lawyers please help
 

this may be common practice but any website i go to leads me around in circles. Here's my problem

I signed a lease in may for a student housing apartment (in tallahassee, fl). The lease is a stated 12 month lease. The payment is due august 21(move-in date) and eviction day is august 5th. the last month is "payed for." My question is: Is this legal? if the lease is for 11 months and two weeks, can they charge me for 12? Is there anything that says that a landlord must give housing as long as the rent is being payed?

Any help is more than welcome...any florida/national statues or citations also...thank you very much.

Being a SC lawyer, I don't want to comment. I don't know FL law. However, here is a link to the Florida Landlord-Tenant Statutes.

My short answer though is that this is probably ok, as it is agreed to in the lease. Could call the two weeks a security deposit, etc. I am sure the language is drafted to make it legal.

without having looked at the link choskins posted, as a general thought, the lease you signed isn't so much a month by month thing... i mean, what's basically going on is the lease you signed probably said you'd pay X amount of dollars in 12 installments of $Y. so really you're just paying one amount broken up into installments, kind of like when you buy a car.

Exactly Harry. The month begins on the fifth. You are paying for a partial month for the 21st through 5th.

I've been handed this type of lease before and luckily caught it before I signed it. I had that changed easily by asking to a pro-rated price for the first month.

I would advise you to clean the place very well before exit and TAKE PICTURES that can be date verified (ie with that day's newspaper in a photo). A landlord who will stick you like that for 2 weeks rent may also stick you for a cleaning fee on your security deposit, even if the place is left clean.

[edit] for clarity [edit]