Landlords: Don’t take partial payments when you’re evicting someone.

Just got off the phone with potential client; landlord, who gave three day notice on commercial lease for nonpayment of rent; but then they told me that they had accepted a ‘partial payment’ for the month; in other words, less money than what they were owed and less than they had demanded.  And they still wanted to evict for nonpayment. I understand the desire to get as much money as you can, but really, even if the lease provides that partial payments will not waive the rights of the landlord to terminate the lease, most judges are going to have a problem with this. The law is a bit complicated on this point, but in my experience, most judges in Florida are going to look askance at a landlord taking money from a tenant and then trying to evict them for the remainder of the unpaid rent.
If you want to evict a tenant, it’s all or nothing; they pay you all of the money you are owed, or none of it. If the tenant insists that they should be allowed to make a partial payment, then tell the tenant to pay it to the clerk of the court once the eviction is served.

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