Have you had squatter(s) in your neighborhood?

[skjl47]

MSN

Hello; I keep hearing of and reading about squatting the last few years. The above link is illustrative but not an isolated incident. Stories of someone coming home from a vacation to find their home occupied by a stranger. Stories of a family members death and someone taking over the deceased house and the like. Stories of someone buying a property and not able to move in because a squatter moved in and cannot be removed by local police.

The more disturbing aspect is the apparent lack of recourse for the legal property owner. Stories of a house being taken over with the property damaged by the squatters leaving the owner to foot the repair bill if they get the squatters out. Stories that the legal owner has to keep paying for legal utilities (water & electricity) for a squatted house.

There is one story of late of a man who provides a service of removing squatters because local law cannot/will not do the job.

To the link. Seems a woman moved into a bank foreclosure house. She was eventually arrested and sent to jail. She gets out on appeal and goes right back into the same house.

 

[danotaylor]

None out my way, unless you count raccoons, squirrels and mice

Seriously though, the laws that allow, even protect, this kind of behavior, and require the title holder to assume responsibility for utilities and damages, are ludicrous.

The “trespass” laws are inadequate to cover these situations because of all the falsified documents the perpetrators possess. The rabbit trail of red tape and legal loops holes is just crazy to prove the title holders claims.

The simple fact that congress or the senate has not, cannot, or will not, change them immediately upon realizing this behavior is for real, is another realtime revelation of just how broken aspects of the politico-legal system are

 

[skjl47]

The “trespass” laws are inadequate to cover these situations because of all the falsified documents the perpetrators possess. The rabbit trail of red tape and legal loops holes is just crazy to prove the title holders claims.

Hello; I see ads for services such as home title lock. I was stopping by the county title clerks office from time to time with doughnuts or chocolates and having them check my property title. Turns out I can, in TN, get the same information from a state website. So, I check a few times a week from my computer.

I follow what you say about falsified documents. Even so seems much too simple for squatters to take over. Not clear to me that paperwork is present in some cases. Just that they manage to get in and claim residence. I do not know if any follow up will be done for the woman in the link but I am curious if she will be allowed to stay in the home for any length of time. Would seem with a conviction and a jail time sentence the cops ought to be able to act quickly.

Landlords get a bad name sometimes for deserved actions but often for just wanting the rent to be paid. Saw a story recently explaining in part why electric bills are going up in some areas. Seems, according to the story, that someone with a fake identity signs up for electric utilities then does not pay the bills. The electric company takes lengthily action on that person but they cannot be found. Someone else signs up from the same residence, again with a fake ID, and the scam goes on. The electric company has to go thru procedures which takes time. Then there are times such as the winter when power cannot be shut off.

There are other reasons why electric rates are gone up in parts of the USA. The TVA shut down the Bull Run coal fired power plant recently. The plant at Kingston was set to be shut down soon but may get a reprieve last I heard. Maybe some commonsense after three arctic level cold spells so far this winter.

I saved for a long time and was able to buy my place at the age of 62. I do get irked when I see folks taking shortcuts to just take over a place. I do not recall ever being told I deserved a house just because i wanted one. I rented till 62 and never missed a rent payment. The folks who owned the places had mortgages, insurance and upkeep to pay for.

 

[jjohnwm]

Jeez...you guys are in the U.S. and if you can't legally get squatters off your land, here in Canada we probably have to let them stay and also help send their kids to university!

When I first moved onto my 100 acres in rural Ontario, I quickly learned that one of my fields was a favoured site for the local party-teen crowd. These charming unwashed curmudgeons just drifted in through the trees and set up a "rural rave", complete with live musicians, food, drink, grass, you name it. They'd stay all night, and disperse as dawn approached, leaving a tidal wave of garbage.

On occasion number two, I entered into the trees from my house, got as close to the field as possible without being seen, and then let loose with a few rapid-fire magazines full of the loudest high-powered rifle ammunition I had on hand; I always had lots on hand. I hasten to explain that I was not shooting at anyone, just making noise to the maximum extent possible, firing into the ground and generally raising a ruckus...but they didn't know that.

This time they didn't drift away; they poured away like a panic-stricken tidal wave, leaving behind even more junk than usual but also coolers, guitars, lawn chairs, blankets and other assorted accoutrements of the young adult set. I was picking up scraps of torn t-shirts, hats, sunglasses, tube-tops, bras and other flotsam lost during the exodus through the trees for over a year afterwards; Hell, that was over 20 years ago and I've still got one of those coolers! Goodwill got several blankets and a couple of musical instruments and lawn chairs.

They never came back to my property, and a couple of neighbours later employed a similar strategy with equal success. None of us ever heard anything about the incidents, aside from casual person-to-person conversations.

 

[danotaylor]

S skjl47 For sure mate, SO much going on in the world in which we live. It’s very difficult to keep up with it all.

I just read a news article this morning about the push to get rid of land taxes in Ohio, the state in which I live. I guess there’s 24 billion collected annually in land taxes in Ohio. Gov DeWine used the the increase in sales tax as his defense to keep land taxes to fund local govt. He sited the hypothesized increases on items such as cars and refrigerators, items purchased by most every 5-10 years. We pay over $6K annually in the rural community in which we I’ve. It’s outrageous. We pay the supply & use of all of our utilities. We pay garbage collection. We have a septic system. The only real benefit we get from our county is the roads

I get it, there needs to be taxation for the common good of our communities, and many govt services are necessary, but I would be very surprised if a decent amount of that 24 billion couldn’t be cut out from getting rid of top heavy systems and reducing govt wasteful spending and fraud.

We call ourselves modern, but in actually reality, our world systems are a mess

jjohnwm you’re a classic mate

 

[skjl47]

S skjl47 For sure mate, SO much going on in the world in which we live. It’s very difficult to keep up with it all.

I just read a news article this morning about the push to get rid of land taxes in Ohio, the state in which I live. I guess there’s 24 billion collected annually in land taxes in Ohio. Gov DeWine used the the increase in sales tax as his defense to keep land taxes to fund local govt. He sited the hypothesized increases on items such as cars and refrigerators, items purchased by most every 5-10 years. We pay over $6K annually in the rural community in which we I’ve. It’s outrageous. We pay the supply & use of all of our utilities. We pay garbage collection. We have a septic system. The only real benefit we get from our county is the roads

I get it, there needs to be taxation for the common good of our communities, and many govt services are necessary, but I would be very surprised if a decent amount of that 24 billion couldn’t be cut out from getting rid of top heavy systems and reducing govt wasteful spending and fraud.

We call ourselves modern, but in actually reality, our world systems are a mess

jjohnwm you’re a classic mate

Hello; You have my sympathy about the onerous taxes. A subject some different than my squatters question but serious for sure. I have thoughts & opinions on this but figure they will not set well with some particular mods. Let me tell a story instead.

Back in 1997 I and 47 other teachers in a county school district were essentially forced to take retirement. I mean forced in the same sense of take volunteer Covid 19 shots or lose your job. In a sense it was voluntary but not really. One teacher did not take the deal and came to regret the decision. More on that later perhaps.
The gist of the story is a new superintendent was in place and surrounded by hangers on. They were very good at spending other people's money. The new crew went on trips together staying at very nice hotels and finding ways to spend money. Their offices became very nicely furnished. Friends & relatives got well deserved positions. Can you spell nepotism?
Ther was a rumor going that the federal & state monies which came into one local bank were quickly transferred to another local bank within days. I suppose the idea was to muddle the waters about what was spent. In the end it did not work out as the state took over the school system. Eventually sending in someone to run the county schools. All sorts of austerity measures put in place.

Back to me and the other 47 older teachers. A scheme was hatched. It was determined that the school system could be rid of all of the older teachers we could be replaced with fresh out of college teachers at much less salary. The incentive was we got one year of pay to leave early. Catch being it was paid out over ten years in monthly installments. Around $300/month. Not much incentive considering early retirement cut 2&1/2 percent per year of full term retirement benefits.
But there were not very subtle conversations explaining as how with nearly 28 years service I might not have seniority as they only had a few biology certified positions and I might be cut anyway. Another was I was to lose my science classroom which I had been in for over twenty years. Likely other not too subtle threats.
Anyway, I took the deal. I did not spend the monthly installments. I found safe ways to help it grow. I managed to find teaching positions for six years in places where a certified Biology teacher was required. I lived off the pension check and banked the extra salary. So financially turned out fair.

None of the culprits went to jail. None were, as far as i know, deprived of their pension monies. They were shamed to be sure but water off a ducks back springs to mind.
My take on fraud, malfeasance and such is twofold at the least. One is such can be gotten way with if the perps can be moderate with their greed. Another is the nature of such folks is they cannot control such greed. They will take & take other people's money for as long as is possible. Do such things in a small county school system you get to the end of it all in just several years.

Before you ask there were several more than 48 minimal retirement aged personnel in the county. Some got to stay as school principals or at central office jobs & such. I do not know how that worked, only have a guess or two.

The teacher who did not retire early was, in her own words, hounded till she simply quit. Short of full retirement and without the pay.