“Who is responsible for fixing a leaky toilet or mowing the lawn?”, your new tenant asks. Uhoh. Do you know? Now you’re picturing phone calls at 3 am from a screaming and ranting tenant about that leaky toilet or endless nightmare calls about hedging the driveway. What do you do? Are you responsible for every nitpicking thing from now on? You remembered something about landlord responsibility from your renting days but now you’re not so sure.
Florida law (http://www.800helpfla.com/landlord_text.html, Section 83.51(2)(a), F.S., Section 83.51(2)(b), F.S. and Section 83.52, F.S.) clearly states the landlord must provide a healthy, properly maintained place for the tenant to live. The tenants are required to keep the premises in good condition and to occupy them as a peaceful neighbor. What does this mean for each party? Let’s discuss amongst ourselves, shall we?
The landlord is responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the property. That means pipes, roof, walls, foundation, extermination of pests (no, not the tenant), garbage removal, functioning heat for the cold and running water. If something goes wrong with one of the above, the landlord must see to it that the issue is taken care of. It is recommended that neither party do the repairs themselves, no matter how good they are at repair work. The landlord should hire a respected, bonded and trained repairman. The tenant is responsible for keeping the home clean, sanitary, removing garbage from the premises, operating machinery in a safe and reasonable manner and conduct themselves with decorum so as not to disturb the peace of their neighbors. This means the tenant must do their own cleaning of the stoves and bathtubs. Who mows the lawn? Depends on what’s in the lease, but typically the tenant is responsible for mowing the lawn, so says Matthew Dabbney Pineda in answer to this very question on an www.AVVO.com forum, http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/is-a-tenant-in-a-home-in-fla--responsible-for-lawn-257926.html