Property Manager Q&A
September 2026 — Answers to Your Toughest Questions
Real questions from property managers. Real legal answers from the Law Offices of Heist, Weisse & Wolk.
Question:
We recently were served with papers by certified mail from the Florida Commission on Human Relations stating that there was a fair housing complaint filed against us. It was very vague and had a deadline of 10 days to respond. The former applicants were a minority family with 4 children. The former applicant is claiming that we told him we did not have a 3 bedroom available, but says we really did, because a week after he applied, he had a friend call us and the friend was told we had 3 bedroom units available. I wrote a letter explaining that we did not have any 3 bedrooms available at the time the applicant called. The Florida Commission on Human Relations is asking a load of other questions regarding ownership of the apartment community, how many Tenants, demanding applications etc. They are saying that we will be in trouble soon, as we are not meeting their deadlines. What should we do?
Answer:
Whenever you get served with any papers charging you with discrimination, you need to contact your attorney immediately. Your attorney will ask for an extension of time to comply with all the requests, and almost always the request will be granted. You should never attempt to respond on your own, no matter how bizarre the allegations may be. Although these local and state offices will tell you that they do not “represent” the person who has filed the complaint, the “complainant”, they tend to lean heavily towards trying to believe the complainant and making you, who is referred to as the “respondent” prove yourself innocent. Your attorney will know best how to deal with them, your attorney may have dealt with that investigator before, possibly has a good relationship with the investigator, and your best efforts at trying to explain what you did could often be misunderstood or make it appear that you had done something wrong. Now, let’s see if you may have done something wrong. Your attorney will most likely have to prove to the investigator that you did not have a 3-bedroom unit available on the day the applicant applied or a few days thereafter. It is imperative that you have a printout each day of all the available units which are rent ready, the ones which may be down for whatever reason and an approximate date that the unit will be available. You need to keep these printouts in a safe place. With this documentation, you may be able to have the complaint resolved very quickly in your favor. Absent good documentation, your case could drag on for quite some time, causing you added expenses in attorney’s fees and time lost, and, in the worst-case scenario, result in you being held guilty of discrimination.
Question:
Occasionally we receive forms from our Tenants from St Vincent DePaul or the county housing assistance organizations such as shelter verification forms. These are programs which often help out a Tenant with a one-time payment of rent. The forms ask how much is owed, the current rent, verify addresses, and the Tenant then submits the form to the organization. We signed one of these forms and waited about a month, and no money came. When we called the program director, they could not guarantee when or how much money we would get. We then gave the Tenant a 3-Day Notice, it expired, and we filed. The Tenant hired an attorney who filed an answer to the case and is saying that we agreed to wait for the money. Should we fill out and sign these forms? Obviously we want to help out the Tenant and get our rent, but if there is a risk that we may not get the money or lose this eviction, is it worth it?
Answer:
One of our clients did exactly what you did, and a similar answer was filed. The judge held that since the property manager signed the form, they were in essence agreeing to wait for the money, therefore the eviction was premature. The judge threw the case out, we then received confirmation that the money was not going to come, and we filed a new 3-day notice, eviction and eventually the Tenant was evicted. Our recommendation is to carefully review any forms before signing the forms, and possibly have your attorney review the form to make sure that your gesture of good will not result in a failed eviction. Many of these organizations decide whether to help a Tenant in need on a case-by-case basis, and some have already spent their budget for the month or the year. Unfortunately they will still give the form to the Tenant, leading you and the Tenant to believe that payment will be forthcoming. Though a judge may not look kindly upon you not being willing to sign the form, at least your attorney can explain why it was not signed, and you will most likely prevail in an eviction.
Question:
Last month we filed an eviction on the named Tenant on the lease. The elderly Tenant had been living in the unit for over 2 years and had her adult son living there with her. For the last year, we had not seen the Tenant, and her son would come in each month and pay the rent with his own check. Our company policy is to basically take payment from anyone who wishes to pay, and since we knew he was living there, we just accepted the money as usual. Last month, we served a 3-Day Notice to the named Tenant on the lease by posting the notice on the door, as no one answered the door. No payment came, we filed an eviction, the eviction went all the way to the end. When the sheriff served the Writ of Possession, the son answered the door and gave the sheriff’s deputy a “Third Party Affidavit”. The deputy then stopped the writ, sent it to the judge, and the judge set it for a hearing. What is going on here?
Answer:
What happened to you is a rare occurrence. According to Rule 1.580 Florida Rules of Civil Procedure a person in possession can file a paper called a “Third Party Affidavit” claiming a possessory interest in the property. Very few Tenants know of this trick. The sheriff’s deputy properly stopped the Writ of Possession, and according to the rule a hearing is set and the judge will then have the discretion of continuing the eviction or making you completely start over from scratch, including having to serve a new 3-Day Notice. The problem lies in the fact that you were accepting rent from someone who you knew was an occupant, you allowed him to remain an occupant, and thus turned him into a Tenant, even though the lease only had the mother’s name listed. This shows the danger of allowing an unauthorized occupant to reside on the premises or failing to force the occupant to fill out an application, get approved and sign onto the lease with the named Tenant. Your two choices here are to dismiss the case and start over again or, if the hearing is within a week or so, take your chances and go to court. Some judges will still allow the eviction to continue on while others will throw the case right out. We recently had this occur; I spoke with the occupant, he asked for 2 extra weeks, and we signed a stipulation to that effect and he agreed to add his name onto the eviction as a defendant. The judge approved this. Had we gone into the courtroom rather than stipulating, the result could have been far different. As a final reminder, always put all adult occupants on the lease as Tenants, never just occupants. If an unauthorized occupant appears and you do not have a problem with them residing on the premises, get that occupant to fill out an application and get them on the lease immediately.
