Supreme Court Rules Against Florida Homeowners in Beach Case
If you own a beach vacation home, and think maybe your waterfront is there forever, the Supreme Court just said you can go pound sand.
The court ruled in favor of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which added sand to the seabed in the Florida panhandle. Beach home owners know that this is a constant issue -- wind and tide move sand around, and often it's important, from an engineering perspective, to add more to prevent complete erosion.
However, under Florida state law, the owner of the new strip of sand is the state. So to presumably save some waterfront homes, Florida made them into much less valuable waterview homes.
The owners of the sand castles were unhappy about losing their private beach access, and tried to argue in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. vs. the Florida State Department of Environmental Protection et. al. that the state had "taken" their property without compensation.
The court, according to Adam Liptak in the New York Times, ruled against the homeowners 8-0.
Justice John Paul Stevens did not vote, presumably because he owns a beachfront apartment in Fort Lauderdale.
The ruling leaves open the idea that a different set of homeowners might be able to argue the sanctity of their beach rights -- perhaps if the state puts new sand with buildings in front of their property lines, instead of just new sand.
But it raises an important issue if you're buying beachfront -- do you know where your property lines are?And do you know what protections you have to them?
If you're looking at a vacation home, add those issues to your list, in addition to flooding, hurricanes, and access to clean drinking water.
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