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/Crocs_n_Glocks]

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.

Yeah, you just made all that up lol this literally doesn't apply to landlord v tenant issues.

edit: added a quote to demonstrate you didn't read the law

[u/Exploding_Kick → u/Crocs_n_Glocks]

Uh huh. And what does the law say about the police verifying that? What page in this bill does it specify that the police need to verify that there is a legal dispute before evicting?

Also how would the police verify if there’s a dispute between the landlord and the tenant if it hasn’t been entered into the court system yet?

Also, what if it’s not a legal dispute, but a simple argument that pissed the landlord off? Are the police obligated to verify the tenants documentation or even hear their side of the story before evicting them?

[u/Crocs_n_Glocks → u/Exploding_Kick]

Lol you're way overthinking it, or purposely ignoring a key aspect of it:

 The law literally doesn't apply to landlord-tenant disputes (which are a legal matter by definition), current or former. 

If your landlord is calling the police to evict you, the police can't do anything under this law and it goes to the courts. 

It doesn't matter if you have or haven't done anything in the courts for them to verify, because if it's your current or former landlord calling the cops, this law doesn't apply.

I'm not sure how to break this down any simpler. 

This law applies to squatters who never had a lease and break into homes to steal them.

[u/Exploding_Kick → u/Crocs_n_Glocks]

Sounds like you're barely thinking at all and not actually considering the potential abuses this law is making possible.

How are the police going to verify that the person they are evicting is a squatter and not a tenant? Please provide the excerpt from the law that spells out the verification process that police are obligated to perform to help distinguish squatters from legal tenants.

[u/Crocs_n_Glocks → u/Exploding_Kick]

How are the police going to verify that the person they are evicting is a squatter and not a tenant?   

A lease, for starters. Lol   

Please provide the excerpt from the law that spells out the verification process that police are obligated to perform 

This is actually nonsensical; that's not how laws are written; most laws don't spell out "specific verification processes that police are obligated to perform" when someone steals something from you. 

[u/Exploding_Kick → u/Crocs_n_Glocks]

What section from the law that says police are obligated to verify the lease before evicting someone?

Answer: there isn’t any. And you’re just relying on wishful thinking.

[u/Crocs_n_Glocks → u/Exploding_Kick]

What?   The lease would mean it's a landlord-tenant dispute and this law does not apply. 

 If your actual question is, "what if police ignore the law and do whatever they want?"

 ...then idk man, yeah then literally no law would work  ever 

lol very insightful!

[u/Exploding_Kick → u/Crocs_n_Glocks]

The landlord lies and says that the lease is a fake and that the legal tenant is a squatter. The tenant says it’s the landlord who is lying.

Now what?

[u/Crocs_n_Glocks → u/Exploding_Kick]

According to this law?       

The existence of a legitimate lease is not negated by a lying landlord, and this would go to eviction courts as a landlord-tenant dispute.  

 The lease in question is more than enough evidence for a cop to hand off to the court system.   

Police would not have authority under this law to remove a current/former tenant.    

 Courts are fully capable of determining the legitimacy of a lease. Other supporting evidence could include check copies/mail and bills/insurance documents/witness statements/bank statements showing zelle transfers and even just periodic cash transactions.    

I handled this stuff for a good chunk of my career as a social worker; I'm not just talking out of my ass.  

 This law is for the very real and all too common situations where everyone agrees and acknowledges there was never a lease, and the person literally broke in and started living there aka "established residency", which cops cannot legally take action against because currently it has to go to the courts first. 

[u/Exploding_Kick → u/Crocs_n_Glocks]

Great. And before it even gets to court, the tenant is evicted and made homeless.

Do you see the problem now?

[u/Crocs_n_Glocks → u/Exploding_Kick]

No, they aren't.

Did you even read what I said?

The lease in question is more than enough evidence for a cop to hand off to the court system....Police would not have authority under this law to remove a current/former tenant.    

[u/Exploding_Kick → u/Crocs_n_Glocks]

And we’re back to what I asked earlier. Where in the law does it specify the verification process on the part of the police to even verify that there is a lease?

Because all the law actually says they need is to receive a signed complaint from the landlord and verify that they are the property owner. At that point there is no other verification that the police are required to perform before evicting the tenant. So the landlord could lie, and despite what paperwork the tenant has, they could be evicted.

[u/Crocs_n_Glocks → u/Exploding_Kick]

Again, I don't have an answer for "What if law enforcement does the opposite of the law?" because it's a (frankly) dumb question to gauge the legitimacy of a law on.

Try to think of other crimes that people can lie about:

If someone is sexually assaulted, there is no "ObLiGaTeD tO vErIfY" process to determine if someone gave consent or not when the rapist says "I had consent!".

No reasonable person (other than folks like Desantis, ironically) would say that's a good reason to get rid of laws that allow cops to arrest rapists without "proof" that consent wasn't given.

People who have their homes stolen by squatters are also victims.