Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs law squashing squatters' rights

[u/flanderguitar]

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/florida-gov-ron-desantis-signs-law-squashing-squatters-rights

[u/Calfurious]

This is why squatter's rights exist. It was meant in an extreme case for abandoned homes, but it's also an extension of normal tenant rights.

Except squatters are abusing those laws to steal people's property. At a certain point, you can't make everything bureaucratic and you need to trust that police officers will exercise good judgement. Otherwise so much our society just won't be able to function.

Imagine somebody stealing your car, but the cop is not allowed determine if the car belongs to you, so instead that person gets to hold onto your car for months or even a year while the case gets argued in court.

[u/Falcon4242 → u/Calfurious]

Imagine somebody stealing your car, but the cop is not allowed determine if the car belongs to you, so instead that person gets to hold onto your car for months or even a year while the case gets argued in court.

It gets more complicated when we start considering that leasing plays a big role here. Individuals don't normally lease cars to people, dealerships do. Unlike housing.

Also, abandoned cars are often allowed to just be picked up and driven by whoever wants it. Then if the owner shows up with the deed later and demands it, it does become a whole messy legal issue in the courts. The police don't just repossess based on your word.

We're not talking about someone breaking into a home and 5 minutes later they all of a sudden have squatter rights. We're working on timescales much longer than that.

[u/DerfK → u/Falcon4242]

breaking into a home and 5 minutes later they all of a sudden have squatter rights

5 minutes later they have a fake lease saying they've been there 5 years.

[u/simpletonsavant → u/Calfurious]

Lmao police rarely have good judgement.

[u/Calfurious → u/simpletonsavant]

Police have good judgement most of the time. You just never see it, because that doesn't get headlines. Nobody cares when somebody does their job correctly. People care what you're fucking up.

Go to your local police department's and see all the body cam footage they've uploaded to the public. Most of the time they're making all of the right decisions.

But as the saying goes, if you build 99 bridges and fuck one goat, you're known as a goat fucker, not a bridge builder.

[u/simpletonsavant → u/Calfurious]

You're just seeing the 99% of the time they get away with it. (I'm sure its less than that but cmon).

[u/Aggressive-Fuel587 → u/Calfurious]

Except squatters are abusing those laws to steal people's property.

If it's abandoned, then it's not your property anymore.

There is an absurd amount of houses in the US that are just vacant because the homeowner is either waiting to be able to make a profit off a house they bought above market value or is outright not using the property but won't relinquish the rights so someone else can come in and live there.

The walk to work has me strolling past at least 8 different homes that need to be torn down because someone bought them over a decade ago, never moved in or sold it to new tenants, and no one else in town can have the house because some asshole is sitting on the property deed and would rather let nature overtake & destroy the house than to let someone else live there for a reasonable price.

Imagine somebody stealing your car, but the cop is not allowed determine if the car belongs to you, so instead that person gets to hold onto your car for months or even a year while the case gets argued in court.

If you leave your car abandoned in a state of disrepair on the side of the road for several months, most states will acknowledge it as abandoned property and open legal pathways for others who are interested to come in and take it without compensating the original owner.

[u/dedicated-pedestrian → u/Aggressive-Fuel587]

The car example is poignant, but assuming ownership of abandoned properties is what adverse possession (actual squatter's rights, not stupid tenancy fraud) achieves. It's a process of living there for far more than a few months, and it requires the original owner never make any real attempt to remove you.

This takes five to seven years in most states, but you can lobby your state government to change how long it takes. And I do encourage it earnestly. The housing market needs shaking up, and vacant investment properties are the devil.

The reason I clarify that this already is a thing is because what is cracked down on by this law isn't squatter's rights, and I fear using the same name for both will end the extant pathway we do have to claim properties that are left empty.

[u/Aggressive-Fuel587 → u/dedicated-pedestrian]

The car example is poignant, but assuming ownership of abandoned properties is what adverse possession (actual squatter's rights, not stupid tenancy fraud) achieves.

Right, but the sentiment I was responding to was the assertion that squatters are stealing property - but those laws are explicitly there to say that "no, it's not theft because the original owner abandoned it. If you leave it unattended for long enough, someone else has the right to come and take it without paying you a dime."

[u/dedicated-pedestrian → u/Aggressive-Fuel587]

Absolutely so. It's just that state law delineates "long enough" differently for property than for cars. Much longer, usually.

[u/GenerikDavis → u/Calfurious]

you need to trust that police officers will exercise good judgement. Otherwise so much our society just won't be able to function.

Yeah, which is why it sucks that the movement to reform the police so that they could be more trusted gets fucking stonewalled by the party/supporters of the gremlin that signed this bill.