Lerainng a ton from these neat articles.

As a Florida tenant who is receiving demand letters from a Florida homeowner's association trying to collect all of my rent money based on the recently passed SB 1196, there are a few comments and observations I would like to make. There are several myths floating around the blogosphere which simply aren't true.

MYTH #1: TENANTS ARE SOMEHOW AT FAULT

People in this discussion keep talking about Florida tenants as if we were some kind of sleazy deadbeats. As if we intentionally choose to live in a house rented to us by someone who isn't paying their association fees, and that this is somehow benefitting us. Something I keep hearing people say, for example, is how unfair it is that we tenants get to benefit from all of these great amenities when the homeowner's association dues aren't getting paid.

Something to think about is the fact that while my landlord may not be meeting his obligations to the homeowner's association, I for one am dutifully paying my rent every month on time. And I pay the same rent that I paid before he stopped paying his association dues, while actually would imply that I am paying for all of the community amenities now, just like I was before he stopped paying his dues.

You could certainly argue that my beef about this should be with my landlord, and not with the association. And it is. The part I have an issue with is the general assumption that I'm somehow getting something for free.

Please be it understood that we tenants are NOT responsible for this mess, nor are we in any way benefiting from our landlords refusing to pay our fees. We are victims of the landlord just as much as the homeowner association is. You can be mean to us, angry with us, or even spiteful to us as much as you want, but your anger is misdirected, and it isn't particularly fair.

...and it isn't giving us tenants much reason to want to go out of our way to go above and beyond the law to help you out. Which goes to my next point.

MYTH #2: TENANTS ARE IMMUNE FROM LANDLORD RETALIATION

The lawyer from the homeowner's association went out of his way to make it clear to me on the phone that if I send them *all* of my rent money I would be completely immune from anything my landlord could ever try to do to me. Plus I'll even get my community benefits back! And why would I want to pay my landlord anyway, when he is *such* a deadbeat -- when I could instead side with my neighbors at the benevolent homeowner's association, which is so nice and kind?

But "immune from any claim from the unit owner" doesn't really paint a complete picture of the situation tenants are in. While my landlord may not be able to kick me out for sending my rent to the homeowner's association, there are other things he CAN do to me that would make my life less than pleasant.

For example, if my air conditioner breaks he has always in the past gone out of his way to have someone come over to fix it within just a couple of hours. The lease doesn't specifically require that, but he does it anyway. If there is an issue with the sink, or with another unit owner, or something else, he takes care of those things right away too.

Do you think I'm going to receive such great service from him if I side with the homeowner's association and stop sending him rent? And do you think the homeowner's association is going to step up and fix my sink, or my air conditioner, or whatever -- now that we're such great neighbors and friends?

Maybe they'll be OK if my family and I sleep in the community exercise room until the landlord gets around to fixing the air handler? I doubt it.

Or what about that beautiful mirror I have hanging in the hallway? My lease is pretty explicit about the fact that I'm not allowed to use wall anchors. Call me a criminal, but I did (otherwise it would have fallen down!) My landlord has not noticed and probably doesn't care, because he knows that I will properly patch the wall and put things back the way they were before I leave.

But...do you think it is possible that if I stop paying my rent he might for the first time see himself in my beautiful mirror and wonder how such a heavy object d'art could be supported with just thin nails? What do you think the chances are he won't try to use it as an excuse to try to evict me ? And maybe he might even notice a few other things I was doing wrong that neither I nor he ever gave a thought to before?

While he might not kick me out for not paying my rent, I have to imagine that having him for an enemy means that he will think of anything he possibly can to try to get me out of here as quickly as he can. How are my new friends at the homeowners association going to help me with that?

Which lead me to the last, most important reason that the "immunity" offered by the new law is fairly worthless. My lease expires in three months. What happens then? I can tell you right off the bat that my landlord will have no interest in keeping me in the unit if I'm not paying rent and *especially* if I've decided to throw my lot in with my new friends (and his new enemies) at the homeowner's association.

The only power the homeowner association has is to evict me. They can't do anything to make it possible for me to stay in my unit when my lease runs out, and I'm guessing -- based on their past treatment of me -- that they aren't going to help me find another unit. I'm especially confident that they aren't going to help cover any of my moving expenses when I undoubtedly have to leave in three months.

Which brings me to my final point.

MYTH #3: TENANTS ARE NOMADS

Homeowner associations and lawyers keep asking: "Why do you stay? Why do you want to live in a unit owned by a deadbeat?" And everyone else talks in such a way that you would think that tenants were all nomads who live out of suitcases that can easily be packed and unpacked at a change in the wind.

I've lived in my current unit for over five years. At the time I moved in (after being shown the place by a reputable real estate broker) my landlord wasn't a deadbeat. He was glad to have my family and I stay "as long as we liked" – a great situation for a family with two kids just starting middle school. We spent several thousand dollars to move all of our belongings to this unit, we registered the kids for school, and we've made friends in the neighborhood and community.

Moving isn't easy. For me to move -- to get everything ready to go, to find a new place, to hire movers, to pack everything up, move it, find a new place, unpack everything again -- is a major *ordeal*. I will have to take time off of work to do it. I will have to spend a lot of money to do it. It will be very unpleasant and expensive for me and my family.

...but not half as unpleasant as it will be for my kids, who will have to make new friends, maybe even have to go to a different school, and have their lives all turned around.

Most tenants are NOT nomads. Just like homeowners, they *live* where they live, and they have just as many materials goods (sometimes more!) as homeowners do. Moving is a terrible burden.

CONSEQUENCES FOR EVERYONE

My point is this: Associations are right now trying to push the new law as far as it will go. Despite the fact that the law pretty clearly says "future monetary obligations" and despite the distinct possibility that the legislature may have *intended* this law to apply only to new leases entered into *after* July 1st, associations are trying to use it as a panacea to collect all of their overdue assessments and dues without going through the regular debt collection procedures usually required by the law.

And while I feel very bad for the homeowner's associations, the way in which they are trying to manipulate and scare tenants is just plain wrong. They are making demands that many *unbiased* observers believe are NOT covered by the law (although we'll have to wait for a judge to rule on it to know for sure) under the assumption that they will get to keep any money they can collect now, so they should get as much as they can before it is too late. And they've deluded themselves into believing that the tenants – their neighbors – won't be harmed.

What they need to understand is the untenable position they are putting tenants such as myself in. Because this isn’t about whether or not I should follow the law (because I will) – associations are asking tenants to accept their *interpretation* of the law – one that will likely cause tenant to face severe indirect consequences. And I don’t have a lot of reason to think – or want to believe – that the homeowner’s association interpretation is the correct one – or more important, the one that a judge side with.

The homeowner’s association can try to evict me. But as I understand it in order to be evicted, the they are going to have to convince the judge that I have somehow violated the law by sending *only* the $300 association fee to them because (a) "future monetary obligations somehow include past due amounts; (b) the law applies to contracts entered into before the law went into effect; (c) the law isn't somehow unconstitutional and a violation of the property owner's due process rights. I don’t know much about the law, but it seems to *me* that proving all of that isn't going to be easy.

Someone asked whether a tenant such as myself would go to all of the trouble and expense? Wouldn’t it just be easier to move? Curiously enough, even if I wanted to move I can’t – I have a lease, and unless I’m willing to pay several months rent worth of penalties, I can’t leave.

But also consider this: if the homeowner’s association isn’t successful at proving the points above – if they fail with their bid to evict me – they have to pay all of my legal expenses. And I don’t plan to use a cheap lawyer.

Sure, it’s a gamble. But I, like so many other tenants, are being backed into a corner. If the homeowner’s association tries to evict me they better feel really good about their hand -- because the stakes are high, I don’t have to option to fold and I (quite literally) have a full house.

If it comes to this I imagine we probably won't be the most loved family at the community pool this summer…but frankly, we haven't been *allowed* to use the community pool for quite a while now, so I think we’ll find a way to live with ourselves.