I’m Brian, and I’m a member of the Miami Workers Center.
I joined this organization in April 2024 because of the Eviction Diversion Program, a county program the Miami Workers Center advocated for and won in 2022. Funded by Miami-Dade County, the program connects tenants who are facing eviction to free legal counsel. While over 90% of landlords have attorneys to represent their case, less than 5% of tenants have representation.
My road to tenant advocacy began when the owner of my building attempted to conduct a mass illegal eviction, verbally threatening to remove all of the tenants without written notice because the building was in the process of being sold. Most of the residents in my building are elderly and disabled. The vast majority of the tenants left within the first few weeks, many staying with friends or relatives. Even though I was not familiar with Florida Landlord-Tenant Law at the time, common sense told me that tenants could not be removed without written notice, and a final court order signed by a judge. There is an extreme shortage of affordable housing in Miami-Dade County, making it very difficult or impossible to find new housing on a moment’s notice.
I began to do some research on the Internet to find out who the legal owner of my building was. Up until then, I had only been dealing with the leasing agent at the property management company. I looked up the building owner’s name on the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser website.
Once I found out the name of the owner, I was able to look for the eviction cases filed against my fellow residents. I was able to find all the eviction cases on the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Court and Comptroller website.
The remaining tenants in my building banded together with the assistance of the Eviction Diversion Program and are currently in the process of defending ourselves in court.
Even though the landlord did not give the tenants legal written notice that they were going to be evicted, the landlord and their lawyer filed illegal phony documents with the court claiming that all of the tenants had received written notice 60 days in advance.
Right now in Miami-Dade County, tenants have limited legal rights because a Miami-Dade Tenants Bill of Rights was preempted by the State Legislature. However, no matter for what reason, landlords have to follow the law by giving written notice. If we didn’t have that law, then it would be the Wild, Wild, West with landlords putting tenants out on the street whenever they felt like it.