The Legislature: Five Bad Things That Passed
(1) New obstacles to citizen petitions. The anti-petition forces already won their battle to require all future constitutional amendments to pass by 60 percent – now they’re just piling on.
(2) A weird “pilot project” to exempt Pinellas County, Tampa and several other places from state review of their growth decisions. Good grief – they might need it the most.
(3) A bill letting landlords collect up to two months of double rent when an old tenant leaves early, but a new tenant moves in. The previous law said if a landlord got a new tenant, the old tenant was off the hook.
(4) An insurance “glitch” bill that weakens the requirement, only passed in January, that insurance companies pay claims within 90 days.
(5) A what-the-heck expansion into private toll roads in Florida.
Welcome to TroxBlog, the web-home of columnist Howard Troxler, where he and readers discuss his column topics and current events. The goal here is to focus on the merits of issues, instead of personal attacks or knee-jerk partisanship.
HB1277 only applies to rental agreements for less than one year, and the "two months rent" comes from an allowance for landlords to assess an early termination fee and liquidated damages, up to the amount of two months rent. The tenant who broke their lease would not actually be paying rent (unless the landlord chooses not to relet the property) - but the landlord who has relet the property would receive rent from the new tenant as well as a hefty payment from the outgoing tenant in the form of the fee + damages.
It's made the penalty for breaking a lease much steeper, profiting landlords, which isn't great, but it is not undoing historical precedent in landlord-tenant law.
Posted by: Rene | May 07, 2007 at 10:36 AM
We have morons leading the US and Florida.
What is there to review? There is too much growth too fast!!
Developers are ruining Florida's habitat. At what point do people not think trees are neccessiti for survival? Florida will be a desert in the future. Wildlife will be gone in a few years at this rate.
Posted by: Kevin | May 08, 2007 at 11:21 AM
We have morons leading the US and Florida.
What is there to review? There is too much growth too fast!!
Developers are ruining Florida's habitat. At what point do people not think trees are neccessiti for survival? Florida will be a desert in the future. Wildlife will be gone in a few years at this rate.
Posted by: Kevin | May 08, 2007 at 11:22 AM