When Your Commercial Lease Is Being Violated, Every Day Costs You Money

Florida governs commercial and residential tenancies under entirely separate statutes. Residential tenancies fall under Chapter 83, Part II. Commercial tenancies fall under Chapter 83, Part I, which provides landlords with significantly more enforcement power, including the right to distrain the tenant’s personal property for unpaid rent and strict court deposit requirements that cause commercial tenants to waive defenses if they do not pay rent into the court registry during eviction proceedings.

Commercial leases also govern themselves more extensively than residential ones. The notice periods, cure rights, and remedies outlined in the lease often supplement or modify the statutory default rules. This is why commercial landlords should never use a residential eviction process or rely on generic landlord forms for a commercial dispute.

Before filing a commercial eviction lawsuit in Florida, you must serve the tenant with a proper written notice. For a monetary default, this is typically a three-day notice to pay rent or vacate. The notice must be served in accordance with the method specified in the lease, must state the exact amount owed, and must give the tenant three business days (excluding weekends and legal holidays) to pay or surrender the premises.

If the notice is defective in any respect (wrong amount, improper service, or failure to follow the lease’s notice provisions), the eviction will be dismissed and you will have to start over. We draft and serve these notices correctly the first time.

No. Self-help eviction, meaning changing locks, removing personal property, or otherwise physically removing a tenant without a court order, is illegal in Florida for both commercial and residential tenancies. Florida Statute 83.05 requires that dispossession of a tenant occur only through court process. A landlord who engages in self-help eviction can face liability to the tenant for actual and consequential damages, even if the tenant was clearly in breach of the lease.

Commercial tenants sometimes raise self-help eviction claims to generate a counterclaim and create negotiating leverage. Do not give them that opening. The proper process, while it requires time and legal fees, is your protection against those claims.

A tenant who remains in possession after lease expiration without consent is a holdover tenant. Florida Statute 83.06 provides that a commercial landlord may elect to hold a holdover tenant liable for double the monthly rent for each month of holdover, if the landlord has served a written demand for possession and the tenant refuses to vacate.

Do not accept rent from a holdover tenant without written reservation of rights, as rent acceptance can inadvertently create a new tenancy. This holdover damages claim can be pursued alongside an eviction action.

Enforcing a personal guaranty requires a separate lawsuit against the guarantor, or joining the guarantor as a defendant in the same action as the corporate tenant. The guaranty agreement must be reviewed carefully before filing. Key issues include: Is the guaranty unconditional or does it have conditions precedent? Does it expire after a certain period? Were there lease modifications after the guaranty was signed that might have discharged the guarantor’s obligation?

Guarantors frequently raise defenses, including that the landlord failed to mitigate damages by not re-leasing promptly after obtaining possession. We address these proactively by ensuring lease-up efforts are documented in the record.

Yes. Commercial eviction in Florida is not limited to non-payment of rent. Any material breach of the lease can support an eviction action. Common non-monetary defaults include unauthorized use of the premises (violating the permitted use clause), failure to maintain required insurance, violations of signage restrictions, unauthorized alterations to the space, and subletting or assigning without landlord consent.

For non-monetary defaults, Florida law and most commercial leases require a notice specifying the violation and giving the tenant a reasonable opportunity to cure. If the breach is not curable, or if the tenant fails to cure within the specified period, you may proceed to eviction.

This is a constructive eviction claim, one of the most common defenses raised by commercial tenants facing eviction. The tenant is asserting that the landlord’s failure to maintain the premises deprived them of the beneficial use of the space, thereby excusing their obligation to pay rent.

Document everything: your maintenance records, repair requests received and responded to, vendor invoices, and any written communications about the condition of the premises. Under Florida Statute 83.232, a commercial tenant who fails to deposit rent with the court clerk during the eviction proceeding waives all defenses, including constructive eviction. We enforce this statute aggressively to neutralize tenant defense strategies.

It depends on the lease. Florida follows the American Rule, meaning each party pays its own attorneys’ fees unless a statute or contract provides otherwise. Most commercial leases include a prevailing party attorneys’ fees provision, which means if you prevail in enforcing the lease, you may be entitled to recover your legal fees from the tenant or guarantor.

These provisions matter enormously in deciding how aggressively to pursue a case. We review the attorneys’ fees clause in your lease as part of every initial case evaluation.

Yes. Ludwin Law Group works with property management companies and multi-property investors who require consistent legal representation across their commercial portfolios. We are familiar with the needs of clients who may have multiple tenant disputes across different properties at any given time and can provide the kind of proactive, relationship-based representation that makes ongoing management of commercial litigation more efficient.