Sell a Palm Coast, FL house with squatters inside: the three conditions in Florida Statute 82.036 for a sheriff removal, why anyone who was ever a tenant goes through Flagler County Civil, and how we buy occupied. Written offer within 24 hours of the visit.
A Palm Coast house that sits empty through a summer is a target. The city has 2,548 seasonal units, 5.8% of its housing, and about 30% of its residents are 65 or older, which means a steady number of houses in Palm Harbor, Matanzas Woods and the Hammock whose owners are up north until November or have died and left the place to heirs in another state. A neighbor notices a light, then a car, then someone who shows a deputy a lease nobody ever signed. The owner hears about it from that neighbor or from a Palm Coast Code Compliance notice about the yard and assumes the only way out is months of court. Since 2024, Florida has given owners a faster route for people who never had any right to be there. It has three conditions, and it does not apply to everyone in the house.
Palm Coast Cash Buyers buys houses with unauthorized occupants across Palm Coast and Flagler County, as-is, with the people still inside. After closing the removal, the cleanout and the repairs are ours. This page sets out the exact conditions of Florida Statute 82.036, who still has to go through Flagler County Civil in Bunnell, what to do and not do this week, how we price a house we cannot enter, and who can sign if the house belongs to an estate.
Statute 82.036: the three conditions for a sheriff removal
Florida Statute 82.036, enacted in 2024 and amended in 2025, lets a property owner ask the sheriff to remove an unauthorized person by filing a sworn complaint instead of an eviction lawsuit. It applies only when all three of these are true. First, the person is not a current or former tenant. Second, there is no pending litigation about the property. Third, the property is not open to the public. If any one of the three fails, the statute does not apply, and the owner who uses it anyway is the one exposed. For a Palm Coast house, the complaint goes to the Flagler County sheriff. Because the statute has already been amended once since it passed, read the current text or have an attorney read it before you sign a sworn complaint, or sell and let us run the process after closing.
Former tenant, holdover, relative of the late owner: who goes through Flagler County Civil
The sheriff route is for strangers. Anyone who was ever a tenant goes through county court, even if the lease ended years ago and even if the rent stopped long before. The same caution applies to a person a tenant let in who stayed, and to a relative of a deceased owner who moved in without the estate's permission; those cases need a court filing of their own kind, and an attorney decides which. For Palm Coast, that means Flagler County Civil on the second floor of the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center, 1769 E. Moody Blvd in Bunnell, or the Florida e-Portal. Getting the category wrong is the expensive mistake: an owner who treats a former tenant as a trespasser can end up defending that choice in the same courthouse. When we buy, the category question becomes ours to answer with counsel.
Why seasonal and estate houses in Palm Coast are the ones that get occupied
Unauthorized occupants pick houses nobody is watching. In Palm Coast that is the snowbird home in the F section of Palm Harbor closed from May to November, the Hammock Dunes condo whose owner stopped coming down, and the Pine Lakes house of a parent who died in the spring while the family in another state waits on the Seventh Judicial Circuit. The yard gives the house away first, and the city notices: Code Compliance fines of $50 a day for weeds and overgrowth and $400 a day for nuisance accumulations run until an affidavit of compliance is filed, and the letters go to the owner of record, not to the people inside. If the house is yours and you are far away, the choice is between managing the sheriff process, the cleanout and the code case from a distance, or selling the house as it sits and letting the buyer do it.
What to do this week from the street, and what not to do
Document from the sidewalk: photos, dates, vehicles, the neighbor's account in writing. Ask the Flagler County sheriff's office for a report; a report supports a sworn complaint later and helps us price either way. Pull your deed and any old lease from the Flagler Clerk's official records so you can show the occupants were never tenants. Do not accept money from anyone inside, which can look like rent and turn a trespasser into something closer to a tenant. Do not shut off utilities, remove doors or change locks while people are in the house. The statute exists so owners do not have to do those things, and if an occupant turns out to have been a tenant, self-help creates liability for you. If you intend to sell, you can stop at the documentation step. We buy the house occupied and take the lawful route after closing.
Pricing a house we cannot walk through
A squatted house is priced without an interior visit. We work from the exterior, from what you know about the house before it was occupied, from its age and type, and from an assumption of real interior damage, because unauthorized occupancy can mean stripped fixtures, broken plumbing, tampered wiring, trash and animals. On an ITT-era home from the 21% of Palm Coast housing built before 1990, we also assume the roof, panel and plumbing are original unless you tell us otherwise; on a 2000s build in Seminole Woods we assume less. The written offer spells out these assumptions and carries no inspection contingency, so what we find after the house is cleared stays with us. If Code Compliance has an open case over the condition, Statute 162.06(5) requires written disclosure at sale, and we take the case and any recorded lien at closing.
Who signs for an estate house, and how the sale runs
If the owner died and the house did not pass by lady-bird deed, trust or joint ownership, the family usually needs authority from the Seventh Judicial Circuit's probate division in Bunnell before anyone can sell or file a sworn complaint as the owner. Smaller or older estates may qualify for summary administration, a short court proceeding whose order can transfer the house, available at $150,000 or less for deaths on or after July 1, 2026, or when the death was more than two years ago. We sign with the personal representative or heirs contingent on that authority. Otherwise, send the address, how long the house has been empty, what you know about the people inside and whether a report exists. We look at the exterior within a day or two and deliver a written offer within 24 hours of the visit. The title company closes in about a week once title is clear, Palm Coast Cash Buyers pays the customary closing costs, and the occupants, the cleanout and the repairs become ours at closing.
Selling to us or listing: how it compares in Palm Coast
| Sell to Palm Coast Cash Buyers | List with an agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to close | About a week after a clear title, or your date | roughly two to three months to a contract, then the buyer's financing |
| Repairs and inspections | None; bought as it stands | Inspection and repair credits, often a four-point and wind-mitigation inspection for insurance |
| Commission and closing costs | No commission; we pay the customary closing costs | Commission plus the seller's share of closing costs |
| Price | Usually below a renovated home's list price | Market price, if the house qualifies and the buyer's loan closes |
| Certainty | Written contract; no lender between signing and closing | Depends on the buyer's appraisal, loan and inspection period |