long story short, I have questions about terminating/evicting a storage building tenant.

Why are you terminating the lease and evicting the tenant? 

Is it for nonpayment of rent or violating the lease?

Have you followed the proper procedures as required by the law and the lease?

this is the lease. since it's not a residential lease, and there are no terms in the lease, I'm not sure what portion of Florida law I'm beholden to.

So it was a one year lease with a lump sum paid up front.

So why do you want to evict him and terminate the lease?

we're assuming the lease along with a land purchase. We'd like the space for our own storage so we're not paying storage fees. we're willing to pay him to move out early as a carrot, but I'd also like to know my stick options.

I'm no lawyer but I believe I've handled a couple complaints along this line over the years... bottom line, I believe is you will have to evict through the court if they won't go despite a change in property ownership.

Absent a contractual violation, I'm not sure a Judge will rule in your favor.

Again, no lawyer here, just a guy who has to deal with Civil stuff like this often.

That's not much of a "contract."  Perhaps you should download a real lease agreement online at a minimum.

The "expert" I asked, who may or may not deal in these types of things (not legal advice) thinks that however rudimentary your lease may be, with the exchange of money, is pretty airtight. No judge is going to see things your way without some type of serious cause. A deal is a deal, and that document pretty much serves as a contract.

Your only "out" is to make him an offer he will be happy with.

While that is a pretty sparse lease, there looks to be enough there... parties identified, sufficient property description, amount of consideration and such that I'd expect a judge to hold it enforceable.

If you are buying the property, then you are buying it subject to the lease (which is proper term, not assuming the lease). That means his lease is still enforceable against the new owner.

Now if you want to terminate the lease and he doesn't agree, then you would need a legal reason.  Typically the legal reason used is non-payment of rent but there are others such as violating another provision of the lease, like using the property for a use prohibited by the lease.

Take a look at Florida Statute 83.20.

Unfortunately the lease lacks any sort of restrictions or rules for the tenant to break so you would need to have a reason like using the property for an illegal purpose like storing drugs there or creating a nuisance with bad smells or excessive noise or some sort of county health code violation.  Well, you get the idea.

Also, if they are doing something they shouldn't be which gives you a reason to terminate the lease, they have to be given 15 days written notice which gives them a chance to cure the violation.

 

thanks y'all. We will try to incentivize the lessee to move out early.

That simple contract is still a bona fide contract and the simplicity of it actually works for the tenant whose only obligation was to pay for the rental.

You'll need to buy him out.

Good luck.