[chrissstina]

According to the FL Statute as follows...


Title VI
CIVIL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE

Chapter 83
LANDLORD AND TENANT

83.03 Termination of tenancy at will; length of notice.--A tenancy at will may be terminated by either party giving notice as follows:

(3) Where the tenancy is from month to month, by giving not less than 15 days' notice prior to the end of any monthly period


I have signed a lease for a year but under this law, can I legally terminate my lease once having given her adequate notice?

[Choux]

No. You quoted the Fl law pertaining to a no lease agreement. An agreement just from month to month.

[rizzo822002]

According to the FL Statute as follows ....


Title VI
CIVIL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE

Chapter 83
LANDLORD AND TENANT

83.03 Termination of tenancy at will; length of notice.--A tenancy at will may be terminated by either party giving notice as follows:

(3) Where the tenancy is from month to month, by giving not less than 15 days' notice prior to the end of any monthly period


I have signed a lease for a year but under this law, can I legally terminate my lease once having given her adequate notice?

No you can not break your lease. What you might think about doing if you really want to get out is try to sublet your place if you look at the lease it should give you an option about sublet based on the landlord aprovel.
If you quoted your lease corectly its saying that if you have a month to month lease you can break it but not a years lease. Sorry

[chrissstina]

It also says:

83.02 Certain written leases tenancies at will; duration.--Where any tenancy has been created by an instrument in writing from year to year, or quarter to quarter, or month to month, or week to week, to be determined by the periods at which the rent is payable, and the term of which tenancy is unlimited, the tenancy shall be a tenancy at will. If the rent is payable weekly, then the tenancy shall be from week to week; if payable monthly, then the tenancy shall be from month to month; if payable quarterly, then from quarter to quarter; if payable yearly, then from year to year.

In that case, why is it not month to month?

[Choux]

By definition, you have a yearly lease contract. The terms of payment are month to month, not the yearly money upfront.

[froggy7]

And, lucky you, Florida is the one state that doesn't require the landlord to mitigate damages. So, if you sign a year lease, and leave after a week, the landlord can legally sit back and collect the next 12 months of rent from you.

So, if you are thinking of breaking your lease, I'd be looking hard at what options there are in it. Subleasing, buy-out clauses, anything you can find. Or, unless there is a dire reason for you moving (new job out-of-state, family emergency that really really needs you to be somewhere else, etc.), I'd just suck up whatever was making me want to move and leave at the end of the lease.

[chrissstina]

So there's absolutely no way to get out of my lease? The apt is in pre-forclosure (I received a summons dated Sept 6th... spoke to the lender's attorneys... and have seen it listed online as a new, pre-forclosure at $130,000) and there's been a total breakdown in communication between the landlord and I. Things have gotten out of hand and I'm really just interested in terminating the whole thing as quickly and easily as possible.

She told me to hold the rent for Sept - Oct until October 4th when she would give me a letter from the bank saying that the foreclosure matter has been dealt with. She called on October 7th or 8th to tell me that she didn't need to give me the letter and she would be charging me a late fee for rent not paid. She also agreed to furnish me with documentation showing where my security deposit and last month's rent were being held and that has yet to arrive as well. If I send her a letter now requesting it and advising her that acc. To our agreement, she will be in default if it's not corrected in 7 days, is that not grounds to terminate?

[froggy7]

Ah, that's different. If the place is actually in foreclosure, your lease ends at the time of the foreclosure. Now, Florida may be different on this too, but in most states it does. But if it's only in pre-foreclosure, I'm not sure what the legal options are. You might be able to buy your way out, if you have a spot that you want to move to. And if I were you, I'd probably be resigned to losing the security deposit and the last month's rent. If she's in foreclosure, her finances are in a mess, and the odds that you ever see that money are very slim. So, you might approach her and say that, due to the foreclosure situation, you'd like to move out now, and would agree to waive your right to those two items in return for being let out of the lease. Heck, you might just approach her and see if she will allow you to leave (but I wouldn't bet on that... if her finances are that bad, she really needs your rent money.)

Hopefully someone else will have better advice for you. I'm not a landlord, have been a tenant, but never had to deal with this situation.