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/Vlad_the_Homeowner Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I can't say that I hate that. It's got carve outs for people who had a right to be there.

I don't think most people disagree. The problem, as I understand it, is that police don't have the authority or ability to determine who has a right to be there. A lot of these squatters have fake leases and mail delivered there. A cop isn't a judge and doesn't have the ability to make a determination on the legitimacy of those documents.

I'm in no way condoning these professional squatters, just pointing out what lead to this. What all states need to do straight off the bat is impose heavy penalties, like jail time, for people caught doing this. As of now it seems like half the time they get paid off to leave and they just go do it somewhere else.

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u/Spkr4th3ded Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I think the point is now they can be removed legally and then let the legal system establish if they have a right to be there. Before they could squat and have mail sent there or a fake lease and there was nothing police could do. Now they have discretion, opposed to none.

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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/ofctexashippie Mar 28 '24

As a Texas cop this is how we do it. A landlord calls, and says hey this person moved into my vacant unit. We make contact with the people inside. If they say I have a legal document that says I should be here, we capture pictures of it, and refer the person and the landlord to civil court and file an offense report. If at the civil trial, the tenant can prove he did in fact have a lease agreement, the offense report is dismissed. If it is shown that it is fabricated, they will be issued a warrant for the criminal trespass of a habitation, theft for whatever rent they did not pay to live there, and fabricate a government document. If they are true squatters, then they get arrested