States tighten anti squatting laws amid calls for faster removal

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Squatting has become a growing political issue across the country with more states changing their laws to help homeowners remove unauthorized occupants faster. Let's go to Emma Whitford from the fact-check team. I know you dug into the legislation today. Tell us more about what exists, what is in motion, where are we now?

[00:00:20]>> Yeah, so one of the big ones that stuck out to me was Florida. So in Florida, they're one of the first early high-profile examples of combating this.

[00:00:27]So in 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis, he signed HB 621, which allows a property owner to request help from the sheriff to get an unauthorized occupant or as known as squatters out um under certain conditions. So that's including if the person was not allowed to enter or if they was they were told to leave. Also um if they're just not a current or former tenant in a legal dispute. So the Florida Senate says that the law also creates and penalizes um people for false lease documents. So creating false leases and for unlawfully occupying a residential property while causing at least a thousand dollars in damage. So they definitely uh you know, made sure all of the points are hit there with those bills. So what about states that historically they have more complicated tenant protection rules like New York? What happens there? Yeah, so New York, they actually changed the state state law in 2024. So state lawmakers there, they announced that the final FY 2025 budget including language that defines what a squatter is in state housing law. Uh that's following reports of people, you know, taking over private properties. We've seen this all over the place. A 2025 bill in the New York Senate actually goes even further. Also, it it would exclude squatters from tenant protections. It would extend the time before certain occupancy protections kick in from 30 to 60 days and then it would add squatting to criminal trespass in the third degree.

[00:01:47]So the bottom line here is really that states are trying to draw a sharper legal line between a tenant and somebody who's, you know, either stayed or um without permission. Like squatter supporters are saying that, you know, this is protecting the homeowners from these costly delays that happen, but then critics are also at the same time warning that the laws have to be written really carefully so legitimate tenants aren't wrongfully treated as squatters.

[00:02:09]An important point, but you would think that, you know, if someone is unauthorized, it would be a pretty simple process to remove them. But when you get into the weeds, it's pretty eye-opening. And then thank you. For more on this fact team topic, including links to the sources, scan the QR code or visit the National Desk dot com.