The Florida Senate

381.00897  Access to migrant labor camps and residential migrant housing.--

(1)  RIGHT OF ACCESS OF INVITED GUEST.--A resident of a migrant labor camp or residential migrant housing may decide who may visit him or her in the resident's private living quarters. A person may not prohibit or attempt to prohibit an invited guest access to or egress from the private living quarters of the resident who invited the guest by the erection or maintenance of any physical barrier, by physical force or violence, by threat of force or violence, or by any verbal order or notice given in any manner. Any invited guest must leave the private living quarters upon the reasonable request of a resident residing within the same private living quarters.

(2)  RIGHT OF ACCESS OF OTHERS.--Other authorized visitors have a right of access to or egress from the common areas of a migrant labor camp or residential migrant housing as provided in this subsection. A person may not prohibit or attempt to prohibit other visitors access to or egress from the common areas of a migrant labor camp or residential migrant housing by the erection or maintenance of any physical barrier, by physical force or violence, by threat of force or violence, or by any verbal order or notice given in any manner, except as provided in this section. Owners or operators of migrant labor camps or residential migrant housing may adopt reasonable rules regulating hours of access to housing, if such rules permit at least 4 hours of access each day during nonworking hours Monday through Saturday and between the hours of 12 noon and 8 p.m. on Sunday. Any other authorized visitor must leave the private living quarters upon the reasonable request of a person who resides in the same private living quarters.

(3)  CIVIL ACTION.--Any person prevented from exercising rights guaranteed by this section may bring an action in the appropriate court of the county in which the alleged infringement occurred; and, upon favorable adjudication, the court shall enjoin the enforcement of any rule, practice, or conduct that operates to deprive the person of such rights.

(4)  CIVIL LIABILITY.--Other visitors are licensees, not guests or invitees, for purposes of any premises liability.

(5)  OTHER RULES.--The housing owner or operator may require invited guests and other visitors to check in before entry and to present picture identification. Migrant labor camp and residential migrant housing owners or operators may adopt other rules regulating access to a camp only if the rules are reasonably related to the purpose of promoting the safety, welfare, or security of residents, visitors, farmworkers, or the owner's or operator's business.

(6)  POSTING REQUIRED.--Rules relating to access are unenforceable unless they have been conspicuously posted in the migrant labor camp or migrant residential housing and a copy has been furnished to the department.

(7)  LIMITATIONS.--This section does not create a general right of solicitation in migrant labor camps or residential migrant housing. This section does not prohibit the erection or maintenance of a fence around a migrant labor camp or residential migrant housing if one or more unlocked gates or gateways in the fence are provided; nor does this section prohibit posting the land adjacent to a migrant labor camp or residential migrant housing if access to the camp is clearly marked; nor does this section restrict migrant workers residing within the same living quarters from imposing reasonable restrictions on their fellow residents to accommodate reasonable privacy and other concerns of the residents.

History.--s. 10, ch. 93-133; s. 654, ch. 95-148.