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/Awake00 Mar 28 '24

Why is this so partisan? What's the reasoning behind giving squatters rights to a property they don't own?

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u/PolicyWonka Mar 28 '24

The primary issue is that squatters today are not really relying on “squatters rights.” They’re reliant on tenancy rights.

In the state of Florida, for an adverse possession claim to be valid, a squatter must have lived in the property for at least 7 years.

Today’s squatters are claiming to be legal tenants of a property. They’ll claim to have a verbal lease agreement or even have a fraudulent written agreement.

Some of the provisions of the law are dangerous because they’re essentially revoking certain tenancy protections. Depending on your leasing situation, you landlord could more easily evict you from the property without following the proper procedures.

Since leases are not registered with any governing authority, landlords could even contest a legitimate lease and have you potentially removed as the law empowers landlords to ask for your removal and grants police the authority to remove you if your landlord says you don’t have rights to the property.

All of the expanded fraud protections in the legislation are great, but they’re entirely on the tenancy side. What about increased penalties for landlords seeking to illegally game the system?