A much-criticized law that fast-tracked evictions in Missouri has been tossed out. Critics of the so-called “squatters law” have chicken coops to thank for that happening.
Both the new eviction law as well as one that stopped homeowner’s associations from banning chicken coops in Missouri neighborhoods were a part of House Bill 2062, which took effect in August of last year. The bill also contained provisions expanding tax credits for redeveloping historic buildings, which was seen as a potential boon to downtown St. Louis.
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But it was exactly the grab-bag nature of the law that led to its undoing. After HOAs sued to block the law, a judge ruled last month it was invalid because it contained too many elements that had nothing to with each other. Finding that to be a violation of Missouri’s single-subject rule, Cole County judge Brian Stumpe tossed out the whole thing.
The reaction to the law’s invalidation depends on who you ask.
“We’re very happy that they have gotten rid of this law,” said attorney Javad Khazaeli. In August, he went to court to defend two of his own neighbors in Shaw who’d been evicted under the new law. When sheriff’s deputies came to evict John-Thomas and Robert Favron, claiming they were squatters, they weren’t aware their late mother’s house had been sold, despite being beneficiaries of the estate that sold it. They had mere minutes to collect their belongings.
That eviction was carried out under the new so-called “Squatter’s Law” that critics like Khazaeli say made it too easy to evict people with a right to be in a given property. All a property owner had to do was claim that the people they were evicting were squatters; the law provided no opportunity for the other side to respond, and required no due diligence on the part of the court or the sheriff’s office before carrying out an eviction.
Khazaeli was able to get the brothers back in the house while the eviction case, which includes some strange circumstances surrounding the house’s sale, works its way through the courts. But other tenants are likely not so lucky as to have a civil rights attorney as a neighbor—and those are the ones who may get a reprieve by the Cole County decision. Khazaeli says he expects legislators in Jefferson City to try again next session.
The now-invalidated squatters law was itself a close copy of similar laws passed in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Those states enacted them as a way to deal with eviction backlogs that were created due to eviction moratoriums put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it’s going to come back for the dead next session,” Khazaeli says. “Hopefully they put in safeguards protecting people like my clients.”
The downfall of the omnibus bill has gotten a much more negative reaction from boosters of downtown development. It was hoped that the bill’s historic tax credit provisions would have sparked a number of projects, including at the historic and troubled Railway Exchange building, totalling as much as $1 billion, the St. Louis Business Journal reported.
Jim Farrell, president of Historic Revitalization for Missouri, an industry association for developers, contractors and others who work with historic property, notes that the order that invalidated the tax credits doesn’t go into effect until November 19.
“So we are having behind-the-scenes discussions on seeing if we can come to a resolution without having to go into a prolonged legal appeal process, or having to go back to the legislature,” he says.
Farrell calls the tax credits “very, very important for ongoing projects, as well as future projects, downtown, and from the largest to the smallest to the largest projects around the state.”
