ENROLLED 2024 Legislature SB 702 2024702er 1 2 An act relating to attorney fees and costs; creating 3 s. 57.106, F.S.; defining the term “property rights”; 4 requiring courts to award reasonable attorney fees and 5 costs to a prevailing defendant in certain civil 6 actions under specified circumstances; providing an 7 effective date. 8 9 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 10 11 Section 1. Section 57.106, Florida Statutes, is created to 12 read: 13 57.106 Recovery of attorney fees and costs in certain 14 disputes regarding property rights.— 15 (1) For the purposes of this section, the term “property 16 rights” includes, but is not limited to, use rights, ingress and 17 egress rights, and those rights incident to land bordering upon 18 navigable waters as described in s. 253.141. 19 (2) In a civil action brought against the owner of a parcel 20 of real property to resolve a dispute concerning property 21 rights, the court must award reasonable attorney fees and costs 22 to the prevailing defendant if the improvements made to the 23 property by the defendant property owner were made in 24 substantial compliance with, or in reliance on, environmental or 25 regulatory approvals or permits issued by a political 26 subdivision of the state or a state agency. 27 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.