Squatter, trespasser, or holdover tenant: the label decides the removal process. What HB 621 changed in 2024, why adverse possession rarely applies, and how to sell with someone inside.
By InTym Properties
Squatters used to be a slow-court problem in Florida. In 2024 the legislature passed HB 621: a verified complaint to the county sheriff can now get an unlawful occupant removed without a full eviction. So can you sell a house with a squatter in it? Yes, and which legal process applies to the person inside decides how fast and how clean it goes. Below: the three-way distinction, the law, and the two sale routes, remove first, or sell with the occupancy problem priced in.
These words get used interchangeably online, and in court they mean three different things.
A trespasser never had permission and claims none: someone who broke a window and moved in, no paperwork at all. The simplest case, a police matter rather than a civil process.
A squatter occupies without your permission but asserts some kind of claim: a lease signed with a stranger, a story about paying the previous owner, paperwork of questionable origin. The asserted claim is what pushes it toward civil territory, and it is the category HB 621 was written for.
A holdover tenant had real permission once: a lease that expired, a tenancy that was terminated, a prior owner's renter who stayed after the sale. Whatever they are now, they were a tenant under Chapter 83 of the Florida Statutes, and removing one is an eviction, a court process, not a sheriff complaint. The mechanics are in the post on selling a rental property with tenants.
The distinction is not academic. The fast sheriff-removal path only covers people who never had lawful possession, and the complaint is a sworn statement. Misclassify a holdover tenant as a squatter and the affidavit itself becomes a problem.
Effective July 1, 2024, Florida Statute § 82.036 lets a property owner, or an authorized agent, ask the county sheriff to remove a person unlawfully occupying residential real property. The owner files a verified complaint attesting, in substance, that the person entered and remains without permission, the owner has directed them to leave, the person is not a current or former tenant in a legal dispute, no litigation between owner and occupant is pending, and the person is not an immediate family member.
If the conditions check out, the sheriff verifies the complaint, serves notice, and removes the occupant: no eviction filing, no months of county-court process. The statute also criminalized the paperwork games: presenting a fraudulent lease, or listing or leasing property you have no right to, is now a crime rather than a civil nuisance.
The limits matter as much as the tool. HB 621 does not cover holdover tenants, and it does not cover an occupant with a genuine, contested claim of right. Those cases go to court as an ejectment or unlawful-detainer action, which runs months, not days. The sheriff still decides whether a complaint qualifies, and ambiguous paperwork can bounce the case back to the courthouse.
Every squatter story online ends with "they can take your house." In Florida, adverse possession under § 95.18 requires seven continuous years of open, notorious possession plus either color of title or the occupant filing a return with the county property appraiser and paying the property taxes. A person who moved in last year, or even three years ago, is nowhere near a colorable claim, and an occupant who starts paying your tax bill tends to get noticed early.
The fear is overblown as a title risk: occupants and internet forums invoke "squatters' rights" as if moving in conferred ownership, and some owners freeze because they believe it. The real losses are damage, liability while they occupy, and the sale problem below, not a stolen deed.
The most common friction point is manufactured paperwork: a lease signed by "the owner" (sometimes a scammer rented them a house they had no connection to, sometimes the lease is fabricated outright), plus utility accounts and mail in their name.
Utilities and mail are not a lease: they prove someone lives there, not that they have a right to. The 2024 law made knowingly presenting a fraudulent lease a crime, which gives sheriffs room when the paperwork is obviously fake; when it is merely ambiguous, some sheriffs call it a civil dispute and removal shifts back to court. While it runs, resist the self-help urge: lockouts and utility shutoffs can expose the owner to liability. Document instead.
A normal MLS sale assumes the buyer can see the house, the appraiser can walk it, the insurer can inspect it, and the buyer takes possession at closing. A squatter breaks all four at once: there is no lawful way to promise possession you do not control, showings are impossible, and an owner-occupant's lender is underwriting an occupancy the seller cannot deliver. Title can be clean and the house still unsellable, because the problem is occupancy, not ownership. The listing sits, carrying costs grow, and the price eventually drops to the buyers who would have priced the problem anyway.
The other route skips the wait: sell as-is to a buyer who takes the occupancy problem with the deed. A cash buyer prices what removal will cost, whether a § 82.036 sheriff complaint or a months-long ejectment, plus the condition risk of a house no one has fully inspected, plus time. The offer lands below a vacant-house number by roughly that math, and the problem transfers at closing. The surrounding costs of an empty or occupied-but-not-yours house, insurance vacancy exclusions, code exposure, carrying costs, are on the sell a vacant house page, and the holdover-tenant version of this problem is covered in the tired landlord post.
On single-family houses, InTym Properties closes in its own name as principal: the entity that signs the contract is the entity that funds the closing, with no assignment clause.
If you remove first, the sale that follows is the easy part: once the sheriff or the court delivers possession, the house is simply vacant. Do a post-removal walkthrough for damage, secure it, and the standard as-is cash playbook applies: written offer, licensed title company, your closing date. If the house is empty because the owner died, the Broward probate post is worth a read: vacant estate homes are exactly the houses squatters find first.
You can sell a Florida house with a squatter in it, and the 2024 law made the remove-first route faster than it used to be. Classify the occupant first, trespasser, squatter, or holdover tenant, because it decides whether removal is a sheriff's complaint or a court case. Ignore the adverse-possession panic. Then choose: pay for removal and sell the vacant house, or sell with the occupant inside and let the buyer carry the problem at a priced discount.
Dealing with an occupied house you never rented out? Call or text (650) 540-1854. InTym Properties buys houses with occupant problems priced in, in Broward County, south Idaho, and nationwide, with a written offer usually within 48 hours.
Yes. You have two routes: remove the occupant first, through the sheriff's verified-complaint process under Florida Statute § 82.036 if they qualify, or through the courts if they do not, and then sell the vacant house, or sell as-is to a buyer who takes the occupancy problem with the deed and prices the removal into the offer. A retail sale with financed buyers is effectively impossible while someone is inside.
Since July 2024, Florida Statute § 82.036 lets a property owner file a sworn complaint asking the county sheriff to remove a person unlawfully occupying residential property. The statutory conditions include that the person entered without permission, the owner directed them to leave, and the occupant is not a current or former tenant in a legal dispute or in pending litigation with the owner. Holdover tenants and occupants with genuinely contested claims still require a court process.
Almost certainly not. Under Florida Statute § 95.18, adverse possession requires seven continuous years of open possession plus either color of title or paying the property taxes under a statutory return procedure. A squatter who moved in recently is nowhere near a claim. The real losses from a squatter are damage, liability, and a stalled sale, not a stolen deed.
Utility service and mail prove occupancy, not a right to occupy: they are not a lease. Under the 2024 law, presenting a fraudulent lease document is a crime, which gives sheriffs more room when the paperwork is obviously fake. When paperwork is merely ambiguous, some sheriffs treat it as a civil dispute and the removal shifts to court. Either way, do not change locks or shut off utilities yourself: self-help measures can expose the owner to liability.
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