Florida Eviction Lawyer Cost

The cost of an eviction lawyer in Florida varies greatly, especially when it comes to eviction. This is because a variety of factors affect the fees of lawyers who handle evictions in Florida.

There are three basic fee structures that are used by lawyers. They are the contingency fee, the flat fee, and the hourly fee. A legal consultation in Florida would give an individual more information about how lawyers bill clients.

For most cases, lawyers charge an hourly fee. They charge by the hour for the time they spend working on a client’s case, e.g., $125 per hour. They keep detailed records of the time they spend on a case and the work they performed in that period of time. They then issue a monthly bill for the total fee owed for a month’s work.

In personal injury cases, such as medical malpractice cases, lawyers charge a contingency fee. A contingency fee is a fee that represents a percentage of the amount of money the lawyer wins for the client in their case. If the lawyer succeeds in winning an award of money for their client, they are paid their percentage. If the lawyer is not successful and wins no award, then the lawyer is not paid anything.

A third common way of billing is the flat fee. In a flat fee arrangement, the lawyer specifies a total amount that the client has to pay the lawyer to achieve some legal goal. For example, a lawyer might offer to complete the eviction of a residential tenant for a client and to handle all work that needs to be done until the case is concluded for $2500.

Flat fees are usually charged in cases in which the lawyer can reliably predict how much time they would have to put into the case from beginning to end. Because they can predict this, they can tell the client the total cost, i.e., the flat fee, that the client must pay to handle the case to its end.

Florida lawyers would probably charge flat or hourly fees for their services for an eviction. Lawyers in the largest cities, such as Miami and more affluent areas, are likely to charge more than lawyers in small towns and rural areas.

What Are Florida Eviction Laws?

To begin an eviction, a landlord must provide a tenant with the legally required notice. There are 4 kinds of notices in Florida as follows:

• 3-Day Notice: A tenant who has not paid their rent on time receives this notice. The exact amount of rent that the tenant owes should be stated in the notice. In addition, the notice would clearly inform the tenant that they have no more than 3 business days to pay it. The notice must inform the tenant that their tenancy is terminated if they fail to pay within the 3 days. If the tenant does not pay the rent they owe within the 3-day period, the landlord may file a lawsuit for eviction.
• 7-Day Notice of Lease Violation: If a tenant has violated some provision of their lease that does not involve paying rent, the landlord must give them 7 days to cure the violation. This type of notice is the one to use in cases that involve violations other than a tenant’s failure to pay rent. If the tenant has not resolved the violation within the 7-day period, the landlord can go to court to file an eviction lawsuit.
• 7-Day “Unconditional Quit” Notice: A tenant may violate some provision of their lease in some way that the tenant cannot correct. The landlord is then allowed to give the tenant a 7-day “unconditional quit” notice. This notice tells the tenant that they have 7 days to vacate the rental unit. If they do not vacate the unit within 7 days, an eviction can go forward in court.
• Notice in the Absence of a Lease: If a landlord and tenant do not have a written lease agreement, the landlord can end the tenancy without giving the tenant any specific reason. The landlord only has to send proper notice to the tenant, allowing for the number of days provided by Florida law. For example, a landlord must give a tenant with a month-to-month lease 15 days to vacate.

Leases do not automatically renew when they expire under Florida law. So, tenants who remain in a rental unit after their lease has expired without making a new lease agreement with the landlord do not have a lease at all. In this situation, the notice process for month-to-month tenants noted above is applicable.

When a landlord needs to evict a tenant per eviction laws in Florida, the landlord must respect certain very specific legal requirements about how the termination notice can be delivered. The options for valid delivery are as follows:

• Hand Delivery: Arguably, hand delivery personally to the tenant is the preferred manner in which to deliver a notice of termination.
• Mail: The notice can be mailed via the U.S.P.S. to the tenant’s address. If this is done via certified mail return receipt requested, the landlord has proof that the tenant received it.
• Posting: The notice can be taped to the front door of the tenant’s residence preferably in a place where it can be readily seen.

Florida law requires the landlord to wait for the required number of days before beginning an eviction lawsuit after delivering the notice of termination.

Eviction lawsuits should be filed in the Florida county in which the rental property is located. Certain documents must be filed with the eviction complaint. Perhaps the most important would be the information the court needs to order a writ of possession in the event the landlord is successful with their lawsuit:

• Information about the landlord
• The location of the property
• The violation committed by the tenant, e.g., failure to pay rent
• A specific request for eviction of the tenant.

The complaint must have a copy of the lease, if there is one, and a copy of the notice sent to the tenant attached to it when it is filed.

Most Florida county courthouses charge a filing fee of $185. In addition, there’s a $10 additional fee for issuing a summons for each of the defendants named in the eviction lawsuit. The landlord is then responsible for having the complaint and summons served on each named defendant.

The county court clerk sends the tenant a copy of the eviction summons and complaint. In addition, a landlord has to hire either a private process server or the county sheriff to deliver a copy of the summons and complaint to the tenant in person.

• Tenant Response: Florida law gives a tenant 5 days to file their answer to an eviction complaint with the county clerk. If the tenant files an answer with the court clerk, a hearing date is set and a judge is assigned to hear the case.
• Hearing: Landlords must attend the hearing on the date and time specified by the clerk. They should bring the evidence they intend to use to prove their case. This would usually be documents and witnesses. Of course, if the tenant has filed a response to the complaint, they must also appear at the appointed hour with the evidence they need to show why they should not be evicted.
• Judgment and Writ of Possession: If the landlord wins their case, the judge issues a judgment in the landlord’s favor. The judgment is given to the county clerk who issues a writ of possession to the landlord.
• Eviction Process if Tenant Does Not Answer: If a tenant does not file a response, after 5 days, the landlord may move for a default judgment. A date and time for a hearing on the motion is set. The landlord should appear. If all the paperwork complies with requirements, the judge issues a judgment in favor of the landlord. The judgment goes to the clerk who gives the landlord a writ of possession.
• Sheriff Executes Writ of Possession: The sheriff’s department in the county in which the property is located must serve a tenant with the writ of possession and remove the tenant and their belongings if necessary. In other words, there is no other individual or entity that has the authority to perform an actual eviction. The landlord would have to pay a fee of $90 to $115 for this service.

What Factors Cause Eviction Costs To Vary?

There are costs associated with evictions, and they might not be the same in all cases. For example, most Florida courts charge a $185 filing fee to file an eviction lawsuit. In addition, they charge a $10 fee for issuing a summons for each defendant named in the lawsuit. This cost can vary depending on the number of defendants there are in a case.

An eviction summons must be served on the tenant. The county court clerk sends the tenant a copy of the eviction summons and complaint. In addition, as noted above, the landlord sees to it that a copy of the summons and complaint are hand-delivered to the tenant.

Landlords can hire either a private company or the county sheriff to personally serve these documents. Most Florida sheriffs charge between $30 to $50 to serve one tenant. Private process servers may charge from $50 to as much as $100 per tenant named in the summons. So the cost of service may be different in different cases.

Of course, the eviction lawyer cost is another factor that varies from case to case.

What Goes Into Determining an Attorney’s Fee?

A lawyer considers the type of case in determining their fee, e.g., whether it is the type of case that should be billed with a flat fee, a contingency fee, or an hourly fee. They then charge an amount that probably reflects the rates for these fees in the market in which they work.

Also, they may charge more if they have an especially good reputation in their market, or less if they are new to the market and working to establish their reputation.

Fees may reflect other factors as well, e.g., the attorney’s workload.

Why Would Attorneys Charge an Hourly Fee?

An attorney would generally charge an hourly fee in a case that might not be completely routine. If a case appears to be routine, an attorney can then reliably predict how many hours they would have to devote to a case from beginning to end. In those cases, they would be able to charge a flat fee.

However, if a case appears likely to consume more time than is routine, the attorney may well charge an hourly fee in order to assure that they are adequately compensated.

Which Fee Structure Is Preferable?

The main advantage of a flat fee is that a client knows at the beginning of the case how much they will have to pay their attorney in total. The main advantage of a contingency fee is that the client does not have to pay anything out-of-pocket unless they win an award of damages.

With an hourly fee, an attorney might be able to give a client an estimate of the number of hours they might spend on a case, but they cannot predict with certainty the number of hours they will spend on a case before the case comes to an end.

Are There Other Costs to an Eviction in Florida?

As noted above, there are several costs to an eviction, including the court filing fee, fees for serving notices, summons, complaints, and other documents on the tenants, and other costs as well. In the rare case, it might be necessary to hire an expert witness, and that would be an additional cost.

Do I Need the Help of a Lawyer for My Eviction Case?

Whether you are a landlord or a tenant, you want to consult a Florida landlord-tenant lawyer regarding an eviction. The rules for eviction are technical and complicated. LegalMatch.com can connect you to a lawyer who can guide you through the technicalities to the best result possible in your case.