New York State Senator Mario Matera and Assemblyman Ed Flood introduced new legislation last week aimed at making it easier for property owners to remove squatters from their land.
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A new bill from New York Republicans aims to Florida recently passed a similar bill.
this measureIntroduced by Republican state Sen. Mario Mattera and fellow Republican Rep. Ed Flood to make it easier for property owners to remove squatters from their land Remove. It is reportedly part of a larger series of bills aimed at stopping squatters taking advantage of the legal rights of legal tenants. the real deal.
The thrust of the measure is to shift the burden of proof from the property owner to the squatter defendant, placing the onus on the defendant to prove that he or she has the right to occupy the property.
The measure also includes provisions to prevent owners from abusing them. If a landlord wrongfully evicts someone, the tenant can file a civil lawsuit and be entitled to damages equal to three times the apartment rent, as well as court costs and attorney fees.
The legislation primarily targets a section of New York’s property law that defines a tenant as an occupant “in continuous possession for 30 days or more.” Once squatters become legal tenants, they can only be evicted through formal eviction proceedings, which in New York can take two years or more.
The proposed measure comes amid a wave of media attention and viral posts about squatters, such as one on TikTok by Venezuelan national Leonel Moreno, who suggested migrants take advantage of Squatters’ rights laws “invade” and “occupy” vacant homes.
Moreno’s comments were reported by national news outlets, including fox news, this new york post, and daily mail. March, News Magazine Internal version Claiming that there has been an “explosion” of preemption cases across the country recently.
However, actual data on squatting are still sparse because Inman Headlines about preemption are reportedly easier to find than actual data, with widely used crime databases such as FBI and California Public Policy Institute Don’t even track metrics.
In New York, lawyers for landlords and tenants recently told Gothamists Despite the growing number of headlines, the problem remains rare.
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