Where Does a Tenant in a Florida Eviction Pay Rent?

WARNING: You Must Continue to Pay Rent During an Eviction

After a landlord initiates an eviction proceeding claiming that the tenant has failed to pay rent on time, the tenant must pay the disputed rent and the rent that accrues into the court registry. If a tenant is being evicted for failure to pay rent and does not have the money to pay rent into the registry, the defendant waives all defenses to the count for possession (but does NOT waive any causes of action the tenant might have against his landlord, including causes of action for harassment and prohibited practices). When a deposit is not made into the registry the landlord is entitled to an immediate default final judgment for removal of the tenant with writ of possession to issue without further notice. In other words, if you can’t make the rental payments into the court registry, the court will side with the landlord in the eviction proceeding, which will cause a tenant to be forced to move out within a matter of days.

In a recent eviction action out of Hillsborough County the court entered a final default judgment in favor of a landlord and ordered tenant removal. However, this eviction wasn’t like most other evictions, it was for failure to pay an obligation other than rent. After the eviction was initiated, the landlord moved for default for failure of the tenant to deposit into the registry. The failure to pay into the registry led to the default judgment.

However, on appeal the court correctly recognized that the landlord was not pursuing an eviction based on the tenant’s failure to pay rent. Therefore there was no disputed rent and there was no obligation for the tenant to deposit rent into the registry UNTIL the next month’s rent accrued.