Smoking tenant given seven day notice to cure or vacate

There are two different types of lease violations in Florida: curable violations and incurable violations. Both types of violations have slightly different procedures for the landlord to follow when trying to evict a tenant.

Curable Lease Violations: A curable lease violation means that the tenant could have an opportunity to fix the violation. Some examples of curable lease violations include having a dog when no pets are allowed, parking in an unauthorized parking spot, and failing to keep the premises clean and sanitary. A landlord can give a tenant a seven-day eviction notice as soon as the landlord is aware of the lease violation. When the lease violation is of the type that it can be remedied, or cured, the landlord must give the tenant an opportunity to either fix the violation or move out. The tenant will have seven days to do this. If the tenant fixes the lease violation within the seven days and then does the same or similar violation within a twelve-month period, the landlord can evict the tenant without giving the tenant the opportunity to remedy the violation. The violation would then become incurable.

Incurable Lease Violations: An incurable lease violation means that the tenant will not have an opportunity to fix the violation. This is either because the violation is of a nature that it cannot be fixed (such as willful destruction or damage to the rental unit) or because the tenant has repeatedly violated the lease after being told to fix the violation (such as repeatedly parking in an unauthorized parking spot). Upon learning of the lease violation, the landlord can immediately give the tenant a seven-day eviction notice. The tenant's only option in this case will be to move out of the rental unit.

Bob: Hi, good morning Tom. I guess I speak on behalf of everyone. Thank you so much for all your advice. We really appreciate your show. I'll try to be brief here. I've got an apartment building over here that's a hundred years old. I had a tenant in the upstairs unit putting cigarettes out on the deck and throwing cigarette butts everywhere. I gave them a seven-day notice to cure back on June 28, and last night I get a call from another tenant that there's a flowerpot on that deck on fire. Fortunately, the tenant went up and put the fire out but tenant would not come to the door. I went up this morning and mailed the notice of seven days to vacate. Do I need to do a three-day notice also Tom? 

Attorney Tom Olsen: Bob, in your lease, does it say, "No smoking"? 

Bob: It does not. 

Attorney Tom Olsen: Next time you may know better to put "No Smoking" in your lease, right? 

Bob: Without question. Absolutely.

Attorney Tom Olsen: All right. Bob, it's not like he's violated the lease because your lease did not say "No Smoking" so really what you're trying to victim on is doing damage to your property. When the tenant's default is minor, you must give him an opportunity to cure by a seven-day notice. You gave him a seven-day notice and said, "Look, you're doing damage to my property, you put your butts out on the deck, you're throwing your butts on the property--" and then within seven days later he did it again, is what you're saying? 

Bob: Actually a month later. It was last night. 

Attorney Tom Olsen: Now, you can give him a seven-day notice to a victim you do not have to give an opportunity to cure this time. The three-day notice I think is for non-payment of rent, I think it's a seven-day notice now, that is what you would use. You'd given him seven days to move out and at the end of that seven days, that's when you start the eviction process. 

Bob: I got you. I do not have to issue anything else other than what I have because I attacked the seven-day notice to vacate up today. 

Attorney Tom Olsen: Yes. Bob I do want to let you know this that Rob Solomon is the attorney at our office that does landlord-tenant work and you are welcome to call Rob next week at our office and confirm what's going on, plus you'd want to show those him those seven-day notices that you did Bob. Now Bob, out of curiosity, do you do your own evictions? 

Bob: Yes. 

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay. Bob, it'd be worthwhile for you to run those seven-day notices by Rob just to make sure that they are proper because you know if your notices are wrong, then the judge will throw you out of court even if the tenant doesn't show up. Bob I invite you to reach out to Rob Solomon. He's the attorney at our office next week at 4074235561.