The common sense law allows property owners to file an affidavit to prove they legally own a property. Squatters will quickly face criminal charges once its proven that they illegally moved into a home.<\/strong><\/p>\nIf the suspect is unable to produce documents authorizing his residency, the property owner can call on the sheriff\u2019s office to immediately remove the squatter from his home.<\/p>\n
The law establishes harsher penalties for squatting crimes, including \u201ca second-degree felony charge against squatters who damage a home, a first-degree felony charge against those who fraudulently sell or lease a property, and a misdemeanor charge against those who purposefully present a fraudulent lease.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previously, squatters in Florida, as well as other states, were considered tenants after a specific length of time and legal property owners often had to launch lengthy and expensive court battles to legally remove them from their homes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cNow, we have not had the same type of issues here, as you\u2019ve seen in California or New York. Nevertheless, our laws were really geared towards this not necessarily being a fad,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe governor said that unlike Democrat-led states that protect squatters, Florida will crackdown on the criminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re siding with the squatters,\u201d he said of the blue states.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIn fact, we have seen squatters move in and claim residence. This forces a massive, long, drawn-out judicial review before they can even be removed from the property. These are people that never had a right to be in the property to begin with. Earlier this month in New York, a woman returned to a property she inherited to find squatters living there. She changed the locks to get them out, and the state of New York arrested her instead of the squatters.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nDuring the signing ceremony in Orlando, Sheriff Dennis M. Lemma said the word \u201csquatter\u201d is too kind and the perpetrators should instead be referred to as \u201ccriminals and con artists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank our legislative body, both our delegates here in central Florida and abroad, because this received unanimous support, and it\u2019s been long too often where we\u2019ve seen homeowners that have spent their entire life working and earning. Some have inherited homes of parents and to knock on the door and be met with squatters,\u201d Lemma said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u201cSquatters actually is a very, very kind term. These are criminals and con artists that need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Florida, similar to other states across the nation, has seen repeated incidents of squatters fraudulently moving into a home or property, including a squatter in September who moved into a multimillion-dollar home in Bonita Springs and was found wearing the homeowner\u2019s clothing. Another homeowner in June, who was on vacation abroad before returning to his Ocala house, was forced to confront a squatter who trashed his property in his absence.<\/p>\n
While residents in a neighborhood in Winter Park sounded off in September that squatters had turned the area into a \u201cnightmare\u201d because the police department was \u201chandcuffed\u201d from arresting the suspects as it was considered a civil matter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
DeSantis pointed out that in Florida, there are many seasonal residents who reside in the state for half the year and leave their houses unattended when they return to their home states in the north.<\/p>\n
The governor said those\u00a0people shouldn\u2019t have to worry that \u201csome rogue person moves in and tries to assert rights against the lawful property owner.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nDeSantis said that he believes Florida is the first state to decisively handle this problem.<\/p>\n
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\nhttps:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2024\/03\/27\/desantis-signs-property-rights-bill-in-florida-that-ends-squatting-scam\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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