If I could wish for a dream to come true, it would be having beachfront property in Florida for my vacations.
Can you own beachfront property in Florida?
You can own a beachfront property in the state, but the law is tricky.
The bright sandy coastlines of Florida beaches seem to be public, but as a beachgoer, you may be ignorantly walking in someone’s backyard.
Under the laws of Florida, the public section of a beach is only the wet sand, which is the beach up to the high tide line.
In some places, vacationers mount their umbrellas and set their camp beds are privately owned.
Many beachgoers do not know when they encroached into other people’s properties to set up umbrellas and chairs.
There is no visible demarcation between the public and private sides.
It is only in rare places you see fences.
Most landowners try as much as they can to make their beaches private.
Can You Own Beachfront Property in Florida?
Yes.
You can own own beachfront property in Florida.
The state law gives ownership of a beach to a landowner down to the mean high tide line.
Article X, Section 11 of the Florida Constitution clearly states that the land towards the sea, to the mean high-tide line (MHTL), belongs to the government and, by extension, the public.
Can You Own Part of a Beach?
Private individuals own a good part of a beach, and many people do not know where the boundary is.
In some states, the government set the boundary at the mean high tide line.
This means that the dry sandy side of the beach is privately owned, while the wet intertidal area belongs to the state.
Since there are no clear boundaries, and no signs warning of trespass, there is nothing to tell people when they have crossed the line.
An office is responsible for handling this conflict in Florida.
Recently, the Florida state legislature came up with a law that protects the rights of landowners along the coastline.
This law was a sequel to a federal government law declaring a public right to the customary use of every beach owned by private individuals.
The law forbids the owner of such properties from posting signs on them.
State law voided this federal law and other local ordinances like this.
The state law gave the property owners the right to stop people from trespassing on their property unless where an existing easement is proven.
This disparity generated a conflict.
Some people were for federal law, while some were for state law.
A lot of people went to court to challenge federal law.
The proponents of beach access came up with sharp criticisms against the state law.
They saw it as putting the state’s most valuable resource into private hands and inimical to the state’s economy, which is tourism-based.
The Beach Law
The first time I saw this law, I knew it was wrong.
I believe beach access should be sacrosanct for everyone., “The notion of a private beach is an oxymoron.”
After this goes into effect, people can be physically removed from specific beaches, like bouncers at a bar, and to me, that’s despicable.
This private property rights and public access went beyond the beaches.
It extended to stream access, trail access, and various forms of public access on privately owned properties.
The unfortunate thing was that none of these conflicts favored either the landowner’s interests or the public access experience.
The landowners saw many risks they faced by allowing the public unlimited access to their privately owned property.
They said it is possible that someone can get hurt and turn around to hold them responsible for it.
That the trespassers can litter the property for the landowner to clean.
They may even constitute a nuisance for the landowner.
Public access could be undermined by this conflict as well.
Regulation can sometimes discourage landowners from accepting public access as a part of their property title documents.
Any landowner who accepts it as a part of his title document may find it difficult to expunge in the future.
The government of Florida tried to justify the ordinance by saying that landowners have typically allowed public access to the beach so the law had to stay.
Similarly, the case was the same in California.
The Californian law protected public access.
It took away the right of the landowners to change their minds in the future.
This law brought up a conflict that got to the country’s Supreme Court.
How to Prevent Beach Ownership Conflicts
The best way to prevent conflict between property owners and the public is by respecting private property rights.
It will promote the property owner’s interest and the public’s interest in access.
Many property owners are ready to allow public access to their property as long as the public is on good behavior.
Other property owners can be convinced to allow the public access to their property by using sharing-economy technology.
There is an ongoing development of apps that assist in gaining easy access to campsites and fishing spots.
A property owner will normally block access to his property if he values his privacy so much.
Where the government values access to any beach, it can buy it from the owner through eminent domain, paying him the full price.
You can not avoid conflict as long as the quest for public access does not respect the interest of property owners.
Unless it is resolved through mutual agreement, neither the property rights nor public access will be better off at the end of the day.
FAQs
Do hotels own the beach in Florida?
The main issue is who owns the beaches in Florida.
According to the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1974, all the beach property from the mean-high tide towards the sea, the wet sand, is public property.
Can you buy a piece of the beach?
Each coastal state in America has its law on who is eligible to own a beach.
There are some states where an individual can not owe a beach one hundred percent.
The other states agreed that the ownership boundary should terminate at the high tide line.
Can you have a private beach in America?
Private individuals owe much to the beaches, so many people are unaware of where the boundary is.
The boundary is set at the mean high tide line in most states.
The private individual owes the dry sandy side of the beach, and the public owes the wet intertidal area, to the sea.
