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A WOMAN who was footing the bill for squatters living in her home for a year has urged authorities to take action.
Tammy Brinson had to endure a bruising 11-month legal battle to have the stubborn tenants booted off her property in Charleston, South Carolina.
The unwelcome squatters refused to pay rent – meaning Tammy had to pay the bills for a home she didn’t have control over, ABC4 reported.
The homeowner’s late father left Tammy his rental properties after his death in 2023.
The term squatters is used to describe individuals in a wide range of circumstances.
From renters who refuse eviction but also refuse to pay rent to people who find empty seasonal houses and make it their home, then refuse to leave when the true owners return, squatters are a growing problem.
She said that tougher state legislation is needed to be implemented to address the issue.
“Criminalize squatting, make it a crime, make them be arrested if they get caught trespassing in someone’s home and taking over and destroying their property because it’s just not right that you can’t drive off in someone’s car, that would be grand theft auto, but you can take possession of someone’s home and it’s a civil crime,” she fumed.
“We need to criminalize this.”
Tammy added that those laws should seek to kick out unwanted tenants as quickly as possible to avoid property damage.
She continued: “Taking a year to get someone off your property is very concerning.
“It’s very upsetting and the anxiety is unbelievable as you’re watching your property be damaged, or you’re having to pay bills for a property that you have no control over.
“It can be financially devastating, and also very emotionally taxing to try to get these people out.”
“The people who are trying to take possession back of their own home are having to go through an extensive and expensive process just to get possession of their personal property or their private property back,” Kimbrell said.
“People are coming home and finding strangers living in their homes, and there’s nothing they can do to get them out,” Brinson added.
SQUATTER SUPPORT
Hope may not be lost for homeowners contesting with pesky squatters.
A superman-for-hire has emerged in one state, offering squatter removal services at a cost.
Flash Shelton from California helps rid homeowners of unwanted guests, otherwise known as squatters.
Shelton calls himself an “anti-squatter activist,” having created a group of people called the “Squatter Hunters” to evict unlawful occupants of houses on behalf of homeowners.
But his services do not come free as he charges anywhere between $5,000 to $20,000 given the potentially dangerous nature of his new career path.
Like a comic book hero, the founder has his own origin story hailing back to his parents.
When Shelton’s father died in 2019, he was aiding his mother in cleaning out and selling their home when seven individuals moved into the place with their own belongings and refused to move out.
In trying to evict the illegal residents of his mother’s home, the businessman became intimately familiar with California’s “Squatters Rights Laws.”
Shelton says that oftentimes police are hesitant or unable to get involved because the legal lines are blurred.
SQUATTING COMPLICATIONS AND LEGALITY
While it may seem straightforward, squatting is a tricky legal issue.
Squatters can be a real headache for property owners as they can move in at any time – so vacant homes need constant monitoring – and once they’re in they can be hard to move.
While tenants are invited onto a property with consent, if they stop paying, they don’t in effect become squatters, because there are legal protections and processes landlords need to undertake to evict them.
While squatters are uninvited guests, they are afforded similar protections and property owners have to undertake a legal process to get them out.
While squatters are in effect trespassing, which is illegal, they are innocent until proven guilty, so the process of eviction can become time-consuming if they refuse to come to the door and engage.
The laws for removing someone are different for both, adding further complication.
Property owners who attempt to remove squatters by force may expose themselves to a potential lawsuit for harassment or assault, so the advice is generally to play it by the book.
Squatters also have rights, known as adverse possession, under the law which allows an individual to occupy a property and remain there without the owner’s permission.
And If they stay long enough they can even, eventually, claim ownership.
