Business Law 101 / Changes to Landlord/Tenant Law

By Albert L. Kelley, Esq.

One of the jobs of an attorney is to read.  We read cases, we read statutes, we read legal updates.  The reason we read so much is that things change.  Sometime the change is incremental and relatively unimportant.  Other times change is drastic and far-reaching.  If a lawyer fails to keep up with the changes in the law, they may give the client bad advice.  Or they may quote a law to the court that no longer exists.  Often the changes are to laws that have been around so long that the lawyer simply assumes it will not change.  For example, in 2014 we saw a wholesale change to the LLC laws. A law that had been on the books since 1982 was entirely rewritten.  This year we saw a change to an even older law.

Since 1829- nearly 200 years ago- there has been a law in Florida that all leases for a term of more than one year had to be in writing and had to be signed in front of two witnesses.  Rarely did this law affect residential leases as they are rarely written for more than one year.  However, the law generally applies to commercial leases as they routinely are written for more than a year.  This law was often used as a defense when a dispute arose between a landlord and tenant.  A lease that was not properly signed simply did not exist and the tenant might be relieved of future obligations under it.

The law has its foundations going back to ancient Roman law.  It followed into ancient England where it flowed to the United States.  The purpose of the law was validity.  If the lease was ever brought into question, the witnesses could be called before the court to determine its legitimacy.  In some places these witnesses needed to be more than just two people- they had to be people of the best character or local officials.  More recently, this requirement became less necessary.  And over time the Courts have found ways around the law.  There are cases that allow a lease with less than two witnesses be upheld if there could have been two witnesses.  In other words, if there were two people in the room in addition to the landlord and tenant, but only one signed the lease it was deemed sufficient.  Or if the landlord drafted the lease but didn’t make sure there were witnesses, the courts could uphold the lease as the landlord could not benefit from their own inactions.   And if the parties paid and accepted rent, their actions in observing the terms of the lease could replace the need for witnesses to prove the lease was valid.

But on July 1, 2020, Florida Statute 689.01 was modified, and for the first time in 200 years the requirement for two witnesses to observe and subscribe the lease was removed.   Today any lease signed merely by the Landlord and the Tenant will be valid.  This change will streamline the lease process, validate likely thousands of existing leases that were previously improperly executed and remove a technical defense from the tenants in an action for breach of the lease.

Al Kelley is a Florida business law attorney located in Key West and previously taught business law, personnel law, and labor law at St. Leo University.  He is the author of four law books available through Absolutely Amazing e-Books and the host of “Basics Of The Law”, a weekly YouTube channel. This article is being offered as a public service and is not intended to provide specific legal advice.  If you have any questions about legal issues, you should confer with a licensed Florida attorney.

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