continue to make the lease payments for the remaining term of the lease, unless the premises happen to be re-let earlier. She is incorrect in saying that every lease in Florida has to have such an addendum. The remedy of charging an ETF cannot be available to a LL without one, but the LL still has other remedies it can use.

The lease is set to expire on 10/2011. It was renewed back in July of 2010. Wao! I read the information you sent on the link and basically they can charge what they want bcse there's no addendum.

Yes you are correct. I was able to review some inf just now. There is no addendum in my contract. The lease original date is 04/2009 and it was just renewed back in July 2010 until 10/2011

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Originally Posted by jeanethr

... Wao! I read the information you sent on the link and basically they can charge what they want bcse there's no addendum.

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No, I believe it's the other way around: they cannot charge an early termination fee at all (assuming the '09 change in the law applies to a lease renewal).

But they don't seem interested in letting you out of the lease. They don't have to.

It is not clear that you actually paid the ETF. If so, you could make the argument that you shouldn't have been charged the ETF (a/k/a "remarketing fee "), that the current management has disavowed it, and so it should be credited toward your rent.

AK is correct, no fee can be charged because there is no addendum. However, that means they can keep you paying until the lease runs out if they don't find a renter plus they can charge you advertising costs. Tell me about those dates, are these one year leases? First year lease date was 4/09 so the next one should be 4/10 and then 4/11

But Fl is one of the states where the landlord does not even have to try and rent out the apartment. So if they have 4 empty ones, they can rent out the other 3 first if they want, and you will be obligated to keep paying even after you move out, till either the end of the lease, or till they finally do rent it.