re: Beach rules in Walton County, Florida

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No such thing as a private beach in FL despite what a realtor or marketing brochure will tell you.

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Not correct, about 60% of Florida beaches are privately owned to the water line. However most have attached to them a public use easement, and the new law does nothing to change that.


“There was a [Florida Supreme Court] case called the Tona-Rama legal case in Florida that actually established the whole idea that the public does have the right, in some instances, to use beaches that might be privately owned, based on customary use. And this new law – the standards that it sets – are actually the same standards that have been the case law in Florida for a long time based on the Tona-Rama case. So it doesn’t make major changes to how a court would determine that the public may or may not have a right to use a beach that is privately owned.

“It does however say that local governments, like Walton County, who passed an ordinance fairly recently saying that all their beaches in the county are subject to this public use easement based on customary use. And what the law says is, ‘no, local governments, you can no longer pass ordinances that say that because based on this Tona-Rama case it said that only courts can make that decision.’”