All Forum Posts by: Robert Arnold

Follow up: We got our day in court but the judge started with defendant/squatter. It was a Monday and squatter said to judge he only needed until Friday. Judge turned to us and said he says he'll be out Friday. That's better than I could do - best I could do is give you 10 days. We left. I sent Dad back the next day because something bothered me and Dad came back with a record that had 10 days on it! The squatter came on Day 9 and moved most of his stuff out. 

July, August, September... so much time wasted on this guy. I suspect a lawyer could have sped things along and gotten our side spoken to a judge (I think the judge had no idea the squatter had vacated the property a month prior to the court date). The rental was $350/month and will be $450 so it's hard to add on lawyer fees. 

Dad is still considering going after squatter in small claims for back rent, back utilities, damage to home, etc. I think the total amount is greater than limit for small claims and we need a lawyer. 

Thanks for comments through this process! Helpful to not feel totally alone. :P

Hey all! 

Would love to hear your ideas/advice. Our squatter is GONE! Well... sorta. 

Aug 17 posted 30 day notice to quit, squatter says he's actively looking for new place
Aug 23, 2021 local power company posted 3 day notice to pull meter (or bring in contract, which squatter does not have)
Aug 23 was last day we saw squatter living at cabin (we can see from our living room windows)
Aug 26 power company pulled meter
Aug 27 CPS agent comes and documents living conditions 
Aug 27 posted a 7 day notice to evict due to hazard/danger/health conditions
Aug 30 squatter and former tenant (she was in jail since Nov 2020 and this was her first time back on the property) stop by for 10 min, leave with an armful of paperwork, leave behind 4 flea bombs (the house is FULL of food waste and dirty clothes). She removed 2 of the 5 full bags of trash he had sitting in entry/kitchen
Sept 1 township blight enforcement officer comes, documents outside conditions, walks inside, exits with legs covered in dozens of fleas

Sept 3, tomorrow, I plan to take the 7 day notice to the court house

My BIG question is:
Now that the squatter hasn't slept at the property for over a week, and there is no power, and no gas, and the house if full of food and trash: Has the eviction process changed? Like, he's not squatting he's using my house as a storage unit, right? Does him being a meth user with a brother in jail for illegal narcotic manufacturing help my cause? Looking for any angle to get this cabin emptied, repaired, and rented again. 

Thanks BP friends!

Rob 

 OH! That's a new angle! I haven't heard folks around here suggest that. I'll check it out tomorrow. Thanks!!

Hi Keith!
Really appreciate this work you've done. It's 2021 now. We are deep into COVID times. Are there any standout differences?
Our situation is not the tenant (she's been in jail since Nov 2020) but maybe the boyfriend of the tenant - he's not on her lease and her lease says no one else is allowed to live there except those named on the lease.
Tenant (woman) signed a lease in June 2019 and paid rent to July 2020
No gas ever paid June 2019 to now (lease said for tenant to take care of putting in her own name)
No electric ever paid June 2019 to now (however, Feb 2020 to Monday this week the person next door was paying the wrong meter! So squatter's electric was paid Feb 2020 to now but my father paid that other tenant's electric)
Served 30 day notice to quit on Aug 16th
Electric company found mistake on Monday and pulled meter today, Aug 26.
Gas company is aware, bill is over $1,000, gas company says they were planning on shutting off soon.

Can't I hire 4 thugs to move it all out while no one is home?

lol

:)

OMG! Help! My parents' have had a rental property in northern Michigan for decades. I came to visit July 2 and I'm stuck here. I need to get rid of a squatter for them before I can drive back south to Texas. This story is HUGE but I'll try to keep it brief.

June 2019 a woman signs a 12 month contract that says she must get electric and gas in her own name prior to move it and no one except her can occupy the unit (she breaks all 3 of those)
Unknown to me - the man now squatting moves in with the former tenant

July 20, 2020 she suddenly has a huge amount of cash and pays over 5 months back rent - never pays rent again after this day
July 23, 2020 booked for a crime
Feb 2020 person moves into cabin next door and somehow put wrong cabin electric meter in their name
Nov, 2020 she's jailed
May 2021 my dad arrives and slowly starts realizing the scope of the problem
July 2, 2021 I arrive
July we get Real Estate One to be property managers starting Aug 1, REO agent meets with 2 current tenants and gets them on new contracts, REO makes a deal with squatter, he agrees, he never shows up to the REO office
Aug 9 post 7 day notice due to non payment
Aug 16 court house says can't because COVID, try 30 day notice to quit - post that
Aug 17 hand 30 day notice to quit to squatter (had to bang on his door at 7:15a to catch him as he'd been hiding from me for 2 weeks)
Aug 19 figure out squatter's cable is in the name of jailed tenant's daughter who lives 2 counties away with her legal guardian (yet Spectrum refuses to cancel service)
Aug 20 figure out the electric meter mix up. next door unit moved out in June yet was still be charged electric. why? wrong meter! 
Aug 23 electric company comes and puts 3 day note on door of squatter while squatter is hiding inside
Aug 24 DTE informs us that the bill for this cabin hasn't been paid for a long time, bills are often sent back "return to sender", over $1,100 is owed, gas will be turned off soon
Aug 26 electric company comes and removes meter, we haven't seen squatter since Monday night, we knock expecting an empty unit, 14 year old daughter is inside, no electric, no water, no gas, phone battery low, and the house is the worse garbage pit I've ever seen - 5 full size black bags of kitchen waste sitting near door, goat path from room to room, dirty clothes piled everywhere. not hoarder situation, just super dirty situation. Call Child Protection Services for Michigan and have 1/2 hour talk. Call State Police - they see nothing they can do. Sherriff calls me back and suggests going back inside, document everything for CPS, keep pressing forward with eviction

Neighbor says squatter is definitely using meth. Squatter usually has 10 year old son living with him and sometimes 14 year old daughter. Former tenant may be out of jail now but hasn't appeared on property. Squatter and former tenant gave birth to a baby around Nov 2020. 

No rent paid since July 2020 except from one payment of $700 cash handed from squatter to my father in early July 2021.
No electric paid June 2019 to now.
No gas paid June 2019 to now.
Cable seems paid but is in minor's name who has never lived at property and former tenant lost legal guardianship of.

Oh! And the fleas! I had to spray my legs and feet with deep woods off just to step back inside the cabin. 

I'm hoping some of these details give one of you BP friends an idea, an angle we haven't tried yet.

Thanks y'all!

Sounds like an incredible amount of work. If not now, soon. Will you pick it up and keep the tenants? That would be a plus. Everything else sounds so negative. What are the upsides to this particular listing? 

All good advice so far. Love the paper trails! Keep us updated on how you end up solving this nightmare. Best of luck!

New to Texas and good to know! I've never seen less than 2 x monthly rent. 

Hello @Kamal Gill! Really interesting situation. Now, 10 months later, how have things panned out? What ended up working for you? 

Thanks! 
Rob