Posted on 03/15/2024 11:07:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
Lawmakers in Florida are finally addressing the problem of squatting, one of the most egregious property rights violations going on in America today.
This month, both chambers of the state Legislature unanimously passed a bill allowing law enforcement to immediately remove squatters without waiting weeks or months for a case to move through the courts, according to WJXT-TV.
If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the measure would go into effect on July 1.
The move comes as a relief to Florida property owner Patti Peeples, who dealt with squatters last year.
“It gives me a real feeling of positive hope that we still have the ability to discuss challenges in our society and work with our legislatures in a bipartisan way,” she told WJXT.
Peeples shared her story during a state Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing in February.
“Imagine for a moment that you leave from your day of serving the citizens of Florida as a senator and you return to your home,” she said, according to Fox News. “But when you walk in, there are strangers sitting on your sofa, watching your TV, eating your food.”
“You ask who they are and what they are doing, and they tell you that they have rented this house and present you with a lease.”
It took Peeples over a month to get the law to evict the squatters, and in the meantime the crooks caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to her home.
“At the crux of this issue is just basic unfairness,” she told WJXT. “If we don’t have the right to inhabit our own property, then what kind of world are we living in?”
The bill also makes it a misdemeanor to present a fake lease and a felony to cause property damage in excess of $1,000 while squatting.
Naturally, liberals claimed before the bill’s passage that it would give “bad-acting landlords” the power to throw people on the streets, WUSF-AM reported.
“We see the language that says it’s limited to folks who are staying in the property against the will of the owner,” said Cynthia Laurent, a “housing justice campaigner” with the group Florida Rising. “But what we know to be true is that a process that’s so expedited won’t even allow a person the time to verify that they’re authorized to be there.”
However, the bill also protects legitimate tenants, allowing them to sue property owners if they are wrongfully evicted. Florida Rising told WJXT it is now “neutral” on the bill’s passage.
Without a doubt, something needed to be done. Squatting is a growing problem all across the country.
These people willfully move into somebody else’s home and defiantly occupy the property until the slow-acting legal system tosses them out. Then they just move on to the next home and start the clock all over again.
One expert recently warned that once the millions of illegals who have flooded our country realize that they can just live for free on other people’s property before eventually being kicked out, the problem will only get worse.
Florida legislators are doing the right thing by addressing this via the law. And it’s long past time other states did so as well.
Ping!...................
As usual, lawmakers don’t address problems until it affects one of THEM.
Nevertheless, it’s a good move and many more states need to follow suit.
The only problem is, it should be effective IMMEDIATELY. Waiting until July 1 gives the squatters time to do a serious amount of property damage as retaliation. If they do, they should be jailed for it for a long time.
(Waits patiently for some leftist kangaroo federal court to overrule the law on the most idiotic basis imaginable).
Seventy years ago, my grandfather — a four foot ten Polish immigrant — made rent collections and evictions by himself with a large Colt .45 revolver in a holster on his hip. The idea of a squatter on one of properties would have had him laughing.
“But when you walk in, there are strangers sitting on your sofa, watching your TV, eating your food.”
That’s when you shoot ‘em dead.
Communist “Democratic” Party and their gibsmedat army hardest hit.
Florida should pass a law that presidential executive orders that affect private contracts between citizens null and void.
“a bill allowing law enforcement to immediately remove squatters”
Where do they move them to. That’s the big question. To housing subsidized by the rest of us? To the side of a road out of the city limits?
No it’s not. First you move them off the sofa and on to a plastic tarp.
Texas needs something like this.
You guys in the Legislature and the Governor’s office listening?
Are they in session? I heard the meet only every two years................
Texas needs something like this.“
First you must dump that rat mole who is the Speaker of the Texas House. I’m afraid the rats are going to flood the vote in the runoff and save that traitor.
And allowable property damage should be $0. $1,000 is IDIOTIC!!!
Every year. Ninety days sessions.
this legislation should be used as the template for legislation in all of the other 56 states ...
This is a big deal in Florida. There are a large number of Foridians who own property that they live in only part of the year
Absolutely!!!!!
Gotta wonder how many times this legislooter told someone in the exact same situation "there's nothing we can do".
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