In Florida, tenants facing eviction must first ‘pay to play’ for a day in court

To get his day in eviction court, Darnell Rhodes first had to pay the court $3,500.

That was the amount a judge said was owed in rent for Rhodes’ Miami Beach apartment as the eviction case got started — a sum the 50-year-old unemployed office worker would need to deposit before he could defend himself against the eviction papers.

“I want to get the case dismissed,” Rhodes said, pointing to papers he said show the entity filing eviction papers didn’t actually own his unit. “The judge totally disregarded all the signed documents.”

Florida’s rules are unusual by requiring an upfront deposit to prevent an automatic eviction, housing lawyers say, though many states require tenants to pay rent to a court in the early stages of an eviction proceeding.

Florida tenants have five business days after an eviction notice to either make the deposit or request a hearing to ask a judge to set a different amount to pay the court.

“There are some defenses a tenant can raise at a hearing that are game-over, the case would be dismissed,” said Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project in Richmond, Virginia. “In Florida, you have to pay even if you have an absolute defense, where the same case would be immediately dismissed in other states.”

The law requires tenants to put up the money contested in the eviction proceedings, with a judge later determining whether the landlord gets the money or it’s returned to the tenant.

That rule gives tenants a narrow window to contest eviction papers in court, according to lawyers specializing in rental disputes, and then come up with the hundreds or thousands of dollars required to have a judge hear their case.

“I think it’s fundamentally unfair,” said Jeffrey Hearne, director of litigation for Legal Services of Greater Miami, a nonprofit that represents low-income clients facing evictions. “Someone is losing their home, and they never get a chance to make their case on whether they should get evicted. It’s all about the money.”

Eviction cases are getting extra attention this year with rents soaring and elected leaders calling the lack of affordable housing a crisis.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she wants to provide more low-income tenants representation in eviction courts, with plans to provide more aid to groups like Legal Services.

Are evictions higher in Miami-Dade County?

Data on eviction filings don’t yet show a surge when compared to pre-pandemic activities by landlords. Statistics through January compiled last month by auditors for the Miami-Dade County Commission show residential and commercial evictions were flat compared to the start of 2020, and up about 3% in November and December compared to those months in 2019.

Ned Murray, associate director of the Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center at Florida International University, said the eviction pace would be higher if not for lingering rental aid from federal COVID relief dollars. He also said high demand for apartments is letting landlords impose “exorbitant rent increases” that cause some tenants not to renew their leases. It’s a trend he said was causing “widespread ‘de facto’ evictions.”

“Renters are unable to pay these sudden and excessive rents, so they relocate from their apartments. Essentially, they’re being displaced without legal recourse,” he said.

With housing prices spiking, landlords also have more incentive to evict tenants so they can raise rents. Renters face rising prices when looking for new places to live, with some markets seeing rents double in the last two years.

Dunn, of the National Housing Law Project, said he’s not aware of another state that requires rent payments upfront before a tenant can be heard in an eviction dispute.

“People should always have the right to appear in court and defend themselves,” Dunn said. Even when tenants have the legal know-how and funds to make the required deposit within the deadline, Dunn said the Florida rules make a court defense less inviting for renters without cash reserves.

“You’re taking a big risk,” he said. “If you lose at the hearing, not only do you get evicted, you get evicted with no cash in hand.”

Getting an eviction notice

Miguel Chamorro, a lawyer at Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph, who represents landlords, calls the rules efficient for requiring tenants to continue paying rent if fighting an eviction because that clears out disputes only geared at delaying rent payments. Like other states, Florida also requires tenants to pay monthly rent into a court deposit as an eviction case continues.

“It saves time. It saves money,” he said. “The statute pretty much guarantees the tenant doesn’t get to live rent free while they fight an eviction.”

In a folder full of papers, Rhodes insists he has a good case to make against getting evicted.

He said he lost his office job at a Miami Beach hotel in 2020 when COVID-19 swamped the tourism industry. Rhodes said he’s relied on municipal and state pandemic-relief payments to cover his monthly $875 rent for the one-bedroom apartment on a dead-end street in northern Miami Beach that’s been home since 2016.

On Feb. 28, Rhodes emailed a property manager a county form for a landlord participating in Miami-Dade’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Minutes later, the manager emailed back that the building “owner is not participating in the program anymore and wants you to move out. we will start eviction process tomorrow.”

That’s one of the papers he hoped to show a judge when he first appeared in a video hearing about his eviction, but Rhodes said he was surprised to learn the only thing that mattered was how much he had to pay to keep the case alive. “I was ordered to put $3,500 in the court registry,” he said.

Miami-Dade’s emergency rental program agreed to pay the money directly to the court, and the judge hearing Rhodes’ case granted several extensions to give time for the county to process the check. The case remains open, with a final decision pending on the eviction.

Tenants versus landlords in Florida eviction court

Myra Williams rents a room for $450 a month in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, and Hearne is helping her fight an eviction, too.

Allegations of shoddy conditions are part of her defense, including holes in the walls and floors, leaks that caused water to short out the electrical system, a broken window and “insect and rat infestations,” according to a Feb. 22 letter that Hearne sent to landlord Samuel Johnson Jr.

The letter notified him that Williams, who lists $760 a month in Social Security payments as her sole income, would not pay rent until the problems were fixed.

Johnson, a retired Miami Central High principal, said he’s fixed most of the maintenance issues at his building and is awaiting permits to repair a fallen ceiling in one of the building’s two kitchens caused by a leaky shower.

“Everybody else is living there fine,” he said of the nine-unit rooming house. “Historically, my tenants have been very poor. I’ve tried to keep my rents low. ... You can’t find anywhere that’s $450 a month, with all of your utilities included.”

Johnson sent Williams an eviction notice in early February, and the two sides ended up before Miami-Dade County Court Judge Jacqueline Woodward for an April 19 video hearing.

In explaining the legal road ahead, Woodward said it would take a payment from Williams before the court would hear the arguments about withholding rent. Williams hadn’t paid rent since December, and Woodward ruled she owed $1,700 due within 72 hours to keep the case alive.

“This is just an initial amount hearing — of how much you have to pay to play,” Woodward said. “How much do you have to put in this registry for us to go forward?”

After Woodward issued a “Deposit Rent or Move Out” order, Williams did deposit the $1,700, plus $33 in court fees on April 21, according to court filings. The case remained active this week, and Johnson said he has yet to receive any of the deposited rent from County Court to cover ongoing costs for the Williams unit.

“I’ve never been this deep into an eviction before,” he said.

In the hearing, Hearne questioned if it made sense for his client to put money at risk for the eviction case.

“Does Ms. Williams want to pay $1,700 to fight to live in this room?” Hearne asked.

This article was updated to correct the court system where eviction disputes are heard to County Court.

This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 12:24 PM.