What Miami-Dade’s 60-Day Rent Increase Notice Requirement Mean For Renters
By Oliver Telusma
Presently, Florida is embroiled in a housing crisis. In South Florida alone, thousands of individuals have been subjected to formal eviction proceedings, and more individuals may have been subjected to informal evictions.
Additionally, thousands of families are at risk of eviction who live paycheck to paycheck. The pressures of this housing crisis are felt disproportionately by Black and Latinx people.
In response, many across South Florida have organized themselves to fight this grim reality.
Most recently Hialeah residents, working alongside the Miami Workers’ Center, have been in an ongoing struggle to strengthen local renter protections. In February, those residents achieved a win for renters by pushing the Hialeah City Council to pass a local ordinance that requires landlord to give month-to-month tenants 60 days for before any rent is increased over 10%.
Within a week, this victory was strengthened by Miami-Dade County. The county commission passed a stronger ordinance that requires landlords to give all tenants living in Miami-Dade 60 days for any rent increase over 5%.
The county law applies to all municipalities in Miami-Dade including Hialeah.
Most importantly, this gives those who are being crushed under the weight of increased rental prices more time to negotiate with their landlord or more time to find another place to live if they are priced out.
Oliver Telusma is a spoken word poet and public speaker who earned his Juris Doctor degree from Florida A&M University College of Law in 2021.
He is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Community Justice Project where he is working on anti-displacement efforts and strengthening housing protections for Black and brown people living in South Florida.
Community Justice Project supports grassroots organizing for power, racial justice and human rights with innovative lawyering, research, creative strategy tools and the arts. Based in Miami, FL, Community Justice Project is deeply and unapologetically committed to Black and brown communities throughout Florida.
