Fort Lauderdale Landlord Emulates Scrooge In Demanding Rent From Dead Man

December 21, 2007 4:23 p.m. EST

Fort Lauderdale, FL (AHN) - Florida's overbuilt and slow real estate market has left the state over loaded with a huge inventory of homes, condos and apartments that don't sell or rent. That might explain why one South Florida landlord is seeking rent from a dead man, claiming that he is owed three months rent because the tenant failed to give 60 days notice before dropping dead of an unexpected heart attack.

Fort Lauderdale landlord Alan Statsky claims he is owed the money for the apartment at Sun Harbour Yearly Residences that Art Zissen left vacant after dying there of a heart attack on Sept. 22.

"Part of the contract says if you abandon your lease and you don't pay on your lease that we have a right to collect your security deposit," property manager Alan Statsky was quoted as saying by Local 10 news.

But it's not just the dead man's security deposit. In a move that could have been a scene in novelist Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" by character Ebenezer Scrooge, Statsky wants rent for October, November and December for the vacant apartment too. And since Art Zissen is dead, Statsky sent his relatives a bill for three months of rent.

Although it's up to a Broward County judge to interpret the lease in January, a lawyer says the lease died when Zissen did leaving Statsky without any contract to enforce.

"This landlord's ability to collect rent came to an end when Mr. Zissen died," Russell White, an attorney for Zissen's family, was quoted as saying by Local 10 news. He added, "That landlord, in my view, is trying to take advantage of the situation to extract money. It looks to me that it's motivated on pure greed."

Zissen's brother notified the apartment management company on Sept. 24 that his brother had died, then cleaned out the apartment and did a walk through with apartment managers on Oct. 5.