- Joined
- Aug 18, 2009
- Messages
- 47,436
- Reaction score
- 20,860
People have to understand that there's a legal difference between people you let come in to your property vs. people who you don't allow in.I have been through this. Tried to remove squatters from my grandfathers place when he got sick and had to move in with my dad. My grandfather who was 80, tried to tell them to leave and they threatened him. I went down there and may have mentioned ripping his skinny little arms off(out of uniform) and they left, but later that night, new squatters moved in and were apparently paying the former squatters rent. Went to the magistrate, a man I worked with both on the police department and then many years as he was now magistrate. He set a court hearing for 6 months. I asked about filing charges of unlawful possession and he said they would do that at the six month point, especially since we didn’t even know who was living there. It had a really sad ending. A baby was abused and died and there was an arrest for child abuse causing death. I actually responded to the hospital and it was the original couple that wouldn’t leave. I called a detective immediately and they took over. They listed it as their home address even though they were no longer living there. So a bunch of county deputies went in to see if it was the place of the crime. I let them know that it was an unlawful possession and it belonged to my grandfather and they threw everyone out and we changed the locks. The crime did not occur there. We changed the locks and nailed the windows shut. The place was completely trashed. Holes in every wall, every window broken, all appliances either missing or broken. The house was actually four units and we sold it all for only 20k just to get rid of it.
So, the laws are fucked. My grandfather tried to help a pregnant woman out by letting her pay $150/month and she quit paying and let dirtbags move in. They quit paying and after I went down, they rented it out like it was their own. It was that same pregnant woman whose baby was abused by her Piece of shit man-the same one I threatened. We never told my grandfather and he died not long after that. But if I had been allowed to actually beat the hell out of people squatting and remove them, maybe all of that wouldn’t have happened. Hell, the laws wouldn’t help us and I was in law enforcement. I just know I wanted to beat their asses badly and I didn’t because it was against the law and I had a career to think of and those assholes knew that and took advantage of it.
Once your grandfather agreed to let the other woman use it for $150/month, she became a tenant, not a squatter. The next group of people were subtenants of the $150 woman, also not squatters.
The important lesson for everyone in the real world is don't rent out your premises to someone unless you absolutely trust them beyond a shadow of concern. The laws for ejecting squatters are usually different from evicting people who were granted legal access in the beginning. People with legal access have more protections.
The difference to keep in mind is "permission". Was that person ever given "permission" to be in the property. And permission can follow a chain. So if I give you permission to be in my house while I'm away, I'm also giving you permission to have guests (unless I state otherwise). And now your guests have permission the same as if I'd given it to them directly.
So landlords need to establish that subtenancies are not allowed, that anyone not granted direct permission can't stay there, etc. Put it in the lease so that it can quickly established that the person is a trespasser, not a tenant or subtenant who's just not paying. And tenants that don't pay need to be evicted the very 1st month that rent is missed. No catch up payments or anything like that. Miss a month, evict.
Renting is a business and too many landlords forget that.