Florida Senate - 2011                                     SB 738
       
       
       
       By Senator Sobel
       
       
       
       
       31-00895-11                                            2011738__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to rental property foreclosure;
    3         creating s. 45.036, F.S.; providing applicability;
    4         providing a definition; subjecting the interest taken
    5         in foreclosure by a successor in interest to specified
    6         limitations and requirements; requiring notice to
    7         certain tenants regarding foreclosure; providing an
    8         exception; providing legislative intent; providing an
    9         effective date.
   10  
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Section 45.036, Florida Statutes, is created to
   14  read:
   15         45.036 Rights of a residential tenant in foreclosure
   16  actions.—
   17         (1) APPLICABILITY.—This section applies only to a bona fide
   18  lease or tenancy and a bona fide tenant.
   19         (a) For purposes of this section, a lease or tenancy is
   20  bona fide only if it applies to real property that is:
   21         1. Occupied by a tenant who is not the mortgagor or the
   22  child, spouse, or parent of the mortgagor.
   23         2. Subject to the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant
   24  Act, part II of chapter 83.
   25         3. Subject to a lease or tenancy that was the result of an
   26  arm’s length transaction, and the lease or tenancy requires the
   27  receipt of rent that is not substantially less than fair market
   28  rent for the property or the unit’s rent is reduced or
   29  subsidized due to a federal, state, or local subsidy.
   30         4. Subject to a foreclosure action.
   31         (b) As used in this section, the term “bona fide tenant”
   32  means a person who occupies real property under a lease or
   33  tenancy meeting the requirements of paragraph (a).
   34         (2) NOTICE TO VACATE AFTER FORECLOSURE SALE.—
   35         (a) In the case of any foreclosure of any dwelling or
   36  residential real property, any immediate successor in interest
   37  in the property pursuant to the foreclosure assumes that
   38  interest subject to:
   39         1. The provision, by the immediate successor in interest,
   40  of a notice to vacate to any bona fide tenant at least 90 days
   41  before the effective date of the notice; and
   42         2. The rights of any bona fide tenant as of the date of the
   43  notice of foreclosure:
   44         a. Under any bona fide lease entered into before the notice
   45  of foreclosure to occupy the premises until the end of the
   46  remaining term of the lease, except that a successor in interest
   47  may terminate a lease effective on the date of sale of the unit
   48  to a purchaser who will occupy the unit as a primary residence,
   49  subject to the receipt by the tenant of the 90-day notice under
   50  subparagraph 1.; or
   51         b. Without a lease or with a lease terminable at will,
   52  subject to the receipt by the tenant of the 90-day notice under
   53  subparagraph 1.
   54         (b) This subsection does not affect the requirements for
   55  termination of any federal- or state-subsidized tenancy or any
   56  law that provides longer time periods or other additional
   57  protections for tenants.
   58         (c) It is the intent of the Legislature that this
   59  subsection be interpreted in harmony with the federal Protecting
   60  Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, as amended.
   61         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.