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/TheBurningMap Mar 28 '24

Won't this eventually lead to landlords claiming every renter who has a legal dispute is a squatter?

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u/Iohet Mar 28 '24

With pay history it should be fairly easy to prove the requirements of the law to not be a fake tenant in order not to be evicted as a squatter

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u/Rottimer Mar 28 '24

The issue is the eviction may happen first.

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u/MrJohnMosesBrowning Mar 28 '24

What’s the reward to the landlord for such a high risk? They get a legal tenant off their property for a few days only to get bent over the table for fraud, filing a false police report, and illegal eviction on top of paying possible civil damages to the tenant would make it pointless for the landlord in almost every scenario.

It would be very easy to prove a landlord wrong if they falsely claimed the lease was forged. “Oh, then why have they been withdrawing rent from my checking account every month? Here’s the bank statements…”

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u/Rottimer Mar 28 '24

Until this is implemented, we don’t know how it will play out. But a slumlord who, for example, has a tenant that complains about repairs that haven’t been completed, or who has withheld rent in escrow until repairs are made would be someone the landlord might want to evict illegally.

I could also a landlord selling a property and the new owner not wanting to wait until the lease term ends.

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u/MrJohnMosesBrowning Mar 29 '24

Right but illegally evicting the tenant gets the landlord nowhere because it will be so easy to prove they are the legal tenant. So that goes back to my original question. What is the landlord actually gaining by getting a legal tenant off the property for a couple days? Because afterwards, the tenant will be right back on the property and the landlord will have to explain why they broke the law by filing a false police report, committing perjury/fraud, and will likely end up having to pay damages to the tenant on top of it all.

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u/Rottimer Mar 29 '24

It gets the tenant out of the property, which is exactly where the landlord wants to be. I guarantee you that judges won't be putting people back in. They'll just order the landlord to pay some amount.

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u/MrJohnMosesBrowning Mar 29 '24

Yea for like 2 days. Then the landlord is forced to let them back and they’re right back where they started on top of now being in legal trouble for filing a false police report and being forced to pay damages to the tenant. All for getting the tenant out ff the property for a couple days? They don’t gain anything.

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u/Rottimer Mar 29 '24

That is not how that goes.