A Green Building Culture

Model D (09/23/14) Mondry, Aaron

The Green Garage, a renovated historic Model T showroom in Detroit, typifies a growing green building culture in that city, using as many sustainable design elements as possible. The building weathered one of Detroit's snowiest winters and rainiest summers with built-in stormwater management, high-resistance insulation, UV-light-blocking windows, solar panels, radiant heat, and other features that enabled the building to use just 15 percent of the energy of a comparable office building. Another historic Detroit building, 71 Garfield, was retrofitted with geothermal heating and cooling, foam insulation, and a rooftop solar array, among other improvements. It uses one-third of the energy it used before the renovation. Meanwhile, Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority president Gregory McDuffee renovated the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center with simple and inexpensive changes that are expected to save approximately $1.8 million a year. Some of the changes included cutting energy for lighting by having cleaning staff clean during the day rather than at night, using single-stream recycling to reduce waste, and retrofitting 4,000 cooling boxes to save energy. More efficient insulation and windows are "relatively simple changes that pay for themselves within a year," says EcoWorks' Jacob Corvidae. Making buildings more energy efficient enables businesses to use saved capital for business expansion. "It gets back to our competitiveness as a city and as a nation," says Green Garage owner Tom Brennan. "If we have high infrastructure costs that have to be born in our products and services, then we're setting our businesses up for failure."

Security Deposits and Advance Rent in Residential Tenancies in Florida

We are not lawyers and therefore do not provide any legal advice to clients but want to point out some important aspects of the Florida Landlord Tenant Act which are very important and we see mistake after mistake made by Landlords and even some Landlord's agents.

Whenever money is deposited or advanced by a tenant on a rental agreement as security for performance of the rental agreement or as advance rent for other than the next immediate rental period, the landlord or the landlord’s agent shall either:

(a) Hold the total amount of such money in a separate non-interest-bearing account in a Florida banking institution for the benefit of the tenant or tenants. The landlord shall not commingle such moneys with any other funds of the landlord or hypothecate, pledge, or in any other way make use of such moneys until such moneys are actually due the landlord;

(b) Hold the total amount of such money in a separate interest-bearing account in a Florida banking institution for the benefit of the tenant or tenants, in which case the tenant shall receive and collect interest in an amount of at least 75 percent of the annualized average interest rate payable on such account or interest at the rate of 5 percent per year, simple interest, whichever the landlord elects. The landlord shall not commingle such moneys with any other funds of the landlord or hypothecate, pledge, or in any other way make use of such moneys until such moneys are actually due the landlord; or

(c) Post a surety bond, executed by the landlord as principal and a surety company authorized and licensed to do business in the state as surety, with the clerk of the circuit court in the county in which the dwelling unit is located in the total amount of the security deposits and advance rent he or she holds on behalf of the tenants or $50,000, whichever is less. The bond shall be conditioned upon the faithful compliance of the landlord with the provisions of this section and shall run to the Governor for the benefit of any tenant injured by the landlord’s violation of the provisions of this section. In addition to posting the surety bond, the landlord shall pay to the tenant interest at the rate of 5 percent per year, simple interest. A landlord, or the landlord’s agent, engaged in the renting of dwelling units in five or more counties, who holds deposit moneys or advance rent and who is otherwise subject to the provisions of this section, may, in lieu of posting a surety bond in each county, elect to post a surety bond in the form and manner provided in this paragraph with the office of the Secretary of State. The bond shall be in the total amount of the security deposit or advance rent held on behalf of tenants or in the amount of $250,000, whichever is less. The bond shall be conditioned upon the faithful compliance of the landlord with the provisions of this section and shall run to the Governor for the benefit of any tenant injured by the landlord’s violation of this section. In addition to posting a surety bond, the landlord shall pay to the tenant interest on the security deposit or advance rent held on behalf of that tenant at the rate of 5 percent per year simple interest.

(2) The landlord shall, in the lease agreement or within 30 days after receipt of advance rent or a security deposit, give written notice to the tenant which includes disclosure of the advance rent or security deposit. Subsequent to providing such written notice, if the landlord changes the manner or location in which he or she is holding the advance rent or security deposit, he or she must notify the tenant within 30 days after the change as provided in paragraphs (a)-(d). The landlord is not required to give new or additional notice solely because the depository has merged with another financial institution, changed its name, or transferred ownership to a different financial institution. This subsection does not apply to any landlord who rents fewer than five individual dwelling units. Failure to give this notice is not a defense to the payment of rent when due. The written notice must:

(a) Be given in person or by mail to the tenant.

(b) State the name and address of the depository where the advance rent or security deposit is being held or state that the landlord has posted a surety bond as provided by law.

(c) State whether the tenant is entitled to interest on the deposit.

(d) Contain a specific disclosure stated in the Law

(3) The landlord or the landlord’s agent may disburse advance rents from the deposit account to the landlord’s benefit when the advance rental period commences and without notice to the tenant. For all other deposits:

(a) Upon the vacating of the premises for termination of the lease, if the landlord does not intend to impose a claim on the security deposit, the landlord shall have 15 days to return the security deposit together with interest if otherwise required, or the landlord shall have 30 days to give the tenant written notice by certified mail to the tenant’s last known mailing address of his or her intention to impose a claim on the deposit and the reason for imposing the claim. The notice shall contain a statement in substantially the following form:

This is a notice of my intention to impose a claim for damages in the amount of   upon your security deposit, due to  . It is sent to you as required by s. 83.49(3), Florida Statutes. You are hereby notified that you must object in writing to this deduction from your security deposit within 15 days from the time you receive this notice or I will be authorized to deduct my claim from your security deposit. Your objection must be sent to   (landlord’s address)  .

If the landlord fails to give the required notice within the 30-day period, he or she forfeits the right to impose a claim upon the security deposit and may not seek a setoff against the deposit but may file an action for damages after return of the deposit.

(b) Unless the tenant objects to the imposition of the landlord’s claim or the amount thereof within 15 days after receipt of the landlord’s notice of intention to impose a claim, the landlord may then deduct the amount of his or her claim and shall remit the balance of the deposit to the tenant within 30 days after the date of the notice of intention to impose a claim for damages. The failure of the tenant to make a timely objection does not waive any rights of the tenant to seek damages in a separate action.

If the Landlord hires a professional management company to lease and manage the property, then the company will place most likely all security deposits and advanced rents in a security deposit non-interest bearing escrow account in a Florida financial institution and will have the proper notification in the lease agreement. This makes it easier for Landlords to keep, handle and disburse security deposits and advanced rents, being able to comply with the Law.