Video Summary

Can a landlord change the rent after a lease has been signed? The answer is no, you cannot, because the lease says that you’re going to pay your rent for a certain amount of time and this is what the rate is. It’s a contract between the landlord and the tenant and so the landlord cannot turn around and change the rent in mid-stream. Sometimes, I’m also asked about, by tenants many times, whether or not if the landlord, and sometimes by landlords too, if they sell the property, can they terminate your lease. The answer is no, that whoever purchases property is taking it subject to whatever rights that the tenant has.

If a tenant has a lease, they have a right to occupy the property for whatever the term of the lease is, and if the lease specifies how much rent they’re supposed to pay, as long as they pay that amount of rent, they have a right to remain in the property. Of course, there may be other terms of the lease that they must abide by, but as far as their rent’s concerned, the landlord can’t change the rent that’s set forth in a lease. Now, sometimes you get a lease, that the people have stayed in there for, let’s say a year, and the lease expires. They continue on. They keep paying the same rent. They become a month to month tenant.

Then the question becomes, “Well, can the landlord raise the rent once they become a month to month tenant?” The way that the landlord can do that is they have to send a 15-day notice that they are terminating the month to month tenancy, meaning that they’re going to terminate the tenancy. [In 00:02:09] the same notice or agreement with the tenant, they can say that, “I will continue to lease to you but it’s going to be at a higher rental amount.” That’s how a landlord raises the rent on a tenant by giving him 15 days notice that he’s terminating a month to month tenancy. Hopefully you don’t run into any problems like that.

If you have any questions, give me a call at 727 847 2288.

Video Summary

When do you use a quitclaim deed?

Well, primarily, you use quitclaim deeds to clear up any questionable title issues, when it comes to real estate. The quitclaim deed says that I convey to you whatever interest I may have in the property. Whether you’re not saying that you own anything, or if you do own anything, you’re conveying it to the other party. This is contrasted or different than a warranty deed, and as with warranties, you’re saying, “I’m conveying to you good title to this property.”

So, usually, the quitclaim deeds are used whenever you simply wanna clear up title, or someone is gifting you something, and they don’t know if there’s any liens on it, or just what interest they have on the property. But they’re willing to give you their interest in the property, and many times there’s no consideration for. I caution you, though, if you’re purchasing property, or paying somebody for property, I would not suggest you agree to take a quitclaim deed.

In any real estate transaction, I suggest that you have a contract, and have a title search done on the property, so that you don’t get taken. So you don’t wind up with a piece of property that the person did not own, or that there may be a lot of mortgages on the property. And that way, you can have the title checked out, and it’s not all that expensive to do, particularly with your spending thousands to spend hundreds to determine whether or not there are any liens on the property, and exactly what you’re getting.

So, a quitclaim deed is basically the conveyance of property of any interest in property that a person may have, and they’re saying, “I’m not saying I own any interest in the property, but if I do have an interest in the property, I’m conveying it to you.” The deed does have to be signed in the presence of two different witnesses, and acknowledged by notary public to be effective. And documentary stamps need to be placed on the quitclaim deed for the amount of the consideration. Or if there’s a mortgage on the property, you need to put documentary stamps on’em, also, based upon the amount of the mortgage.

If you have any questions about a real estate transaction, the use of a quitclaim deed, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

What are the repercussions for breaching a lease agreement?

Well, let’s first start with the tenant. That’s usually the one that is looking to breach or move out of a lease prior to its expiration or not paying the rent.

So, the most common breach of a tenant of a lease agreement is where they don’t pay the rent. The landlord then has the right under the Florida Landlord Tenant Act to file a three day notice to the tenant telling them that they got three days in which to pay the rent or move out and the landlord can then sue for possession and to have the tenant removed by the sheriff.

That process takes about 30 to 45 days. Also, the landlord can sue the tenant for any damages or any back due rent. Depending upon the lease is how that’s to be calculated and when they calculate it, so those are the usual circumstances whenever a tenant breaches the lease, it’s for non-payment or they may violate some other rule.

Again, the landlord must give the tenant a certain notice, giving them, I believe, it’s seven days in order to correct the deficiency such as if they had a pet in the apartment or the house and it was in violation of the terms of the lease, well, they give a seven day notice and tell the tenant they must correct it in seven days or they’ll evict them and if they do it again, well, they will have a right to evict the tenant.

On the other hand, we have the landlord – let’s say that they have leased the property to the tenant and the tenant is paying the rent – this sometimes rises in the event that the landlord is sued in foreclosure and the tenant is of course sued and then they have – the question is: well, has the landlord breached the lease and the answer is: no, until the final judgement of foreclosure is entered and the property is sold and the tenants are required to leave.

Does the landlord breach the lease? In that event, the tenant does have a cause of action against the landlord. They could sue them for the breach of the lease and their liability for that.

Another circumstance where the landlord has leased the property and has decided to sell the property and the tenant is still in possession. The landlord cannot unilaterally terminate a lease. The tenant has a right to remain in possession and really it’s very difficult for the landlord to show the property, but if they do sell the property, whoever purchases it is bound by the provisions of the lease.

So, the landlord has a hard time breaching it other than it’s the landlord’s failure to possibly maintain the property. In that event, the tenant gives a notice to the landlord of the failure of the landlord to do the repairs or maintain the property and the tenant’s remedy is to terminate the lease and move out.

Again, that requires a seven day notice to the landlord giving them seven days to take care of the problem. If a landlord does not or commence then to fix these problems, well, the tenant can terminate the lease and move out.

So, those are some of the most common examples of and the remedies of both the landlord and the tenant as far as a breach of a particular lease. This has to do primarily with residential tenancies rather than commercial tenancies.

So, if you have any questions about your tenant or your landlord, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Do I need a lawyer for a property settlement agreement? The answer is yes. I suggest that you definitely consult with an attorney in order to draft a property settlement agreement, whether it be before or in contemplation of divorce or in contemplation of marriage or even after you are married and you want to do a post-nuptial agreement.

There are all sorts of disclosure requirements that are necessary in order for the property settlement to be effective, particularly when it comes to a divorce. As a result of that, I usually have my clients discuss or have a domestic relations lawyer prepare the settlement agreement so that it will hold up if there is a divorce involved.

Many times the property settlement agreements get set aside and they find that they are inequitable and therefore in divorce court I want a divorce lawyer to be able to defend any property settlement agreement in the event that there is a divorce proceeding. That is not quite as difficult in the event that you need to use those in conjunction with a probate proceeding where a spouse has waived their right to homestead or other rights, but it is a document that you definitely need to have a lawyer to make sure that it is done properly, the proper disclosures are attached to it.

The lawyer can only represent one of the parties. It is fine if you, and your spouse or your fiancée, write down everything that you are agreeing to and then take it to the lawyer, but the lawyer can only represent one party to a property settlement agreement.

If you have any other questions about a property settlement, give me a call and I will be glad to chat with you. My phone number is 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

What do I need to know about construction contract agreements?

I am assuming you are talking about this from a consumer standpoint or an individual point of view.

The first thing you need to do is investigate who you are contracting with. You need to ask them for their license to make sure that they are properly licensed. You also need to make sure that they have the proper insurances if they are going to work on your property, and you might ask them for that.

You need to also say, “Well, could you give me the last three jobs that you worked on so I can contact those folks and get a reference?” You need to do due diligence with these contractors as far as getting references, as far as checking with the Better Business Bureau, contacting Consumer Affairs to see if they have any complaints, and just Google them to see what the other consumers say; I know that there are ratings there.

It is really critical for you to do your due diligence before you enter into a contract. I have a saying, “It is hard to make a good contract with a good player,” and that is where you are going to run into trouble. If the contractor is bad, well, you are not going to wind up with a good contract to begin with.

Also, you need to verify whether or not a building permit is necessary, and confirm that the contractor is going to apply for a building permit. This has to do with something as simple as replacement of windows or replacing air conditioners, and certainly as far as roofs are concerned. If a contractor does need a building permit, before they get the building permit they are going to need a Notice of Commencement, which you will need to sign. This will protect you under the construction lien statute.

The contract also should start with a deposit. You do not want to give the contractor too much money before he ever starts the work. He is going to want some money, and he may be ahead of you a little bit as far as the amount of work that he does versus the value that you have received. So, you need to break down the payments in installments, and certainly you need to reserve a final payment. The reason for this is if for some reason the contractor would not complete the work, you should have enough money – or almost enough money – to complete the work by hiring someone else, whereas if you have given all your money to the contractor up front and he then leaves, then you are in a bad situation and it will cost you to get someone else to finish it. It will cost you a lot more than you initially contracted for.

Also, the contract that you have with your contractor needs to not only break down the payments, but also provide that they will be giving you progress payment affidavits stating that they paid all of their subcontractors and material men before you give them the next draw. Therein lies the reason why you want to break down your payments into at least three installments.

Before you give the contractor the last payment, you need to be sure that he provides you with a contractor’s final affidavit saying that he has paid everyone. Once he gives you that, you can give him the final payment, provided you haven’t received any sort of noticed from any material men or anyone else who says, “Well, you need to make sure I get paid.” If you have, you need to require your contractor to give you a release from that subcontractor or material man that they used on the particular job.

These are some of the things that you need to look at in your contract. The other thing is that you need to put down a date by which all this work is going to be done. The contractors may have some problems with doing that as far as any penalties are concerned, but you definitely need to have a time period. I get calls all the time that “he started on this, and I haven’t seen him in six weeks,” or whatever. Something in the contract should say an outside date that this should be done. So, if the job should take 30 days, you say, “Well, if it is not done within 30 days then I have a right to terminate the contract if it is not done in 60 – or some outside date.” This is difficult to negotiate, but you don’t want to just leave it open as to when this contractor is going to come back.

Construction contracts are hopefully fairly detailed and may have certain provisions in there about effective workmanship, on how you are supposed to claim it before you can bring an action against your contractor – which is a losing proposition. Something you else you want to address in the contract is what kind of warranties you are going to have, and be sure you receive those before you give them the final payment. Don’t take “no” for an answer, and “I’ll get it to you later,” or whatever. Say, “No. I need that before I give you this final check,” and make sure that once the building permit is pulled – or you see the building permit – that the Building Department signs off on your building permit on the final inspection.

I am not sure that I have covered everything, but hopefully that gives you a running start at looking at entering into a contract to have construction work done on your home or your property. If you have any questions about it or need some help with it, give me a call at 727-847-2288.