Florida Responds Fecklessly to Adverse Possession

In the wake of the highly publicized story of a former Real Estate agent taking homes under the guise of adverse possession, and then renting these homes to unwary suspects, new legislation has been drafted in Florida to help prevent such dastardly deeds. Unfortunately, this new legislation is far too little to be of any substantive change in ending legalized land theft in Florida.

These new bills, HB 887 and SB 292 only add the following:
Adverse Possession: Requires person seeking property by adverse possession to send to property owner of record copy of return filed with property appraiser; requires property appraiser to cancel return if person does not submit proof of mailing; provides exception.

This is a start, but clearly does not go far enough in abolishing legalized land theft.

Today, this story appeared in The Ledger, "Some Say Florida Land Tax Law is Unfair to Owners"

The best quote in it, is the very first line:

"A 19th century law that worked well on the open range is causing some problems in the 21st century." -- So True!

This is a great article to read, as it illustrates the problem Florida has with people literally stealing property from unsuspecting owners. I've talked to a few people in the Sunshine state. It sounds more like the Wild West -- pure lawlessness -- all for greed and stealing land.

What really should be the wake up call is all of the out-of-state homeowners or soon-to-be retirees. Think about it. You bought your dream lot (say $99 down and $99 a month), and now you're going to retire and build your home on land that may already belong to someone else.

Wake up Florida -- when droves of retirees find out their "dream" retirement spot has been stolen, you can count on stronger legislation than HB 887!