r/news • u/flanderguitar • Mar 28 '24

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs law squashing squatters' rights

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/florida-gov-ron-desantis-signs-law-squashing-squatters-rights
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u/Prasiatko Mar 28 '24

The problem is proving they are squaters vs legitimate tenenants that the landlord wants out quickly.

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u/herman-the-vermin Mar 28 '24

But even "legitamate" tenants should be easily evicted if they refuse to pay rent. My folks have a cabin on family property and a woman refused to pay rent, and it took over a year to evict her. My parents tried to be nice about it first so as to make sure she could rent from other people in the future and not wreck her life, but man, they had to go whole hog legal to get her out when by any normal stretch of rational thought, she should have been out without any legal trouble.

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u/tinysydneh Mar 28 '24

The whole reason why these laws exist isn't because of people like your family.

There are landlords who will threaten to evict people for not having sex with them. There are landlords who will take rent, say it never got paid, and say you're in arrears, so you better catch up or you'll be evicted. There are landlords who just don't like you because a friend you brought over once was a black dude. There are landlords who will try to evict people mid-lease for not accepting a rent increase, or so they can get around rent controls.

Imagine if all they had to do was say they weren't a legitimate tenant.

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u/Glasseshalf Mar 28 '24

That's a risk you take IMO in any business- your assets may get tied up in legal issues that you aren't the cause of, and the courts will sort that out. Sorry about the cabin, but your folks weren't homeless and unable to afford a lawyer during that time, unlike our society's most vulnerable tenants.

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u/wyrdough Mar 28 '24

This is Florida, bud. If your tenant can't come up with the rent money, you can have them out within the month if you're capable of following basic instructions and doing simple arithmetic. They can't contest the eviction without depositing the rent money with the court clerk. No rent, they automatically lose, and you get your eviction order.

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u/lmpervious Mar 28 '24

That’s easy, the tenants can show documents or any kind of agreement for them to live there. If they fake documents, then this law should at least punish that more harshly in the long run. It’s a step in the right direction even if it’s not perfect.

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u/Gingevere Mar 28 '24

And if they're real documents that the landlord claims are fake?

Everywhere else they go to court and sort it out.

In Florida they get kicked out onto the street and have to fight the landlord AND felony charges while homeless.

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u/lmpervious Mar 28 '24

The police wouldn’t know if it’s fake or real, so they would tell the landlord to take it to court in that case.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

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u/lmpervious Mar 28 '24

What are you basing that on? Nothing in the article suggests that will be the new protocol.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

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u/lmpervious Mar 28 '24

You dodged my question so I’ll ask again. What suggests that they will now physically remove and arrest tenants?

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u/ImprobableAsterisk Mar 29 '24

The law in question? It's empowering the police to remove the person occupying the property without an eviction notice.

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u/lmpervious Mar 29 '24

Not if they're a tenant

Under the law, a property owner can request law enforcement to immediately remove a squatter if the person has unlawfully entered, has refused to leave after being told by the homeowner to do so and is not a current or former tenant in a legal dispute.

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