JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Lawmakers in Tallahassee are taking action to address squatting. This comes after a loophole in the law that made it harder to evict unwanted guests than it would for lawful tenants.
House Bill 621 is inspired by the story of Jacksonville homeowners who said squatters wreaked havoc on their property and destroyed the home’s interior, which cost them tens of thousands of dollars.
Patti Peeples said a woman moved into her rental property in March and refused to leave.
She said they told police they were victims of a rental scam, signing a lease with someone named Christopher after they found the house for rent on Zillow.
But Zillow has no record of the house being for rent around that time. The lease was unsigned by the other party, and neither the officer nor the I-TEAM could find any trace of Christopher.
“I want to be straightforward, completely honest with you and frank. You’re being scammed for your home,” the responding officer can be heard saying in the body camera video.
The responding officer told Peeples there are schemes where squatters generate fake leases and weaponize the law to stay in other people’s homes.
The officer believed this could be one of those circumstances.
Police records show one of the women claimed she had recently been a victim of the same rental scam and was evicted from that nearby home soon before moving into Peeples’ house.
“Technically, I can’t prove it, so she can still be a victim, and it technically would be a civil ordeal,” Peeples said.
That civil ordeal took weeks, leaving the women living in Peeple’s property rent-free for 40 days. In the meantime, Peeples couldn’t get inside.
“I own the house. I have every right,” Peeples said back in March when she confronted the women.
“But you can’t be in here,” one of the women responded. “Your police report says this is under investigation.”
Peeples said she felt hopeless.
“I really had no recourse. I didn’t have legal recourse. I didn’t have policy recourse,” Peeples said.
Peeples took her story public, eventually leading an aide of Dade County state Rep. Kevin Steele to reach out.
“I pursued this bill because I saw the impact that it had on Patti and as well as others in the state,” Steele said.
He filed the bill in November. If passed, it would allow law enforcement to immediately remove squatters who can’t produce a notarized lease signed by the landowner or records of paying rent.
“Number two, we’re putting penalties on the individuals if they provide fraudulent documentation. So. they’re gonna have criminal charges on that perspective,” Steele said.
The women who moved into Peeples’ house were never charged criminally, even though the interior had been ransacked by the time they moved out.
In a video taken by Peeples, you can see walls that were ripped apart and broken windows. She also points out they stole the washer and dryer and ripped out the plumbing.
Now, Peeples said she is grateful for this new bill.
“I think you’re hitting some of the...major needs,” Peeples said.
Peeples and her business partner sold the rental house in June. Peeples said the squatters cost them more than $50,000 between attorneys’ fees, lost rent, and damage.
“It feels really, really empowering. And that’s a particularly important emotion to me, because the entire situation the squatters were that was there, it was the opposite of that. I was completely unempowered to manage my home and in my investment. And so, this the chance to actually make legal change, policy change feels very empowering,” Peeples said.
That proposed legislation would also abolish squatters’ rights in Florida, which allow someone to take ownership of a property after possessing it for seven years.