A recent court case (Exclusive Motoring Worldwide, Inc. v. Soral Investments, Inc., 2022 WL 5237093 (Fla. 3d DCA 2022)) serves as a good reminder that a landlord may only be able to obtain funds deposited into the court’s registry “[i]f the landlord is in actual danger of loss of the premises or other hardship resulting from the loss of rental income from the premises[.]” As we previously discussed (link to Trial Court Wrongly Dismisses Case at Hearing on Paying Rent into Registry: Shutts & Bowen LLP), after a landlord files a complaint for eviction, typically, either the parties or the court will set a hearing to determine what, if any amount, of rent is required to be deposited into the court’s registry while the eviction proceeding is pending. At a minimum, a tenant may be required to deposit the undisputed portion of rent owed into the registry in order to defend an eviction action.
Pursuant to Section 83.232, Fla. Stat., “if the landlord is in actual danger of loss of the premises or other hardship resulting from the loss of rental income from the premises, the landlord may apply to the court for disbursement of all or part of the funds so held in the court registry.” A landlord may request all or a portion of the rent in the court’s registry in limited circumstances. Notably, when the only evidence supporting hardship was payments of taxes and property insurance owed by the landlord, the court in Exclusive Motoring Worldwide, Inc. only permitted the costs for those two items to be paid from the court’s registry and limited landlord’s ability to have unfettered access to the funds.
