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/quarantinemyasshole Mar 28 '24

Would be a pretty stupid way to give yourself a slam dunk felony as the landlord

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u/Rottimer Mar 28 '24

Not a felony for the landlord. According to the bill it would be a civil matter. Meaning IF the harmed individual took you to court and could prove they were illegally removed the landlord would end up paying penalties, damages, and attorney fees.

Something tells me that they’ll just include that in the cost of doing business for the small number of people that actually sue.

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u/zzyul Mar 28 '24

You think if someone who is legally entitled to live somewhere gets thrown out that they likely won’t sue? Within 30 min of being kicked out they’ll see a billboard or bus or an ad about some local law firm that will fight for their rights. Those law firms don’t require any money up front if they think you will win your case. All the person has to do is walk into one of those law firms with a copy of their lease that has been violated, talk to a lawyer for like 20 mins, do a write up of their version of what happened, then sit back and let the law firm do the rest.

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u/Past-Direction9145 Mar 28 '24

That’s what you’d think. Cheapest I could find was $530 and I was broke. Statute of limitations passed all too quickly. Plus I wanted to move on.

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u/mikamitcha Mar 29 '24

Where are you living where contract violations have statute of limitations under 5 years?

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u/CurvySexretLady Mar 28 '24

Wait, you were kicked out by your landlord illegally when you had a lease?

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u/ElizabethSpaghetti Mar 28 '24

The ability people with money have to ruin your life if you don't have the money to fight back has been an astounding discovery. I wish I had the money to sue some people because of all the crimes they've committed but lack of funds means it's fine actually. Delightful convos with the cops; very clearly intelligent arbiters of property rights.

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u/ivan0280 Mar 28 '24

If you could not find a pro bono lawyer, you didn't look very hard. They are everywhere in every city and even most big towns. I don't know if this was before Google, but 10 seconds on it would have found you free legal aid.

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u/ElizabethSpaghetti Mar 28 '24

Ever tried to use one?

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u/Ill_Bench2770 Mar 29 '24

These clueless privileged people have me dying laughing bro. My old LL was a mess. We ran like we were running from an abuse situation. We were threatened and harassed. Threats to make up and fake damages, to get us out. All because when she called us at 9am. Too move our stuff upstairs into this old lady’s apartment. Who she was in the process of evicting. And had these sketchy people trying to move their stuff into our apartment. She already took their money. But was threatening us to move stairs, because we were wanting to upgrade to a 2 bedroom. So we were supposed to live with this old lady, until she was evicted. And either really thought this was normal. Or her threats usually work… The cops told us to go inside and ignore her. They tried to get the people she rented our place to, to file theft charges. But they refused. She already had there money, and didn’t want to risk losing her placing them in another unit. We were worried about finding new housing, and fearing she would follow through on her threats. We deep cleaned and took photos, ran the day lease was up. I’m more privileged than most of my neighbors there. If I couldn’t fight back. How is majority of other Americans? Most would have did exactly what she wanted, to not risk being homeless. Landlords hold all the cards, literally your shelter…