Hi everyone, thank you for your responses. The pool maintenance guy came yesterday and I was able to go out and ask all the questions I could think of. He was very nice and extremely helpful.

Yep the solar is working properly, it helps a little but right now its still just a bit cold out for swimming even in Florida, depending on the temperature that day. I'll have to pick and choose my days for swimming till March probably.

The previous tenant took the hose with them so the water level had gotten a bit low to use the skimmer so thats why it was off. I'm about to go pick up a hose and the guy told me where my water level should be and that the skimmer should be open all the time.

Pool was built in 2006 so its not very old and has 2 main drains that look to have proper covers, but yeah I'll be cautious until I have the skimmer back on. Other than that the pool is crystal clear, the pool man comes once a week to take care of the cleaning and stuff and I now know how to operate the valves and timer properly. A little knowlege goes a long way.

I'll keep my account on here in case I need help in the future. This is a great forum! Thank you!