Squatter Laws for Property Managers: 2024 to 2026 State Changes

Since 2024, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee and Texas have created or expanded a way for owners (and in most of them, their agents) to have police or the sheriff remove a squatter on a sworn form, without filing an eviction case.^12345678 The laws are written for people who never had permission. Most expressly exclude current and former tenants and the owner's family, so a holdover or a tenant at will still goes through court. Several states also made it a crime to list or rent a home you have no right to rent, which matters to managers whose vacant listings get copied by scammers.

This guide summarizes enacted statute text from the states named, current as of October 7, 2026. It is not legal advice, and counties set their own intake procedures. Track new bills at /changes and look up your state at /states.

Squatter, holdover tenant, tenant at will: the label decides the remedy

Tenant at will. Someone who occupies with the owner's consent but without a fixed written term. In Florida, any lease not in writing signed by the lessor is a tenancy at will, running week to week or month to month depending on how rent is paid.⁹ Ending it takes written notice (30 days for month to month in Florida) and, if the person stays, a court case.¹⁰¹¹

Holdover tenant. A tenant whose lease ended and who did not leave. Florida calls this a tenancy at sufferance, and accepting rent alone does not renew the lease.¹² The holdover is still a tenant for remedy purposes: the landlord recovers possession through the eviction statute and may claim double rent for the holdover period.¹³

Squatter. Someone who never had permission to be there. Alabama defines a squatter as a person not entitled to occupy under a lease or rental agreement nor authorized by a tenant, and expressly excludes a tenant holding over.¹ Indiana's definition requires that the person never had a rental agreement, owner permission or other property interest, and it excludes anyone whose agreement expired, anyone who violated an agreement, and invitees.⁴ Oregon's new definition likewise excludes a tenant who holds over.¹⁴ New York's possession statute says a tenant "shall not include a squatter," defined as someone who enters without permission and stays without title, right or permission.¹⁵

Why it matters: removing a tenant without a court order is where the risk sits. New Hampshire bars a landlord from denying a tenant access "other than through proper judicial process."¹⁶ Florida bars changing locks or removing a tenant's belongings outside a lawful eviction and sets damages at the greater of actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, plus attorney's fees.¹⁷ Misclassify a holdover as a squatter and the fast remedy becomes a lawsuit against the owner.

The affidavit states: police or sheriff removal without an eviction case

Florida's and Tennessee's 2024 laws share nearly identical text. Texas and Kentucky used similar conditions and an initialed form; Alabama, Indiana, Georgia and Montana built their own versions.

What happens after filing differs more than the forms do.

• Florida, Tennessee and Texas. The sheriff (or in Texas, a constable) verifies that the filer is the record owner or the owner's agent, serves a notice to immediately vacate by hand or by posting on the door, and puts the owner in possession. The owner can pay an hourly rate for the officer to stand by while the locks are changed and belongings are moved to or near the property line.²⁷⁸
• Alabama. The owner or agent must first post or hand deliver a notice to vacate that gives the street address of the law enforcement agency, and attach proof to the affidavit. The agency verifies the affiant and waits at least 24 hours after receipt before serving its own notice to immediately vacate. It may charge up to $50 to process the affidavit.¹
• Indiana. Police must dispatch officers within 48 hours of receiving the affidavit, later only for public safety reasons. Officers do not remove anyone if they find credible evidence of a current or former agreement or permission, or that the person is an invitee of the owner or of someone with permission.⁴ The text names only the property owner as affiant, not an agent.
• Kentucky. The officer verifies the petitioner's identity, and the sheriff or constable may charge $20 to serve the notice.⁵
• Georgia. The officer shows the affidavit to the occupant, who has three days to tender a counteraffidavit claiming a good-faith legal right to possession. With no counteraffidavit, the officer turns the occupant out once three days pass. With one, the case goes to a nonjury trial in magistrate court, which may award fair market rent for the time the occupant stayed.³
• Montana. SB 101 amended a 2021 removal statute. A person who cannot produce a written rental agreement, the landlord's permission or a tenant's permission as a guest can be removed immediately, and verbal permission counts only if confirmed by whoever gave it.²² SB 101 has no effective date clause, so it took effect October 1, 2025 under Montana's default rule.⁶²⁴

Faster court tracks: Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon and Texas

Other states kept a judge in the process but shortened it.

• Missouri (HB 2062, effective August 28, 2024). An owner or authorized agent files a verified petition, and the court must immediately issue an ex parte removal order for good cause, with a hearing within 48 hours of filing unless good cause is shown for delay. The petition must show, among other things, that the property has not been leased to anyone for three consecutive months and that the occupants are not current or former tenants. The sheriff enforces the order, and violating it is a class A misdemeanor.²⁵²⁶
• New Hampshire (Laws 2024, ch. 370, effective January 1, 2025). No one who is not a tenant, subtenant or implied tenant may occupy residential property without permission of the owner, landlord or agent. The court holds a hearing within 48 hours of service, and an occupant claiming to be a subtenant or implied tenant must prove it with documents such as a signed lease, recent rent receipts, electronic payment records, or messages showing an agreement.¹⁶²⁷
• Oregon (HB 3522, 2025). An owner or landlord may give a squatter 24 hours' written notice and then file the standard eviction action. The notice must state the vacate date and time and that the reason is the person's status as a squatter, and it does not create a tenancy.¹⁴ The bill has no effective date clause, so it took effect January 1, 2026.²⁸
• Texas (SB 38, signed June 20, 2025). The eviction rewrite applies to suits filed on or after January 1, 2026. A landlord may attach a sworn motion for summary disposition, and the court can rule without a trial unless the occupant shows a genuine factual dispute; otherwise trial is set 10 to 21 days after filing.²⁹³⁰

New crimes for fraudulent leases and fake listings

The other half of this wave targets forged leases and ads for homes the advertiser does not control.

Two details matter for brokers and managers. Texas exempts a licensed broker or agent, lender or title company from the selling or leasing offense if it took part without knowing the other party lacked authority.⁸ Every listing offense in the table turns on knowledge, so a documented check of the owner's identity and title at onboarding is the practical protection.

Florida's 2026 law is different from the squatter laws. It covers someone who got a real lease from you by fraud, and it makes that fraud a noncurable violation: the landlord may terminate on a 7-day notice with no chance to cure, whether or not criminal charges were filed.³¹ That person signed a lease, so if they do not leave after the notice, recovery of possession runs through the county court eviction action, not the sheriff affidavit.¹¹

Protections against misuse

Exclusions. Florida, Tennessee and Texas exclude current and former tenants under any written or oral agreement, the owner's immediate family, and any case with litigation pending between owner and occupant.²⁷⁸ Kentucky's law "shall not be enforced against" a current or former tenant or anyone who once had an agreement to occupy.⁵ Family is defined narrowly in Tennessee (spouse, parent, sibling or child) and more broadly in Kentucky, which adds in-laws, grandparents and grandchildren.⁷⁵

Penalties for a false affidavit. Florida, Tennessee and Texas forms are signed under penalty of perjury, with the state perjury statute named on the form.²⁷⁸ Alabama allows prosecution of an affiant who knowingly files a false affidavit for false reporting to law enforcement.¹ In Montana, an owner or agent who knowingly gives false information must indemnify the law enforcement agency for damages awarded against it.²²

Wrongful removal suits. A person wrongly removed can sue to get back in. Florida, Tennessee and Texas add actual damages, three times the fair market rent, court costs and attorney's fees, with the case expedited.²⁷⁸ Alabama allows triple fair market rent as punitive damages.¹ Kentucky allows restoration, costs and attorney's fees, but the suit must be filed in district court within 60 days.⁵ Indiana allows a civil action when the affiant knowingly made a materially false statement.⁴

The Florida, Texas and Kentucky forms have the signer acknowledge that a removed person may bring an action "against me," and an agent who signs is that signer.²⁸⁵

What still requires a court eviction

A court case is still the path for:

• Tenants and former tenants, including holdovers, month to month tenants and tenants at will.²⁵⁴
• Guests and occupants admitted by a tenant. Indiana excludes invitees of anyone who had permission, and Montana treats a tenant's guest as authorized.⁴²²
• Anyone the owner let in, such as a caretaker allowed to stay. Permission takes the person out of the squatter definitions.¹⁴
• Occupants who obtained a lease by fraud, under Florida's 2026 law.³¹
• Cases with pending litigation between owner and occupant.²¹⁵
• Disputed facts. In Georgia, a counteraffidavit moves the case to magistrate court, and in Indiana, credible evidence of permission stops the removal.³⁴

In those cases, the timeline is the state's ordinary eviction process. Compare notice periods and typical durations at /laws/eviction-timeline-by-state.

Vacant units and stolen listings

The vacant unit is where squatting and listing fraud meet. The Federal Trade Commission describes how rental scammers copy the photos, description or virtual tour from a real listing, swap in their own contact details and repost it on another site, or invent listings for homes not for rent. They then collect an application fee, deposit or first month's rent, often by wire transfer, gift cards or cryptocurrency, and disappear.³² The FTC also warns that scammers copy listings from landlords who use self-tour services to set up self-guided tours that make the fraud look real.³²

The person who pays may then move into your vacant unit holding a lease that looks real to them. The Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Alabama forms anticipate this: the signer swears the occupant is not a tenant under a lease the owner authorized and that any lease produced is fraudulent.²⁷⁸¹ None of them carves out a scam victim; the remedy runs against the scammer.

The FTC tells renters to check the management company's own website, search the address for duplicate ads under other names, check the agent's ID, and look up ownership in county tax records.³² Managers can make those checks easy to pass: publish every available unit on your own site, use one contact channel, and say plainly on the site and in the listing that you never take application fees or deposits by wire, gift card or cryptocurrency. The FTC asks people to report rental listing scams to local law enforcement, the website where the ad ran, ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the state attorney general.³²

What to do now: vacancy security checklist

Before the unit goes vacant

• Keep a signed management agreement or written authorization that names the manager as the owner's agent and is easy to attach to an affidavit. Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama and Kentucky all ask an agent to attach proof of authority.²⁷⁸¹⁵
• In Indiana, have the owner ready to sign, since the statute names the property owner as the affiant.⁴
• Confirm the owner's identity against county records at onboarding. See /playbooks/owner-onboarding.

At move-out

• Get keys, garage remotes and access codes back, rekey or change codes, and record the date the unit became empty. The move-out and turnover playbook covers the inspection and photo record.
• Log every visit with date, time and condition. A record that the unit was locked helps show it was not open to the public when someone entered, an element in Florida, Texas, Kentucky and Missouri.²⁸⁵²⁵
• Keep utilities in the owner's or manager's name, and flag any request to start service at a vacant address.

While it is listed

• Search the address and listing photos weekly, and report copies to the site and the FTC.³²
• For self-guided tours, verify identity before releasing a code and expire codes after each showing.

If you find someone inside

• Do not change locks or remove belongings on your own. Ask whether the person claims a lease or permission, and check any document against your records and the owner's.
• Decide the category before choosing the remedy. A former tenant, a tenant's guest or anyone the owner let in goes to court.⁵⁴²²
• Tell the occupant to leave and record when and how; most affidavit states require it, and Alabama requires proof attached.²⁵¹
• Use the state's current form, read every statement before signing, and attach ID or proof of agency. Kentucky State Police must post a form; Indiana agencies may create one.⁵⁴
• If the occupant was a scam victim, point them to the FTC reporting channels.³²