Florida resident and landlord Patti Peeples is the inspiration behind the anti-squatter bill recently signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 1.
According to the American Apartment Owners Association, a squatter is any individual who decides to inhabit a piece of land or a building in which they have no legal right to occupy.
Peeples said her experience with squatters began when she was attempting to sell one of her rental properties.
“About two and a half weeks after the house was listed, I received a phone call that there were two squatters that had moved into the house, and that was my first introduction to this burgeoning pandemic of squatting across the United States,” said Peeples.
Peeples said the two women who took over her rental property were serial squatters.
“They had just been evicted from a house around the corner and they simply walked out of that house in the middle of the night and moved in to mine by cutting off the realtor lock box and then drilling out the deadbolt and the door handle, and replacing it with one of their own with their own set of keys,” said Peeples.
During this long process, Peeples said she was harassed and physically assaulted by the squatters. When she called the police to get the squatter’s out, she said the two squatters provided false evidence of a lease, lied to the officers about being the rightful renters, and to her dismay, the officer could do nothing.
She said by the time she had gotten the squatters out, she discovered that they had thrown a “destruction party” in her rental property.
“They had done $40,000 worth of damages to the house,” said Peeples.
Peeples said state Rep. Kevin Steele and Sen. Keith Perry decided to take up the efforts to squatters and make it a crime so it could be adjudicated at the criminal court rather than a civil case.
“It appears to me that most of the people who are squatting are just trying to take someone’s home,” said Stark (R-St. Cloud). “They’re not necessarily people who are just in need of a place to live.”
New House Bill 621 protects homeowners from the dangers of squatters in the state of Florida. According to the bill, property owners may now take immediate action by calling law enforcement to remove unauthorized individuals from the residential property.
The bill states that the property owner must contact the Sheriff’s Office and file a complaint, under penalty of perjury, listing the relevant facts that show eligibility for relief, which the sheriff can verify ownership of the property, and then the sheriff will be obligated to remove the unauthorized person.
“I think that’s problematic for people to just be able to get into someone’s home and then they (homeowners and renters) have all the difficulties of getting them out,” said Stark.” So that bill solves that problem.”
Peeples said she was able to restore the damaged done by the two squatters and sell the home.
“It was an incredibly traumatic experience, and I put my life in danger multiple times fighting to get them out because there was absolutely nothing the law could or would do,” said Peeples. “I am so grateful for this law now here in Florida, otherwise individuals like me are going to take the law in their own hands to try and get these people out of their homes because the police won’t do it.”
For more on HB 621, go to: https://www.flsenate.gov/ Session/Bill/2024/621 For an owner’s rights against squatters from the American Apartment Owners Association, go to: https://www.americanapartment- owners-association. org/ property- management/ latest-news/squatters-rightslaw/
