Vacant rental homes can rapidly become a source of intense distress. When a tenant moves out and no new occupant is found hastily, these empty properties can attract unwanted attention. The empty spaces may become an inviting opportunity for trespassers and squatters trying to find shelter. Without more proper oversight, what was once a vibrant home can instantaneously spiral into an abandoned shell, resulting in trouble and anxiety for landlords.
What is squatting?
Squatting has to do with the unlawful occupation of an uninhabited building or unused land. In simplest terms, for homeowners, a squatter is someone who occupies your property without your permission. This situation can equally include former tenants who stay on the property without paying rent after their lease has expired or been terminated.
Unlawful occupants can negatively impact your rental property and make it quite hard to lease to new tenants. To satisfactorily prevent squatters, it is weighty to secure your property. If you are not living near your rental home, assess hiring a property management company to monitor the property regularly and handle tenant turnover.
What to do at the first sign of a squatter?
If you notice a squatter on your property, you should immediately contact the police. The longer you accede to a squatter to occupy the place, the harder it will be to evict them later. Courts may interpret your failure to act as a sign of consent, making the eviction process more complicated.
Another potential issue materializes if a squatter manages to turn on utilities at the property in their name. In considerable areas, doing so can establish legal residency, as the squatter occupies your property without your permission. If this surfaces, the police may, indeed, classify the situation as civil rather than criminal.
If the police cannot assist you, the subsequent step is to serve the unlawful occupant with an eviction notice. Simply providing this notice can generally encourage the squatter to move out voluntarily. But, in fact, if they refuse to leave, you may need to file an unlawful detainer lawsuit, which will set in motion formal eviction proceedings.
The duration of this process can vary depending on the efficacy of the court system in your state, taking anywhere from two weeks to several months. In the case that you do get a judgment in your favor from the court, you can enlist the local sheriff or police to remove the squatter on your behalf.
What to do with a squatter’s leftover property?
If, by any chance you have successfully evicted your squatters, you need to work out any personal property they may have left behind. Whether they left by their own free will or were removed with much force, it’s conventional for them to abandon some belongings.
The following steps are subject to the laws in your area. In particular states, you may dispose of these items without consequence. Nonetheless, in other places, you will surely be required to store their belongings in a storage unit at your own expense. If the squatters do not claim their property and give you the payment for the storage fees, you may have the right to auction off the items or dispose of them grounded in local regulations.
Handling squatters can be painstaking and resource-intensive. To suppress this, proactive management is the primary key. At Real Property Management Diamond, we satisfactorily check tenant move-outs and swiftly fill vacancies. An occupied rental property is both positively profitable and free from squatters. For more valuable details as regards our property management services in New Castle, please contact us online or call 302-313-7700.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
