This is an interesting story for home owners in Florida. I just went through 2 weeks of hell but I finally won.
I met a young couple who were unemployed and had no where to live. I allowed them stay in my house providing free food and accommodation for a month from November 1-December 8. I am renovating the house and they were supposed to do an hour of painting per day (which they rarely did).
On 8 December, we all moved to another one of my houses after the tenants moved out. I planned to spend 1-2 weeks repainting and fixing the yard. .
I told the couple we would be moving back to my other house on 20 December after the painting was finished as I had found tenants to rent the house. They protested because they loved the new house and it was closer to the city.
I told them that they didn't have a choice because I had already rented out the property. To my dismay, when I returned home on 21 December I found the locks had been changed and I couldn't get in. When I tried to speak to them, the woman hurled abuse at me through a window. I was in such shock I just left.
The next day I went back and she called the police stating I was trespassing. When the police arrived they spoke to us separately. The couple claimed they were tenants who had paid $1000! The police officer was amazing and he said he didn't believe her and freeloading in my house was wrong and it was outrageous to claim I was trespassing by entering my own house. However he was apologetic to me and said they didn't have the power to remove them as they had already established residency.
The following day I had someone pack their belongings and dropped them at her work and changed the locks to my house. The police then aided these scam artists to break back into the property by breaking the locks. I went into the police station to discuss this outrageous situation with the Sargent. She told me it was my fault for letting people stay in my house overnight and I needed to evict them through the court.
When I went to my house that night, the woman violently assaulted me as I walked through the front door and threw me on the pavement. I called 911 again and a different set of officers attended. I was battered and bleeding when they arrived. I reported the assault to the female police officer and the officer stated she was 'defending herself as I tried to enter her home'.
The officer told me I was not allowed to enter my own home. I was in so much shock and wondered at what point after I paid for and bought the home and tenderly renovated the house that it had suddenly transferred ownership to this woman's house who hadn't paid 1 dime.
I spoke to a bunch of lawyers and they all said I had to file an unlawful detainer lawsuit which would take several months to have them evicted. They also said it was too complicated to do without a lawyer.
I read through the legislation and found Section 82.045 of the Florida Statute:
82.045 Remedy for unlawful detention by a transient occupant of residential property.—
(1) As used in this section, the term “transient occupant” means a person whose residency in a dwelling intended for residential use has occurred for a brief length of time, is not pursuant to a lease, and whose occupancy was intended as transient in nature.
(3) Any law enforcement officer may, upon receipt of a sworn affidavit of the party entitled to possession that a person who is a transient occupant is unlawfully detaining residential property, direct a transient occupant to surrender possession of residential property. The sworn affidavit must set forth the facts, including the applicable factors listed in paragraph (1)(a), which establish that a transient occupant is unlawfully detaining residential property.
I got together up an Affidavit, copies of text messages between us, my warranty deed and utility copies in my name and went back to the police station asking to speak to a supervisor. The first 2 officers I spoke to said they couldn't do a thing and I had to go to court.
Finally I got to sit down with a Lieutenant and argue my case. After presenting all my paper work and story and he went quiet and left the room. He returned 5 minutes later and said it was a new statute that none of them were aware of. They called the State Attorney to confirm everything was kosher and then told me to meet them at the house to remove the couple. I had been at the police station for nearly 5 hours.
Finally got to the house at midnight and there were tears and tantrums from this woman who figured she was going to get 2-3 months living in my house rent free. The police said she had to pack her stuff and leave or they would arrest her. 3 hours later they were finally out and locks were changed again.
god knows why, they vandalized the house. They poured buckets of paint all over the floor, spray painted graffiti and took a hammer to one of the bathroom walls. Its about $4000 of damage.
I know if I had of one through the eviction process I would have got my house with more like $30,000 of damage.
I also lost a NYE Airbnb booking for $2000. Onwards and upwards from here. Lesson is- do not take in strays and know the laws!
