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JONI JAMESSome landlords penalize tenants who don't give 60 days' notice under a 2003 law that may surprise many.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida state Sen. Dave Aronberg is no stranger to the law.
A former state assistant attorney general, Harvard law school graduate and White House fellow, the Greenacres Democrat had no hint last year that he would have a problem checking out of the Tallahassee apartment he'd leased for the 2003 legislative session.
"I went in to turn in my key and they said, "Okay, you owe us two months' rent for not giving us 60 days' notice,' " Aronberg said. "I couldn't believe it."
Sure enough, Aronberg, 32, checked his lease and found a clause requiring 60 days' notice to end the lease. Aronberg argued that his move-out date was obvious: He had signed a three-month lease.
Which means he would have had to notify the landlord he was leaving 30 days after moving in.
Aronberg haggled and didn't pay any penalty. Others haven't been so lucky and are embroiled in class action lawsuits challenging the practice.
What Aronberg didn't realize at the time he was leaving the apartment is that just weeks before, he had voted for a bill that enshrined in state law the very clause he found so stunning.
Thanks to the Legislature, landlords won the right to collect hefty penalties from tenants who don't give 60 days' notice as required in their contract.
"I had no idea what we'd done until I went to check out of my apartment at the end of session," Aronberg said. "No idea."
The 60-day provision passed almost unnoticed in a high-profile bill (SB 482) that unanimously passed the Legislature during the opening days of the war in Iraq. The bill prohibited landlords from gouging National Guardsmen who had to break their leases when called to war. But the patriotic rhetoric supporting the feel-good legislation barely mentioned the obscure section of the bill, included at the behest of the Florida Apartment Association, that benefits landlords at the expense of Florida's 4.5-million renters.
Now, tenants who sign contracts requiring 60 days' notice can find themselves out thousands of dollars if they don't comply. Before last year, Florida law only explicitly allowed landlords to demand damages from residential tenants who gave fewer than 15 days' notice.
Only one lawmaker questioned the provision, which was described by sponsors as a "clarification of requirements that affect both tenants and landlords."
"I guess I'm glad I noticed it, but I'm sorry I didn't continue to push it," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "You ought not to use the mantle of helping our military men and women to advance an anticonsumer agenda."
What even Gelber didn't realize is that the provision put into state law a controversial practice used by two of the state's biggest residential landlords. The practice is the focus of class action lawsuits. Now Aronberg and Rep. Mary Brandenburg, a West Palm Beach Democrat, are sponsoring bills that would require landlords to remind tenants in writing 15 days before the 60-day notice deadline. But with less than three weeks left before the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn, the measure's future is uncertain. The bill is ready for the House floor, but in the Senate, it only made its first appearance Monday, where it passed the first of two required committees.
The tale of Senate Bill 482 in many ways is unremarkable for Tallahassee, where special interests can push something through before opponents catch on.
Few lawmakers, pressed for time in a 60-day session, even attempt to familiarize themselves with all the hundreds of bills that fly across their desks. So they focus on their own agendas and depend heavily on their staffs, colleagues and lobbyists for information.
"Once we realized what they were doing, we were told it's too late, we'd missed our chance," said Dorene Barker, lobbyist for Florida Legal Services, which represents poor people in civil matters such as landlord-tenant disputes.
Senate sponsor Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, along with Florida Apartment Association lobbyist Jodi Chase, say the change was insignificant because tenants can refuse to sign a lease that includes a 60-day notice. "I haven't gotten a single call, and I'm sure I would have," Lynn said.
Chase said the change made sense. "The whole point of this is the landlord has to know if the person is staying or going. It's like trying to get an RSVP to your kid's birthday party," Chase said. "Tenants aren't telling landlords what they're going to do."
But legislative records show lawmakers themselves had little official notice of what they were doing. The staff analysis of the Senate version focused only on the impact on National Guardsmen. The potential impact of the bill on the state's other renters was never mentioned.
The analysis of the companion House bill mentioned the provision, albeit in legalese: " ... permits residential rental agreements with a specific duration to contain a provision requiring a tenant to give no more than 60-day notice of his or her intent to vacate the premises upon completion of the rental agreement."
Class action lawsuits filed in 2002 against Equity Residential and Gables Residential Trust, two of the state's largest landlords, contend damages levied against Florida tenants for failing to give 60 days' notice, usually equivalent to two or three months' rent, were excessive and violate Florida law.
Plaintiff's attorney Rod Tennyson of West Palm Beach contends tenants have been forced to pay $14-million in penalties to Equity Residential in the past four years, and $9-million to Gables. Equity and Gables are both publicly owned real estate investment trusts that own tens of thousands of apartments in Florida.
Equity spokesman Marty McKenna said company policy prohibits public comment on pending litigation. A Palm Beach County judge certified the complaint against Equity as a class action suit in October and said the change in state law had no bearing on the case.
Aronberg and Brandenburg have said they'd like to do more than just demand that tenants get notice 15 days before the 60-day deadline.
"I'd like to undo it all, but two freshmen Democrats aren't likely to repeal something backed by powerful interests," Aronberg said.