Christopher E. Mast, PA

02/17/2022

More rental chaos

09/16/2021

I am always a bit shocked when I evict a hoarder, the level of filth is always extremely high and landlords need to be aware that allowing a hoarder to remain within the premises will accomplish nothing except increase the cleanup and repair costs.

06/18/2021

While the process of evicting a business or individual for nonpayment of rent is relatively straightforward in Florida, there are important issues to consider before you begin. You need to provide certain specific documentation to the tenant and meet certain specific statutory deadlines. Furthermore, the law offers tenants certain protections, and you must make sure that you have given them sufficient time to correct issues before an eviction action. Assistance in both commercial and residential evictions from a skilled lawyer can help landlords quickly recover from a bad tenant and swiftly put their commercial or residential property to a profitable use.
In Florida, commercial and residential evictions for failing to pay rent can occur under oral or written leases. However, property owners must pay strict attention to statutes requiring that certain conditions that must be met before filing an eviction action. They must first send a notice requiring payment or tender of possession of the premises. Delivery and documentation details must also be properly addressed.
Tenants then statutorily have a three-day period in which to respond, which doesn't include the day of notice, weekends or legal holidays. After the expiration of the statutory period, the eviction complaint and supporting pleading may be filed with the eviction action taking anywhere from three weeks to a month, depending on the timing of filing, payment demands and tenant responses.
If there is no response from the tenant, however, a judge will generally issue a final judgment for eviction, the sheriff will post the writ of possession and the tenant will be removed 24 hours thereafter.
Likewise, an important decision must be made on whether to pursue a former tenant for damages. Florida law permits a bifurcated lawsuit against tenants; the first is strictly an eviction claim, and the second is a damage claim, but with differing time limits for tenant responses to the complaint.
Commercial and residential evictions must be done pursuant to provisions set forth in Florida law, otherwise landlords may be held liable for wrongful eviction
Christopher E. Mast has been a lawyer for more than 25 years, practicing in the areas of personal injury, business law, family law and probate and estate administration. Christopher serves clients in Collier and Lee Counties in southwest Florida.

09/26/2020

08/08/2020

August morning at the Naples beach

07/18/2020

Naples, Florida, in the early morning.

06/07/2020

Promissory Notes or promised much received little, have been used to entice retirees into loaning money to small companies with the promise to pay high rates of interest.
Keeping in mind that a promissory note is nothing more than a promise to pay and in these situations generally an unsecured promise to pay; I have seen high rates of non-payment and default.
The retirees are targeted based on their assets with the sellers claiming that they are selling "private placement" promissory notes, that the notes are "secured by equity in the company" and the high interest rates are "guaranteed". Sadly, the reality is that the company barely exists, owns no property or collateral, there is no security agreement or equity of any value, and the guaranteed interest payments usually cease after a month or so; leaving the investor with a promise to pay worth no more than the paper it is printed on.
FINRA provides an extensive description of the problems at www.finra.org/investor/alerts under Promissory Notes.
As always let the investor beware.

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