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Calarco Law We help businesses and individuals to fix legal issues that arise in their business or personal lives Tammi A. Ms.

Calarco, Esq., is based in Miami, servicing clients that have legal matters arising in South Florida. Calarco focuses on helping clients, both businesses and individuals, to fix and achieve their goals whenever problems arise in their business or personal lives. Her areas of practice are:

Real estate - I prepare and review leases and other contracts for residential or commercial properties

Landlord tenant - I represent both landlords and tenants

Condominium - I represent both homeowners and associations

Litigation - civil and/or commercial litigation cases

Imagine this: You saved your move-out photos, messages and deposit receipt. You are preparing a claim over $2,400 and pl...
10/16/2026

Imagine this: You saved your move-out photos, messages and deposit receipt. You are preparing a claim over $2,400 and plan to name the management company because it is the only name you recognize.

But the company signed "as agent for owner," and the recorded deed shows that an LLC bought the building during your tenancy. Those facts call for more investigation—not an automatic choice between the manager and the current owner.

Florida law requires held tenant deposits to be transferred to the new owner or agent, with earned interest and an accounting. A transfer does not excuse earlier violations. More than one party may be responsible, depending on the facts and legal claims.

Naming the wrong defendant can cause delays, extra expense or dismissal. Review the lease, deed, deposit paperwork and payment history before deciding whom to sue.

Hypothetical illustration, not a client case or result. General information about Florida residential tenancies, not legal advice.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

Your deposit has not been returned, and the only name you know is a property manager who stopped answering. Before you f...
10/15/2026

Your deposit has not been returned, and the only name you know is a property manager who stopped answering. Before you file, investigate who may be legally responsible. There may be more than one proper defendant.

Start in five places: your lease and landlord disclosures; the deposit disclosure, if you received one; the property appraiser and recorded deed; Sunbiz filings for a business landlord; and your payment history.

Each answers a different question. The deposit disclosure may identify the bank—not the account holder. Property appraiser data may not reflect a recent sale. A registered agent is a contact for legal papers, not automatically someone who owes you money. Payment records help trace the funds but do not establish liability by themselves.

Lay the records side by side. Different names are a reason to investigate, not a reason to guess—or name everyone.

Save this before you fill in a court form.

General information about Florida residential tenancies, not legal advice.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

You have the property manager's number saved in your phone. You have texted it for three years about the AC, the leak an...
10/14/2026

You have the property manager's number saved in your phone. You have texted it for three years about the AC, the leak and the parking spot. Now your deposit has not been returned, the number goes to voicemail, and you are not sure who owns the property.

A property manager may act for the owner. Florida law defines the landlord as the owner or lessor of the dwelling. Whether the manager also belongs in a deposit case depends on the lease, the disclosures, any obligations it assumed and its handling of the funds—not just whose number is in your phone.

Read the full lease and signature page. "As agent for owner" matters, but check whether the owner was actually identified. Neither signing as agent nor holding a deposit automatically settles liability.

Start with the paperwork. Then compare the ownership and payment records. Save this before you fill in a court form.

General information about Florida residential tenancies, not legal advice.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

10/12/2026

You scroll back through three years of texts. Every repair request, the same property manager. Every rent reminder, the same property manager. Then your deposit is not returned, the manager stops answering, and you realize you have never spoken to the owner.

In Florida, the landlord is the owner or lessor of the dwelling—not automatically the person answering your texts. A manager may act for the landlord, but whether that manager also has legal responsibility depends on the lease, disclosures and conduct involved.

Before filing over a deposit, read the full lease and signature page. Compare them with property appraiser records, the recorded deed and your payment history. If ownership changed, check what happened to the deposit too.

The question is not just how much. It is who may be legally responsible.

General information about Florida residential tenancies, not legal advice.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

A tenant sent her own demand letter. Dates right, photos attached, amount correct, tone calm. It was a good letter. Then...
10/09/2026

A tenant sent her own demand letter. Dates right, photos attached, amount correct, tone calm. It was a good letter. Then the last line said only: please return my $2,400.

No deadline nor the next step. Nothing that told the landlord this was going anywhere.

And this is the piece tenants usually leave out. A demand letter works best when it ends with a specific date to pay and what you will do if that date passes, such as filing in small claims court. It also helps to cite Florida Statute 83.49, the law that sets how and when a landlord must return a deposit or send written notice of a claim against it.

One thing a demand letter is not: a court filing. Attorney's fees are requested in pleadings filed in court, and generally only when an attorney is representing you. If you are writing your own letter, focus on the deadline.

One sentence. Add it before you send. Save this for the next time you write one.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

The most common reason a Florida tenant walks away from a withheld deposit is the cost of a lawyer. The statute's fee pr...
10/08/2026

The most common reason a Florida tenant walks away from a withheld deposit is the cost of a lawyer. The statute's fee provision is what changes that math, and it applies to whoever prevails, which is why a weak case is an expensive thing to file. Get it looked at first. General information, not legal advice.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

"It's the principle. I'm not giving her a dime." Tenants hear some version of that when a deposit dispute starts, usuall...
10/07/2026

"It's the principle. I'm not giving her a dime." Tenants hear some version of that when a deposit dispute starts, usually before anyone has counted what a fight costs.

Here is what gets missed. Once a case is filed, both sides run up fees, and under Florida's landlord-tenant statute a prevailing party may be awarded reasonable fees and costs from the other side. Picture a $2,000 argument that reaches a trial date after motions and a discovery fight. Both sides have spent multiples of $2,000 by then. That is an illustration of how fee exposure behaves, not a result anyone can promise you.

The amount in dispute stops being the biggest number in the room fast. Know that first.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

10/05/2026

You open the claim letter and see that $2,400 of your deposit is gone. Then you start doing the math. A lawyer has to cost more than that, right? So you close the tab and tell yourself it's not worth the fight.

That's where a lot of Florida deposit disputes quietly end. It doesn't have to be.

Florida's landlord-tenant law lets a court make the losing side pay the winner's lawyer. In a deposit case, whoever prevails may be awarded reasonable attorney's fees and court costs from the other side. That's why a dispute that looks too small on paper can still be worth a serious look.

It works both ways, though. If the landlord prevails, you could be the one paying. So the first step isn't filing. It's having someone look at your lease, your photos and the letter, and tell you honestly where you stand.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

Final walkthrough. Keys on the counter. You ask about your deposit, and he says it like it is the most reasonable thing ...
10/02/2026

Final walkthrough. Keys on the counter. You ask about your deposit, and he says it like it is the most reasonable thing in the world: the money went into repairs a few months back, so there is nothing left to return.

That sentence is not a defense. It is an admission.

Florida law gives a landlord three ways to hold a security deposit: a separate account at a Florida bank, a separate interest-bearing account that pays interest to you, or a surety bond. Separate is the word that counts. Your deposit is not supposed to be mixed with his own money, and unless a bond is standing in for it, it is not supposed to be spent while you still live there.

A deposit is security for the end of a tenancy. It is not a line of credit for the middle.

He was holding it. It was never his to spend. Save this one.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

Most tenants hand over a security deposit and do not think about it again until move-out. Florida law has been thinking ...
10/01/2026

Most tenants hand over a security deposit and do not think about it again until move-out. Florida law has been thinking about it the whole time.

The day your landlord took your deposit, he had three choices for where it could go: a separate account at a Florida bank, a separate interest-bearing account that pays you interest, or a surety bond. He also owed you a written notice, in the lease or within 30 days, saying which one he picked and where the money sits.

Swipe through the three options, then go find that notice in your lease folder. If it is not there, that is worth a conversation before move-out, not after.

Save this for the day you hand back the keys.

Get the Florida Tenant Security Deposit Dispute Kit

(Link in the first comment. Playlist link in the first comment.)

Address

2650 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, FL
33137

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Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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+13056868840

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