fighting eviction

[gandk]

My family and I moved into the rental property this past August. We rent from a private owner and we asked her before we signed the lease if she was on time with her morgage and she said yes. At the end of August she called us at 12 p.m., asking us if we could pay our rent for Sept. early because she is 3 months behind on the morgage and I asked her where did the money go that I just gave her for security and first month rent for August and she said she spent it on some other properties she has. She has callled us many times for many reasons at ridiculous hours even after us asking her not to. She has never made good on anything she promised to fix around the house (exp. remove the dead trees lying on the property that the neighbors rightfully complain about) she is always telling us that the house is very close to being in forecloser as well as several of her other properties. So...we did not pay Dec. rent because we just want out of this mess and we are afraid that with no security deposite left and house going into forecloser our kids and us will be in the street homeless, she gave my son a 3 day quit or pay notice because at that time i was not home. Do I have any chance with this giving info to fight eviction in court or am I just out of luck?? Please help. Scarred Mom.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

More stuff to read regarding the justification for withholding rent in Florida:

http://www.floridapirg.org/flp.asp?id2=25878

Withholding rent should be the LAST step that a tenant takes if the justification for doing so is because the landlord has not addressed repair issues. Since withholding rent opens the tenants up for an eviction (which would remain on their credit history, often haunting them should they wish to rent or purchase something down the road) one must have "all their ducks in a row" before taking this last step.

This means documenting requests for repairs that were never remedied by the landlord within a certain time period. Have you done this? It's highly unlikely that having dead trees on the property makes the unit "uninhabitable". If taken to court, what evidence can you provide to a judge that you made an attempt to notify the landlord of needed repairs that he/she has ignored?

In addition, there is now a Federal Law that protects tenants from being thrown out on the street after a foreclosure. They would have 90 days after such to find another place but ONLY IF THEY CONTINUE PAYING RENT DURING THIS TIME PERIOD:

http://www.nlihc.org/doc/701-704-Public-Law-111-22.pdf

Gail