Florida lawmakers are moving forward with legislation they say will fix a key loophole that has allowed squatters to take advantage of unsuspecting property owners across the Sunshine State in recent years.
House Bill 621, sponsored by Republican Florida Rep. Kevin Steele, presented in response to Jacksonville resident Patti Peeples, who made national headlines earlier this year when squatters moved onto her Jacksonville property and caused nearly $40,000 in damages.
Peeples first discovered that two female squatters had broken into the rental house he owned after he sent a handyman to make repairs in anticipation of a home inspection after he had shown the house to interested buyers 48 hours earlier.
When Peeples tried to get the squatters to leave his property, they showed him a lease from a fraudulent landlord and claimed they had a right to stay.
Peeples said he fears for his safety when fighting squatters. Patti Peeples
The story lasted 34 days and the squatter caused $38,000 worth of damage, plus legal fees, including broken walls and windows, cabinets from the walls, missing washers and dryers, broken toilets and feces strewn throughout the house.
“These squatters know the law better than most lawyers, and they’re using it to their advantage and the police are completely out of control,” Peeple told Fox News in April. “They know that this is a civil matter. The police have absolutely no right to remove these squatters and treat them as criminals, as trespassers or trespassers, and they just throw up their hands and say, ‘You have to go through this civil court system and evict them.’ “
Steele’s bill would allow for immediate eviction of squatters by law enforcement if they cannot produce a notarized lease from the landowner or proof they are paying rent.
When Peeples asked squatters to leave their property, they showed them leases from fraudulent landlords and claimed they had a right to stay. Patti Peeples
“I’m moving forward with this bill because I see the impact it has on Patti and everyone else in the state,” Steele told News4Jax. “Number two, we impose penalties on individuals if they provide false documentation. So. they will have criminal charges on that perspective.”
Peeples said he feared for his safety during the altercation with the squatters.
“We were driving at night, and they threw bricks at my car and damaged it, and our windows were half way down, and they threw human feces in the car,” Peeples said.
Peeples said the squatters who moved onto his property in Jacksonville caused nearly $40,000 in losses. Patti Peeples
The bill, which was filed in November, would eliminate squatter rights in Florida, a state that has been one of the most vulnerable to the problem in recent years.
Homeowners across the United States have become victims of squatting this year, many finding themselves without legal rights and police departments unable to help because of the way the law is structured.
“It seems like it’s a pretty big problem and I think it’s pretty hard to avoid,” Jim Burlring, vice president of legal affairs for the Pacific Legal Foundation, told Fox News Digital in March.
“If someone lives in a house and says, ‘Hey, I signed a lease, I pay rent, I have a right to be here,’ whether that’s true or not, the police hear the story, then they hear the story of someone who doesn’t live in there and say, ‘This is my place, these people don’t belong here,’ a police officer can’t make that legal determination,” Burling said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
