TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The fight to make apartment complexes safer will move one step forward at Florida’s Capitol as Sen. Linda Stewart (D-Orlando) filed her bill “Miya’s Law” on Friday.

What You Need To Know

  • The bill aims to strengthen apartment safety laws following the death of Miya Marcano

  • The major changes proposed will involve background checks and master key policies

Valencia College student Miya Marcano, 19, was found dead last month; authorities believe her apartment complex maintenance man is the only suspect.

Investigators say 27-year-old Armando Caballero entered her apartment at Arden Villas near UCF with a master key. Days later, Caballero was found hanged in a garage building at the Camden Club Apartments in Longwood where he lived.

More than a week after she went missing, Marcano’s body was also found near Tymber Skan apartments.

Since then, Stewart says she has been hearing from the Marcano family as well as Arden Villas tenants. They are pushing for some changes she hopes her bill can provide.

Stewart’s staff told Spectrum News that “Miya’s Law,” as drafted when filed on Friday, would:

  • Require background checks for all apartment employees
  • Expand the amount of notice from 12 to 24 hours, before a staffer can enter an apartment
  • Mandate a master key policy, to limit who has access and how use must get logged and recorded

“We just don’t need another death, and we don’t need another assault and we simply need to do what we can to prevent that,” Stewart told Spectrum News weeks ago as the bill was being created.

A neighbor and petitioner for safety changes, Julia Veiga, also said these proposed changes are some of the things on her wish list.

“Every time I sign a lease I feel like I’m going to be signing my life away. And that is a unique position that I feel like young people especially now are facing now, because we’re forced to rent. There’s not many other options for us,” Veiga said in October.

Stewart says “Miya’s Law” is her effort to get what changes she can pass through the legislature to strengthen apartment safety laws. The agency tasked with overseeing and regulating apartment complexes in Florida is the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Officials of the Arden Villas apartments have not returned calls from Spectrum News.