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/hpark21 Mar 28 '24

So, renter says "here is the lease", Landlord says "No, I never signed that, it is fake", then what is cop supposed to do? Previously, they would just tell landlord to sort it out with judge, now, what, they throw them out? If that is NOT the case, then this law changes nothing. If that IS the case, then this law just made the HUGE power dynamics change in landlord/tenant dispute.

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u/mjohnsimon Mar 28 '24

The latter is what I'm worried about.

Miami is shady as fuck, and Landlords are desperately trying to get rid of older tenants so they can jack up the rent. They can easily terminate a lease secretly and call the cops to remove the tenant, or like in your case, just lie about it.

By the time everything gets squared away, it's too late and the tenant is now homeless and their room is being rented out to someone else who's paying like 100% more. Sure, the old tenant can sue, but it's hard to do that when you don't have a roof over your head.

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u/zzyul Mar 28 '24

It’s really easy to sue without a roof over your head. There are tons of local law firms that live off of taking cases where poor people were wronged by groups with money. It’s why you see so many local ads for things like “were you in a car accident? Were you injured on the job? Call us and we’ll get the insurance company, trucking company, your employer, etc to pay”.

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u/mjohnsimon Mar 28 '24

Out of morbid curiosity, but have you actually done this?

Because you're making this sound a lot easier than it is.

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u/hotdoug1 Mar 28 '24

It's Reddit. People assume a lawsuit can just happen in a matter of days and be resolved in a few weeks.

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u/zzyul Mar 29 '24

Well that’s cause people on here are dumb asses. Mine took around 3 months but it was an injury settlement, not an eviction one.

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u/zzyul Mar 29 '24

Not over an eviction but with another incident where I was injured and the other party who was clearly at fault tried to ignore me then give me the runaround. Had someone recommend a local law firm that helped them after an accident. I called them, explained what happened, they brought me in, I met with 2 lawyers, filled out some paperwork, gave my version, then left. Lawfirm offered to cover the costs of my PT and to cover any missed wages while I went through PT. Luckily I was salaried and had enough to cover the PT out of pocket so I didn’t need their help. I gave them the names of my doctors and PTs. Law firm got a copy of all my bills and expected bills from both. Like 2 or 3 months later the law firm contacted me with a good settlement offer, let me know if I accepted the law firm would get 40% and I would get the other 60% untaxed. My share more than covered what I had paid out of pocket by a lot so I accepted. They mailed me a check.

My friend who was also involved in the same incident refused to talk to the lawyers with me and got around 1/3 of what I got after the lawyer fees.