Disaster Relief Pro Bono Training: Landlord/Tenant Issues

Hello. My name is Tristan Overcashier and I'm a volunteer attorney with Bay Area Legal Services. And the first topic we're going to speak about today is issue spotting with landlord and tenant issues that may come up following a disaster.
So the situations you'll likely encounter will be between a landlord and a tenant. And typically we will be representing or helping a tenant either trying to find some more aid for some damaged personal property or deal with a contract issue regarding the lease on a property that they're renting.
One of the first things you want to do is you want to try to get a copy of the lease between the landlord and the tenant. This is going to be a contract issue and there will be portions of the lease that can speak to some of the avenues you can go down in order to help the tenant in these situations. You'll also want to inquire with the renter and see if they have any renters insurance. And this can be a great tool for helping get repairs to their damaged personal property. And rental insurance is really a great thing and if they have it, you'll want them to file a claim as soon as they can with their insurance company and try to start recovering some of their damages.
Now, you will encounter situations where the tenant is going to be living in a home that's been damaged. For instance, in Hurricane Irma, there were a lot of tenants whose properties they were renting, they were no longer habitable. Either the roofs were damaged or parts of the walls had been broken down. And there's actually Florida law and statutes, specific statutes, that dictate what the landlord and what the tenant can do in these situations.
Florida Statute 83.63 is one of the relevant statutes and this actually gives the tenant the ability to cancel the lease in the event that the home has become uninhabitable because of a storm. At the discretion of the tenant, which means the tenant can cancel the lease, but they don't have to, and it also means that the landlord does not have the right to cancel the lease.
At this time, they can elect to cancel the lease, and they are also entitled to recover their security deposit. And Florida Statute 83.49 is going to be the relevant statute determining the timeframes for providing when the landlord must provide the security deposit back to the tenant.
You'll also want to check the lease and just see if there's any force majeure clause, and this may give us another avenue of recovery, or another way for the tenant to cancel the lease in the event they no longer want to stay at the property.
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Created by Bay Area Legal Services' Disaster Relief Team
Presented by Tristan Overcashier, Pro Bono Volunteer Attorney
Learn more: bals.org/volun...