Bresky Law Obtains Reversal of Order That Landlord Return \u201cAdvance Rent\u201d Following Proper Termination of Tenant\u2019s Lease<\/p>\n
Bresky Law recently obtained reversal of a final judgment following trial, which ordered a landlord of residential property to return a large sum of rent to a former tenant. The evidence showed that the tenants had made one large lump-sum rent payment intended to cover the entire year rental period. The trial court found that the landlord had properly terminated the tenants\u2019 occupancy of the premises based on damage to the home. However, the trial court found that the large lump-sum rent payment the tenants had made prior to moving in was \u201cadvance rent\u201d under Florida Statute 83.43(9). The trial court ordered the landlord to return the \u201cunused portion\u201d of rent based on the court\u2019s finding that the rent was intended as advance rent for monthly payment periods. The trial court found that the landlord would be unjustly enriched if it kept the rent.<\/p>\n
On appeal, we argued that the tenants\u2019 rent payment could not be considered advance rent under the statute because there was only one rental period, rather than the multiple \u201cfuture rent payment periods\u201d discussed in the advance rent statute. We argued that the only \u201crent payment period\u201d was the current rent payment period of one year for which the tenants paid. We also argued that the landlord was legally entitled to retain the \u201cunused\u201d portion of the rent money regardless, because the landlord\u2019s termination of the lease was proper. Finally, we argued further that unjust enrichment was inapplicable since a written lease governed the agreement between these parties.<\/p>\n
The Fourth DCA agreed with our position. The Fourth DCA held that the rent payment did not constitute advance rent and that, even if it was advance rent, the landlord should still not have been required to repay it where the landlord properly terminated the lease. The Fourth DCA also held that unjust enrichment did not apply. This reversal allows our landlord client to retain the $38,500 in rent that it was ordered to repay the client, and also affirmed that our client is not liable for the tenants\u2019 attorney\u2019s fees.
\n** At this time, the time for a motion for rehearing has not expired and the court\u2019s mandate has not yet issued. **<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bresky Law Obtains Reversal of Order That Landlord Return \u201cAdvance Rent\u201d Following Proper Termination of Tenant\u2019s Lease Bresky Law recently obtained reversal of a final judgment following trial, which ordered a landlord of residential property to return a large sum of rent to a former tenant. The evidence showed that the tenants had made one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1811,1807,1838],"tags":[2515,1845,1924,1881,1932,2516,2422,2517,2504,2046,2518,2519,2520,2521,2522,2523,1912],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4th-dca-rulings","category-bresky-appellate-cases","category-notable-cases","tag-advanced-rent","tag-commercial","tag-final-judgment","tag-florida-statute","tag-fourth-dca","tag-landlord","tag-law-offices-of-robin-bresky","tag-lease-termination","tag-mandate","tag-motion-for-rehearing","tag-occupancy","tag-premises","tag-rent","tag-rent-payment","tag-tenant","tag-tenant-lease","tag-trial-court"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}