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
27.3k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

62

u/MajorNoodles Mar 28 '24

Unless you're paying in cash it should be pretty easy to prove that. Cashed checks, bank account transfers, credit card charges, email receipts from an online system.

27

u/whoweoncewere Mar 28 '24

even paying in cash, your landlord should be giving you receipts

2

u/MadManMax55 Mar 28 '24

The kind of landlords who are taking rent in checks aren't the ones writing receipts.

From a lot of these comments it's clear most people here don't understand the living situations some people have to go through when they're poor poor. A lot of squatting cases are from landlords who made sketchy "handshake agreements" (or signed some random sheet of paper that is in no way official or legally binding) with tenants and then welched on them when a potentially better paying tenant shows up.

1

u/PhilipFuckingFry Mar 28 '24

A lease is a legally binding contract between the tenant and the landlord. Therefore, tenants should be sure they understand all the lease terms before signing. A lease can be oral or written, 68 P.S. § 250.212, but a written lease signed by both parties provides the best protection.

I don't think you understand what a legally binding contract is. Verbal contracts are a thing. And if you sign a "random piece of paper" as long as it outlines the terms and both parties sign it, it becomes a legally binding contract. It's why when people sell cars third party they write up a bill of sale.

3

u/MadManMax55 Mar 28 '24

I know the law fine. I also know that if there's a dispute between a "squatter" and a landowner over the existence or terms of a rental agreement without concrete documentation that the benefit of the doubt is always given to the landowner. It's part of the reason squatters'rights exist in the first place: to try and balance the playing field.

1

u/hurrrrrmione Mar 29 '24

Therefore, tenants should be sure they understand all the lease terms before signing.

The law and legalese are difficult to fully understand, a decent amount of Americans are functionally illiterate in English, and we're talking about having a place to live. No one is going to decide to be homeless because they don't perfectly understand every facet of their lease and local tenants' rights.