Miami-Dade County's Property Appraiser Aims to Stop Squatters By Cancelling Fraudulent Adverse Possession Claims

(Miami, FL – April 2, 2013) – In response to the growing problem with squatters, Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez-Cantera has cancelled 44% of adverse possession claims in Miami-Dade County. In just the first 3 months of this year, the Office of the Property Appraiser has received 41 claims, which represents more than half of the total amount of claims that were received in all of 2012.

The Office has a total of 160 claims for all years on record. 71 of these claims were found to be non-compliant per Florida Statute Section 95.18, which states that if there is record of a tax payment by the property owner before April 1st, following the year in which the tax is assessed, it no longer meets the requirements for claiming adverse possession. The Office requested information from the Miami-Dade Tax Collector’s Office, to determine which properties have had taxes paid by the owner, and the cancellations were made based on this data. A compiled list has also been provided to the Miami-Dade Police Department, to assist them in their efforts to deal with those who are misusing adverse possession claims.

In a statement regarding the Property Appraiser’s Office policy on adverse possession, Mr. Lopez-Cantera said, “Our goal is to help put an end to the abuse of adverse possession claims. This effort is making it easier to ensure that those who file an adverse possession claim are complying with Florida law.” For additional information on adverse possession, please call the Property Appraiser’s Office at (305) 375-2480.