rental-property florida
Reliance on verbal statement
<p>Tenant Bob is in a commercial lease and indicates he will break the agreement and move out in December.  The landlord does not agree to terminate the lease, however, documents the verbal intent to break the lease and the tenant confirms that it was said.</p>
<p>The landlord relies on the tenant's statement proceeds to sign a new tenant for December.   If Bob fails to move-out in a timely manner or were to refuse to move out, what remedy does the new tenant have?   What remedy does the landlord have?</p>

<p>It matters who said what. Example: If Bob said &quot;I really need out of this lease in December, can we just call it quits&quot; and Landlord says &quot;No way, you are bound by the lease for another two years&quot; – then Bob has not repudiated the contract, and in seeking a new tenant, Landlord has acted in a manner that
anticipatorily repudiates the lease. It is not reasonable to infer from the initial statement that Bob has no intention to make good on his obligation. Bob might sue Landlord for repudiating the lease, though it's unclear whether the Florida courts would consider hunting for a new tenant to be repudiation of a lease and legally actionable.</p>
<p>OTOH if Bob said &quot;Lease be damned, I'm leaving in December&quot;, then Bob has clearly repudiated the contract, and Landlord is now entitled to terminate the contract. First thing, then, is that you have to determine who is in the wrong. I assume that Bob was definitive in his repudiation: so the lease is terminated. What next?</p>
<p>Part I of <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0000-0099/0083/0083.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ch. 83</a>, Florida Statutes, is the law of commercial leases. §83.06 says that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(1) When any tenant refuses to give up possession of the premises at
the end of the tenant’s lease, the landlord, the landlord’s agent,
attorney, or legal representatives, may demand of such tenant double
the monthly rent, and may recover the same at the expiration of every
month, or in the same proportion for a longer or shorter time by
distress, in the manner pointed out hereinafter.</p>
<p>(2) All contracts for rent, verbal or in writing, shall bear interest
from the time the rent becomes due, any law, usage or custom to the
contrary notwithstanding</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and per §83.07 can sue for damages; plus, you can sue to evict the holdover tenant.</p>
<p>The new tenant has various practical options: their legal leverage is that the landlord is now in breach of contract, so they can sue the landlord.</p>
<p>If we assume that Landlord over-reacted to an innocent request, then he would still need to go through the formality of an eviction proceeding, and would learn that he was not entitled to terminate the contract. He then has a legal problem with the would-be tenant-in-the-wings, because Landlord will be unable to perform – he made a promise that he could not keep.</p>
