Because the laws have been crafted to favor the tenant (who is presumed to be poor but honest) at the expense of the landlord (who is presumed to be wealthy, if not a liar and a slumlord). This is a great example of the nonsensical stuff that can happen when you make laws with a set of skewed presumptions that don't always reflect reality. In this case the "tenant" is a squatter without a lease. And the "landlord" is a homeowner who never wanted to rent out the property. The homeowner is a square peg being forced through the round hole of the law.
@@user-sg2cm4vq5kexactly. I wondered if it would be considered civil or criminal if this happened to a judge or a politician. I'm betting criminal for the elites while civil for us peasants.
@@queenofcats1 Good news though. Just saw the new video several days ago. The guy went to court with his lawyer, he's now banned from her house & there's a protective order against him from going near her. He was renting out the rooms in her house & collecting rent from his renters.
Not only a criminal but stupid, too. Believing some "real estate agent" in a laundromat(?) and spending all that money on "fixing up" the house(yeah, right).
It's a New York thing. Probably other corrupt cities too. Using the government as a weapon against the owner is part of the squatter routine. There are videos and articles teaching lowlives how to do it. The only reason city is putting on a show is because it got public attention. You can bet the outcomes will be easy on the squatter once they figure nobody is paying attention anymore.
Simple: just because you are the landlord does not mean that you can throw someone's property out on the side of the road and change the locks any time you want. There is a legitimate other side to this argument. The problem is, that the cops don't have a middle road to go by. They just say, leave it to the courts, and that can take 12 months. They should be able to say, look, it seems like you shouldn't be here, we'll give you a reasonable amount of time ( say a few days to a week ) to either get out, or have your case heard by a court to grant an extension. It shouldn't be either get out now, or wait 12 months. There needs to be some reasonable middle ground.
@@phillipsusi1791 Dood. Squatters are not tenants. You aren’t their landlord. You are the homeowner and they are criminals. Yes, you can change the locks anytime you please and yes, you can throw their shit in the trash if you like.
The problem with "expediting the process" is the vandalism and theft being done during that process. The only proper role of government is immediate removal.
@@andycurran3327 I totally agree. The mayor of Los Angeles just recently had to deal with this issue. Some guy tried to squat in her home. That's having skin in the game. When it happens to them, let's see how quickly the laws get amended. If this happened to me I would squat in the judges or law makers home.
If government wants a monopoly on violence, they should help protect people and people's property, and enforce the law. When government fails to act, I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to look for other solutions.
@@seanofpeace If the owner never rented out the home, I don't think they'd want to characterize the damages they suffered in terms of lost potential rental income. The ideal case for this would be a homeowner kept out of their only home to a squatter. They could then quantify their damages in terms of being made homeless, and having to pay for additional housing (when they already own a home).
It is hard to believe that it is illegal for a landlord to turn off utilities on a squatter. They do not have a valid lease, are not supposed to be there, and they committed a crime to get in.
The laws have been designed to err in favor of tenants. For utilities, they're designed to prevent a landlord shutting off utilities as a way to short-circuit the eviction process (forcing the tenant to vacate because there's no electricity or water). The problem is (1) the law is so loosely defined that a squatter can easily slip in and claim they're a tenant when they're not. (2) The courts are so backed up it takes months or years to get an eviction hearing to decide the matter. And (3) there are so many legal delaying tricks available that a knowledgeable criminal can stave off eviction for years or even over a decade, living there for free all the while.
As a landlord. You do not initiate the shutoff. You make the utility initiate the shutoff by not paying. And if the cops show up. I guess thats a civil matter too!
It's because landlords would or still will illegally evict good tenants by turning off the utilities or file for an eviction notice ahead of time and lie like a rug to get the notice.
@rhetorical1488 non-existant. Squatters deserve to be jailed and fined. Forcing hard labor camps on inmates is putting us back in the days of chain gangs. A form of slavery that is actually MORE cruel than what we had before the 13th Amendment was passed. I am against what we have now, it should be unconstitutional and our entire prison system should be rebuilt from scratch. Because it's draconian in nature.
A squatter is basically a tenant that overstayed the lease, or have not paid up. A burgualr is someone who trespasses and steals your things and even violently
Good point, the cops can run a plate or a VIN on a car in an instant, why should it take a year and a half to determine ownership of a house and kick out the squatters?
Banks. People mortgage their homes and that means if you don't pay on time then the banks take it back. I would like for predatory banks to not have police forces behind them.
Well, in MN a genius judge ruled that any car that is not on private property is a "public space" so they could illegally confiscate the citizens guns. I guess in MN as long as a car is on public property, like a ROAD for instance car theft is legal. Get ready for car squatters.
cause certain people/powers want criminals to be allowed to run rampant. creates division and chaos. the more minority groups you give special treatment to the further the division.
The guy in the story should be in prison. But its not always as simple as someone broke in. There are scam artists who pose as real estate agents. They look for tenants, take their fees, give them keys that work, and a lease agreement that looks legit - all to a home or apartment they have no right to rent out. Do you just arrest those "tenants" and charge them with crimes? They didn't damage anything. They had no "intent" to do anything wrong. Better to charge the actual scam artist than one of the victims.
The Florida law that was recently passed says that they can be removed immediately and if they do more than $1000 in damages to the property they can be charged with a felony.
A $1M property in many parts of Queens is a basic single family home that would be valued at $200K almost anywhere else in the country. I'm pointing this out bc you hear "million dollar property" & think this homeowner is wealthy, but in all reality, this is just some middle-class family who inherited an average house when grandma died. This problem is so widespread in NYC & other "sanctuary cities" that very average families are being targeted by these freeloading scammers. Like, you lock up your house & head off to work & by the time you get home a group of illegals has moved in while you're gone. It's beyond insane.
Housing prices are out of control. Almost any house is a million dollar house these days. I haven’t seen a $200k house in a few years. Houses that were selling for around $200k just a few years ago, are now selling for $750k- over a million.
I've seen some coverage of this problem in the UK. In one, a man went to work, came home, house full of migrants and he couldn't get them out. Similar cases usually when people go on vacation and come home to a house full of them. So it isn't just a US problem.
@Trump985 : I grew up on Long Island.. even 30 yrs ago housing prices were insane & worse the closer to the city you got. I don't know how my parents kept food on the table even back then; my dad was a blue-collar worker for the dept of water & my mom was a library clerk. I moved off the island as soon as I graduated high school, as there was zero chance I'd have been able to afford to make a life there. I don't know a single kid who graduated high school with me who was able to stay, either. It was a nice place to grow up, but LI has become unrecognizable & crime infested, over the past 10 yrs or so. Why anyone would choose to pay the insane taxes & housing costs to live down there now is beyond me. My aunt pays $36K in property taxes every year on her 3 bedroom house that sits on a 1/4 acre lot.
I’m not sure Squatter’s Rights needs to be a thing in 2024. Especially considering most squatters destroy the homes on their way out after dragging the eviction out as long and painfully as possible.
You can rennovate a home, and the day before you move in, you find someone has already squatted and changed the locks, and drawn up a bogus rental agreement. Takes three years to evict, and then you have to remodel again. Rinse and repeat.
@@iainballasThis happened to a guy I used to work with. Owned a home out in a rural area. He was getting married to he was going to put it up for sale in a few months. A friend asked him about letting a "battered" woman stay there until she could save up some money to get her own place. He foolishly agreed. A week later he was out to do some maintenance and she had some guy living there with her. He told her she wasn't to have guests (as agreed) and he needed to leave. The next time he came by the guy was still there. He brought it up again and the guy threatened him. So the owner and several friends came up on the weekend to do some target shooting in the land behind the house. The woman and guy moved out that week but purposefully destroyed thousands of dollars of the interior. That is what people get for trying to help others.
My wife spent years doing property management on bank repossessed homes after the 2008 financial crash. MAN did those places get trashed. They also got used for things like growing pot and cooking meth. When they left people would even steal cupboards and door-knobs.
This is not so much squatter's rights as it is tenant's rights. We have rules to keep landlords from randomly deciding to render people homeless without due process. The problem is that whoever drafted these laws never considered that someone would just move in on their own and claim to be a legal tenant.
Not 25K, but if i had receipts and fixed issues with the house i was renting, it came off the rent. Not the labor, but the costs of the parts, sure. Was faster for me to fix simple issues myself, rather than waiting days to weeks for simple things like a leaky faucet to get fixed. In fact, for that leaky faucet, i never even claimed the refund of the price, because it was less than $5 and about half an hour to fix. Was it the owners responsibility to fix? Yes. Was it worth it to me to fix the problem for so little effort and cost rather than wait? Yes, yes it was. But 25K, no effing way. Number one if i was the owner, i'm not trusting some rando renter to do quality work.
@@jeromethiel4323 I once retro-insulated the place I was renting. Probably about $500 in parts. Quality work. I didn't claim it. It was worth it to reduce the heating bill. I was right side up before the first winter was over.
I saw that poor woman try to get those people out. The suspect was arrogant and harassed the woman. He also suggested he'd done work and she owed him money. I hope he ends up in a "special home".
I think that's what really set everyone off. If the squatter had come out and said something like, "I don't know what's going on, far as I know I have a lease from owner. Lets go to court and work it out", it might not have gotten national attention. Instead the squatter basically said, "Its not her house anymore, and she needs to pay me to leave". No one likes thieves, and arrogant ones are even worse.
@@TheRealScooterGuy that has nothing to do with the fact that they should be removed from the property. Take the scam up with the police and the fake landlord. And probably that is a miniscule amount compared to actual squatting.
@@musictosoothe -- I agree that they still have to leave. But the question to the person above (who said to charge all of them) is whether those who themself were victims also need to be charged with crimes. And, btw, these probably make up a larger percentage of cases than you realize. We only hear about the squatters who refuse to leave, but those who were actually scammed are often the ones who leave when told that they were dealing with fake landlords. My local TV news did a story on this a few years back, interviewing some of these victims. They didn't trash the houses on the way out, and they didn't have to be forced out by courts or cops.
The guy said he spent 25k to fix the house up....on a lease? Does he seriously expect people to believe that? And a very sarcastic thank you to New York for letting him go without bail. Brilliant!
That house is right around the corner from my parents' More and more brazen squatters like this. This clown said he signed a 'lease' with the 'owner' which turned out to be someone who faked the deed to the property. He then claimed that he was hired to do some work on the house and wouldn't leave until he got paid! Nice scam if you can get it.
Who was he paying the $3,000.00 a month to. I have several houses I rent and have never shown a deed to a prospective tenant, I have a broker and she vets the tenants as well as I interview them.
@@cdrone4066 She's not a professional manager, it's home she inherited which she was fixing up for sale. Then these screwballs moved in. The ringleader might be in jail but the other sqautters are still there.
@@traceystock7352 Adverse possession took years, and the person had to be living there openly. Not the same as these people aren't claiming to own the property, just to have a lease, (a right to live there).
That's just something the squatter says to make it sound like it's not their fault. When the owner first went to the home with the TV cameras in tow, the squatter claimed he had a lease. The reporter asked him to show it to them. He looked up some paperwork on his phone and showed it, and the reporter said "that's a bill." Basically the presence of the cameras deprived him of the time to forge a fake lease. The biggest malefactors here are the legislators who skewed these laws so far in favor of tenants, that even squatters have more rights than the homeowner. I mean I get that tenants need to be protected. But the whole point of the law is to strike a good balance between outlier cases on one end (unusual situation for tenant) with outlier cases on the opposite end (unusual situation for landlord). But the laws in some places are skewed so far in favor of tenants that even illegitimate "tenants" (squatters) have a leg up on legitimate landlords (homeowner who never even rented out the home). Basically this is the type of law that gets passed when a majority of lawmakers decide to make a law to punish a class of people (landlords). Same thing happened during the pandemic when they froze evictions. No real problem with that. But all the pandemic relief programs for businesses were crafted to specifically exclude landlords from eligibility. Yeah they were probably concerned that slumlords would get relief money. But the combination of no rental income with no relief drove a lot of legitimate small landlords into bankruptcy.
@@robert5 Sometimes it could be a 3rd person, posing as the landlord or real estate agent. So the squatter (tenant that got scammed) thought the 3rd person was the legit landlord/RE agent, since they got the key from them. If someone handed you a key to a house, with all the utilities & everything working, you'd think they're legit.
Need a slight change to the law, the law says if the 'claim'. Anyone can claim without proof. Now if the law said they had to show a lease or something, it would be an upgrade, but you can print your own lease easily.
No, we need to examine the claims, as they should be quite simple to prove or disprove. This shouldn't take long, bank records and who made payments to who. Even a simple register when a landlord rents a house would work. Any tribunal with the power would work, not lumped in with every other civil claim. The police aren't equipped to decide on the spot, and are in fact already following the laws. Should be over in a week or two.
I let someone in my house - they changed driver license and got mail addressed to my house - finally had to just Sell my house to get him out - was a nightmare 4 yrs - Texas
You let a rando into your home? My wife let her brother crash at our home while he looked for an apartment. I told her 29 days and he must be out. I was so furious as the 30-day mark came and went, I was certain she thought I was going to get violent with her. I told her I would shoot him dead before I'd let him become a squatter. Thankfully, he was out after about 35 days. Lucky him.
You let them in. That changes the equation they can't be charged with the crime of breaking and entry. If you did sell it you just transferred the problem to the next owner. If you notified him you were selling and that any agreement you had would be void after it sold and he would then have to deal with the new owner of the property the problem still remained. That said you probably lost money on the sale because of your squatter issue.
Buddy of mine lost his rental property that way. Tenant moved to Florida, and illegally sublet the house to someone else. He then pocketed the rent money. The illegal tenant refused to leave OR pay rent, so my buddy filed for eviction. Bleeding heart judge denied the eviction- "But, she has nowhere else to go." He ended up selling at a loss, since he needed the rental income to pay the mortgage.
@@ostlandr This is why a landlord needs to occasionally show up to the property to make sure everything is on the up and up. Of course with the 24 hour notice that's required in most locations, or an agent of theirs.
I definitely consider this breaking and entering, burglary, harassment, vandalism, fraud and theft! Punitive damages for double the damage to an owners Life. I bet this guy is a lifetime scammer, and she'll never recover.
I imagine it's harming the police force moral when they repeatedly go out for problems on top of problems. The only officers they can keep from quitting are the ones willing to call our neighborhoods 'bad' on YT news.
Yep, people should look up the history of the depression, the California gold rush and shanty towns if the "correct people" start squatting it will be overlooked.
Whats amazing is he exemplifies the Squatter and the house owner was a example of how wrong all the laws were. This case went ultra viral. I wonder how he feels his case singularly is the biggest reason for recent anti-squatter laws popping up.
It's often said that when punishment for corporations does not exceed their gain, it's just a cost of doing business. Unless his punishment exceeds what he's gained from this (probably living for years rent-free and getting income by subletting out rooms in other people's homes), he's still going to come out ahead.
That applies to my neighborhood in Michigan as well. The coroner may not be required, but the squatter will be removed, by force if needed. The squatter can feel free to call the police while their ass is layed out on the front yard.
Can't the LEO be charged with aiding and abetting the crimes as well as breaking their oath of office by refusing to do their investigative and enforcing duty?
Squatting is not criminalized. There are no laws against squatting so it’s not possible for LEOs to aid and abett squatters and squatting because it’s not a crime. States need to enact laws to criminalize squatting this will allow LE, give them to power to arrest squatters. Geez gosh, please use your brain.
They were always awake. They had orders from above them (not the voters) to fight on behalf of the illegal aliens and to enable them to forcibly take houses. But be subtle about it.
Gotta go after the cops too, for wrongful arrest, until they change how they do business. They gotta stop treating the real victims like criminals and the real criminals like victims!
One thing I never quite understand, cops will say it's a civil matter but they drilled out that lock to get in and changed the locks, isn't that at the very least vandalism? There's immediately already a crime involved.
They DO NOT need to pass NEW LAWS!!!!! They need to REPEAL all the bullshit laws that took away property rights in the first place. Like you said, the language is important and needs to be framed correctly.
@@emptymannull Federal court allows for 9x punitive damages. So, take your calculation, multiply by 10, and you have a reasonable CIVIL case. Then add criminal charges, etc.
I'm from NYC and this case hit the news recently and was a huge talking point everywhere! The guy, the squatter, claims that he's hired by someone to do renovations in the house and that someone refuses to pay. So he started renting out the place for payment. Then the true owner showed up and somehow was arrested. it's a crazy case!
I thought this s*** was bizarre it happened 12 houses away from me across my mother-in-law's house. The house was up for sale these squatters broke the back window and had a whole house full of furniture. Cops couldn't do anything they had to go to court to get them out of their own home.
You and I both know, that the only reason he was charged with crimes, because of publicity in mainstream media. Also there was 3 squatters. The one that got arrested is only one of them who got owner arrested. The other 2 goes free
In NY or NJ, a guy kicking down your door might be considered a legal tenant and require an eviction process to get rid off. Because those two states favor criminals.
Squatters are a good reason for states to have a castle doctrine. Let the jury figure out who was there legally. Guaranteed fewer people would break in and claim to have a lease.
The problem is unless they have a carry and conceal the fire arms are most likely at home. This also brings up another headache that I never thought about, The squatter will now have access to all the fire arms in the house.
They have qualified immunity. They would be protected by the belief they were doing the right thing in the moment and that no court from on high has told them they couldn't do that.
@goonerbear8659 if I run into your house and change the locks and say that "I live here now", the police need to know better. If you are not a lawful tenant or owner, you have no right to be there. They should know better.
@@Phil-D83 But the police don't know who is right and who is wrong. That's up to the court. The problem is that the police just throw up their hands and say they can do NOTHING and it is ENTIRELY up to the court, which can take a year. There should be a middle ground where the police can say "it looks to us like you are in the wrong, either get out in 3-7 days, or request an emergency hearing before a court to show cause why you may be right and get an extension for the time being. If they did that, I'm guessing that most legitimate tenants could get the extension, and actual squatters would be gone.
I always say, take a picture of the “landlord and the vehicle they are driving including the license plates”. Also, take any paperwork that “the landlord “ has handled and put it in an envelope so you will have a record of their fingerprints. Ask them to show you their ID.
I do have sympathy for renters given the insane monthly rental prices, coupled with low wages but making homeowners pay for their living costs is not the way to go.
Correct! The police have proven themselves to be of no value in these cases. No duty to investigate? Can’t show them your ID, then the deed in your file cabinet, then at least have an educated judgement of a fraudulent lease with a bad signature…..?
A buddy of mine is a biker. And not the fat-accountant-has-a-Harley kind. I'd just tell him and his buddies "Hey, keg party at my rental house!" If the squatters didn't take the hint and leave, well. . .
Now we need lawyers and judges arrested for dismissing cases violating the United States Constitution. Especially the 4th amendment illegal search and seizure. The 5th amendment taking of property without just compensation. The 14th amendment taking of property without a fair trial and everybody being protected under state laws equally. Innocent people who have been locked up for decades will have just compensation for their time.
I'm having a similar issue now where my Health Department is refusing to enforce "a comprehensive drainage plan" for OSSFs on land with "less than 2% slope" which are required to have "drainage controls". They have this weird idea that I must prove damages using the 'water code'... no, it is a criminal public nuisance issue. Breeding Cesspit-mosquitoes is illegal but you won't be taught that from my local government.
Yeah, a real top -class ambulance-chaser type. The "tenant" is occupying the place illegally, but let's defend his "right" to be there because it's causing his mother stress-related health issues. Seriously?!?!!? Pro-tip: don't trust strangers you meet in a laundromat who claim to be realtors with a hot deal!
"If someone's busting down the front door, You call the police." I agree so long as this once the door IS busted down you have the other option ready. We can't loose you Steve! You do to much good work raising awareness on important issues for us to lose you to some random criminal who doesn't want to risk a witness.
I still say the Institute for Justice should go after states that grant squatter’s rights. States are taking property and giving it to someone else. A straight up Fifth Amendment taking.
I don't know if I'm so rabidly hateful of squatters, but I really am baffled by the whole thing of them being protected so much. I mean, the rights of PAYING TENANTS are so few in most states (especially red states which I happen to live in). So why is it tenants are subject to owners' every little whim, every kind of hoop needed to jump through to get a home, then steady rent increases, inspections with little notice, and potential eviction for any violation -or no violation at all, just them selling the place without even telling you it was for sale, next thing you know a new owner is calling and they want you OUT (this JUST happened to my friend in New Orleans, and to me years ago in Arkansas) ...... but someone can just break into a place and eat, sleep and poop in it, and not get thrown out???!!!
Bad people always ruin things for everyone else. My mom owns a few units of low end rental property and rents it cheap. (she's raised rent by a whopping $30 over the last 20 years...) She's very lenient about late rent but people have begun to take advantage of her. The court isn't much help either. She just recently managed to evict a guy who hadn't paid rent in over a year. It took multiple court appearances. Meanwhile the guy was on fb marketplace selling the furnace, cabinets etc. out of the place. The judge just didn't care. They made an 80 year old woman with limited mobility and poor health show up in court multiple times to get the dude out. Whenever I see things like this online a lot of people seem to think the landlord has it coming.
It should never have been determined by any government entity that stealing a property would be a civil matter. Stealing is stealing - can only be a criminal matter.
You paid the $9,000 in cash and didn’t demand a receipt to prove it was paid?You were able to keep track of the lease so well that you could produce it on demand for the police on the scene but after causing the owner to be arrested you didn’t think you might need to preserve the receipt as evidence? No proof of payment is no payment.
So the lesson is - don't tell the police "I want them evicted." Break into the home, then call the police from inside and say "These people broke in while I was sitting here watching a broken TV amidst all this squalor!"
New York state just passed a law redefining tenant and removing the word squatter from the word word or the meaning of tenant. I giving police more more arresting powers against squatters. We just waiting for the governor to sign
Good luck getting Gov. Hochul to to sign it. If they wanted to, Gov. Hochul and the Legislature could just declare Emergency Powers and impose the law by fiat. As they have been doing.
@@ostlandr The problem with emergency Powers is only temporary. They just passed it on Friday. Let's see what happens. Trust and believe I'm tired of that lady
With the direction that courts are going with handling known criminals, it's not going to be much longer before people start taking 'justice' into their own hands - or purchasing 'justice' from people that know how to deliver.
Oh, no- this is a one-off. If it hadn't gotten international media attention, this never would have happened. Regular cases that don't make the media, it's catch-and-release for thugs.
I think they will and unless you are dealing with a far left Jury and they happen to marxist they will convict. Most center democrats are reasonable and feel that squatters should have zero rights. Even the young Turks believe squatters should have no rights and the squatting laws are outdated and no longer serve a purpose.
Unfortunately this is because NYC has a unique history of landlords doing highly illegal stuff. Squatters rights are not the solution, but we can't go back to open discrimination and ripping off of renters.
Why is squatting a "civil matter" but suddenly her changing the locks is a "criminal matter"??
Because the laws have been crafted to favor the tenant (who is presumed to be poor but honest) at the expense of the landlord (who is presumed to be wealthy, if not a liar and a slumlord). This is a great example of the nonsensical stuff that can happen when you make laws with a set of skewed presumptions that don't always reflect reality. In this case the "tenant" is a squatter without a lease. And the "landlord" is a homeowner who never wanted to rent out the property. The homeowner is a square peg being forced through the round hole of the law.
Donxt ask me, that's a civil matter.
@@user-sg2cm4vq5kexactly. I wondered if it would be considered civil or criminal if this happened to a judge or a politician. I'm betting criminal for the elites while civil for us peasants.
@@solandri69
Square peg round hole 😊 nice
In this case, vs a bad, crooked landlord?
The only reason NY is doing this is because of the backlash
And the owner was arrested and it was caught on camera by a news team
Just like most other states . There's breaking news coming soon to Steve's channel
@@queenofcats1 Good news though. Just saw the new video several days ago. The guy went to court with his lawyer, he's now banned from her house & there's a protective order against him from going near her. He was renting out the rooms in her house & collecting rent from his renters.
@@DecrepitBiden Sounds like a proper American citizen with an innate sense of business. 😉😊
@@theoztreecrasher2647your times coming
How a squatter can get the homeowner arrested for changing their own locks, is ridiculous.
New York
Not only a criminal but stupid, too. Believing some "real estate agent" in a laundromat(?) and spending all that money on "fixing up" the house(yeah, right).
It's a New York thing. Probably other corrupt cities too. Using the government as a weapon against the owner is part of the squatter routine. There are videos and articles teaching lowlives how to do it. The only reason city is putting on a show is because it got public attention. You can bet the outcomes will be easy on the squatter once they figure nobody is paying attention anymore.
Simple: just because you are the landlord does not mean that you can throw someone's property out on the side of the road and change the locks any time you want. There is a legitimate other side to this argument. The problem is, that the cops don't have a middle road to go by. They just say, leave it to the courts, and that can take 12 months. They should be able to say, look, it seems like you shouldn't be here, we'll give you a reasonable amount of time ( say a few days to a week ) to either get out, or have your case heard by a court to grant an extension. It shouldn't be either get out now, or wait 12 months. There needs to be some reasonable middle ground.
@@phillipsusi1791 Dood. Squatters are not tenants. You aren’t their landlord. You are the homeowner and they are criminals. Yes, you can change the locks anytime you please and yes, you can throw their shit in the trash if you like.
The problem with "expediting the process" is the vandalism and theft being done during that process. The only proper role of government is immediate removal.
Immediate removal, there needs to be skin in the game for all those in the process. Mostly the government that would expedite things quickly.
@@andycurran3327 I totally agree. The mayor of Los Angeles just recently had to deal with this issue. Some guy tried to squat in her home.
That's having skin in the game. When it happens to them, let's see how quickly the laws get amended.
If this happened to me I would squat in the judges or law makers home.
If government wants a monopoly on violence, they should help protect people and people's property, and enforce the law. When government fails to act, I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to look for other solutions.
Government should be liable for damages to the property that occur during this police enabled tresspass.
@@SamBrickell Agree. Vigilante justice may be crappy justice but it's better than no justice at all.
Why can't squatters be charged for theft of property for the price of the dwelling since what they are doing is stealing someone's living space?
Or at least the value of the time they're in there.
Remember the t v show , bully beat down
@@seanofpeace If the owner never rented out the home, I don't think they'd want to characterize the damages they suffered in terms of lost potential rental income. The ideal case for this would be a homeowner kept out of their only home to a squatter. They could then quantify their damages in terms of being made homeless, and having to pay for additional housing (when they already own a home).
He was charged with burgarly (trespass and theft) and grand larceny (theft worth a lot of money)
Democrats decided this
It is hard to believe that it is illegal for a landlord to turn off utilities on a squatter.
They do not have a valid lease, are not supposed to be there, and they committed a crime to get in.
The laws have been designed to err in favor of tenants. For utilities, they're designed to prevent a landlord shutting off utilities as a way to short-circuit the eviction process (forcing the tenant to vacate because there's no electricity or water). The problem is (1) the law is so loosely defined that a squatter can easily slip in and claim they're a tenant when they're not. (2) The courts are so backed up it takes months or years to get an eviction hearing to decide the matter. And (3) there are so many legal delaying tricks available that a knowledgeable criminal can stave off eviction for years or even over a decade, living there for free all the while.
And were you to try & sell your property to "evict," the place would be trashed if it wasn't already.
As a landlord. You do not initiate the shutoff. You make the utility initiate the shutoff by not paying. And if the cops show up. I guess thats a civil matter too!
It's because landlords would or still will illegally evict good tenants by turning off the utilities or file for an eviction notice ahead of time and lie like a rug to get the notice.
@genespell4340 Florida's New law will award treble (triple) damaged to a tenant if a landlord does this. So laws can be made!
Squatters should be squatting in prison.
Hard Labour camp ...
@@hcbnettokay Stalin.
^* squatting in a MEXICAN prison... why should we pay for their 3 squares?
@@sasukedemon888888888 how long is your parole?
@rhetorical1488 non-existant. Squatters deserve to be jailed and fined.
Forcing hard labor camps on inmates is putting us back in the days of chain gangs. A form of slavery that is actually MORE cruel than what we had before the 13th Amendment was passed.
I am against what we have now, it should be unconstitutional and our entire prison system should be rebuilt from scratch. Because it's draconian in nature.
A "Squatter" is someone who sits on *unclaimed land*. The land is claimed and not by them? Trespasser! Not Squatter!
A squatter is basically a tenant that overstayed the lease, or have not paid up. A burgualr is someone who trespasses and steals your things and even violently
@@davinxi5926 No. Don't call them squatters. As soon as they are no longer welcome they are trespassers.
This should be a felony. Whats the point of ownership...This is worse than stealing a car and should be treated as such.
Good point, the cops can run a plate or a VIN on a car in an instant, why should it take a year and a half to determine ownership of a house and kick out the squatters?
@@robertchavez5483 because police aren't doing their jobs.
Banks. People mortgage their homes and that means if you don't pay on time then the banks take it back. I would like for predatory banks to not have police forces behind them.
Bingo. It also incentivizes landlords to sell and pushes competition away. Saving them billions as they buy up homes 10-20% over cost.
Well, in MN a genius judge ruled that any car that is not on private property is a "public space" so they could illegally confiscate the citizens guns. I guess in MN as long as a car is on public property, like a ROAD for instance car theft is legal. Get ready for car squatters.
How about fraud and filing false police reports? The guy should be charged with that also.
If you break and enter, I don't see how you can't be charged anytime, anywhere.
wut?
cause certain people/powers want criminals to be allowed to run rampant. creates division and chaos. the more minority groups you give special treatment to the further the division.
The guy in the story should be in prison. But its not always as simple as someone broke in. There are scam artists who pose as real estate agents. They look for tenants, take their fees, give them keys that work, and a lease agreement that looks legit - all to a home or apartment they have no right to rent out. Do you just arrest those "tenants" and charge them with crimes? They didn't damage anything. They had no "intent" to do anything wrong. Better to charge the actual scam artist than one of the victims.
@@ae2948Obviously that's nothing to do with the story.
@@BishopStarsIt was some squatters are claiming.
The Florida law that was recently passed says that they can be removed immediately and if they do more than $1000 in damages to the property they can be charged with a felony.
If Squatters want a place to stay for free, I suggest going to jail.
Or go find a homeless shelter.
USA adopt Florida anti squatter law...!
LMFAO
@@kpdvwRon Dee-Santa-Moe-Neous just Signed it. 😬👍
Except where they are charging inmates for the stay in jail.
A $1M property in many parts of Queens is a basic single family home that would be valued at $200K almost anywhere else in the country. I'm pointing this out bc you hear "million dollar property" & think this homeowner is wealthy, but in all reality, this is just some middle-class family who inherited an average house when grandma died. This problem is so widespread in NYC & other "sanctuary cities" that very average families are being targeted by these freeloading scammers. Like, you lock up your house & head off to work & by the time you get home a group of illegals has moved in while you're gone. It's beyond insane.
Housing prices are out of control. Almost any house is a million dollar house these days. I haven’t seen a $200k house in a few years. Houses that were selling for around $200k just a few years ago, are now selling for $750k- over a million.
I've seen some coverage of this problem in the UK. In one, a man went to work, came home, house full of migrants and he couldn't get them out. Similar cases usually when people go on vacation and come home to a house full of them. So it isn't just a US problem.
@Trump985 : I grew up on Long Island.. even 30 yrs ago housing prices were insane & worse the closer to the city you got. I don't know how my parents kept food on the table even back then; my dad was a blue-collar worker for the dept of water & my mom was a library clerk. I moved off the island as soon as I graduated high school, as there was zero chance I'd have been able to afford to make a life there. I don't know a single kid who graduated high school with me who was able to stay, either. It was a nice place to grow up, but LI has become unrecognizable & crime infested, over the past 10 yrs or so. Why anyone would choose to pay the insane taxes & housing costs to live down there now is beyond me. My aunt pays $36K in property taxes every year on her 3 bedroom house that sits on a 1/4 acre lot.
Horrible 🤦♀️
I’m not sure Squatter’s Rights needs to be a thing in 2024. Especially considering most squatters destroy the homes on their way out after dragging the eviction out as long and painfully as possible.
You can rennovate a home, and the day before you move in, you find someone has already squatted and changed the locks, and drawn up a bogus rental agreement. Takes three years to evict, and then you have to remodel again. Rinse and repeat.
@@iainballasThis happened to a guy I used to work with. Owned a home out in a rural area. He was getting married to he was going to put it up for sale in a few months. A friend asked him about letting a "battered" woman stay there until she could save up some money to get her own place. He foolishly agreed. A week later he was out to do some maintenance and she had some guy living there with her. He told her she wasn't to have guests (as agreed) and he needed to leave. The next time he came by the guy was still there. He brought it up again and the guy threatened him. So the owner and several friends came up on the weekend to do some target shooting in the land behind the house. The woman and guy moved out that week but purposefully destroyed thousands of dollars of the interior. That is what people get for trying to help others.
My wife spent years doing property management on bank repossessed homes after the 2008 financial crash. MAN did those places get trashed. They also got used for things like growing pot and cooking meth. When they left people would even steal cupboards and door-knobs.
If I ever walked into my home and people were there, they will need the ambulance. I will assume home invaders/ burglar and treat them as such.
This is not so much squatter's rights as it is tenant's rights. We have rules to keep landlords from randomly deciding to render people homeless without due process. The problem is that whoever drafted these laws never considered that someone would just move in on their own and claim to be a legal tenant.
such BS. Who in the world spends $25K fixing up a house you supposedly leased from someone?
Not 25K, but if i had receipts and fixed issues with the house i was renting, it came off the rent. Not the labor, but the costs of the parts, sure. Was faster for me to fix simple issues myself, rather than waiting days to weeks for simple things like a leaky faucet to get fixed. In fact, for that leaky faucet, i never even claimed the refund of the price, because it was less than $5 and about half an hour to fix.
Was it the owners responsibility to fix? Yes. Was it worth it to me to fix the problem for so little effort and cost rather than wait? Yes, yes it was.
But 25K, no effing way. Number one if i was the owner, i'm not trusting some rando renter to do quality work.
@@jeromethiel4323 I once retro-insulated the place I was renting. Probably about $500 in parts. Quality work. I didn't claim it. It was worth it to reduce the heating bill. I was right side up before the first winter was over.
I saw that poor woman try to get those people out. The suspect was arrogant and harassed the woman. He also suggested he'd done work and she owed him money. I hope he ends up in a "special home".
I think that's what really set everyone off. If the squatter had come out and said something like, "I don't know what's going on, far as I know I have a lease from owner. Lets go to court and work it out", it might not have gotten national attention.
Instead the squatter basically said, "Its not her house anymore, and she needs to pay me to leave". No one likes thieves, and arrogant ones are even worse.
All squatters should be thrown out, arrested, facing all kinds of felonies. This guy should be buried under the jail.
Does this include those who were scammed by fake landlords?
To be fair, this guy was a first-person scammer and even a violent thug, much different from the landlord scam situations.
@@TheRealScooterGuy that has nothing to do with the fact that they should be removed from the property. Take the scam up with the police and the fake landlord. And probably that is a miniscule amount compared to actual squatting.
@@musictosoothe -- I agree that they still have to leave. But the question to the person above (who said to charge all of them) is whether those who themself were victims also need to be charged with crimes.
And, btw, these probably make up a larger percentage of cases than you realize. We only hear about the squatters who refuse to leave, but those who were actually scammed are often the ones who leave when told that they were dealing with fake landlords. My local TV news did a story on this a few years back, interviewing some of these victims. They didn't trash the houses on the way out, and they didn't have to be forced out by courts or cops.
@@TheRealScooterGuyI think it's pretty obvious he's not recommending jailing people who leave when asked to by the rightful owner.
The guy said he spent 25k to fix the house up....on a lease? Does he seriously expect people to believe that? And a very sarcastic thank you to New York for letting him go without bail. Brilliant!
That house is right around the corner from my parents' More and more brazen squatters like this. This clown said he signed a 'lease' with the 'owner' which turned out to be someone who faked the deed to the property. He then claimed that he was hired to do some work on the house and wouldn't leave until he got paid! Nice scam if you can get it.
Who was he paying the $3,000.00 a month to. I have several houses I rent and have never shown a deed to a prospective tenant, I have a broker and she vets the tenants as well as I interview them.
You know people had just “paid the invoice” instead of going through a year and a half of civil court.
@@AHersheyHere "Pay the money' to your blackmailer? I think Trump is being prosecuted for that. Not to mention how stupid that is.
@@cdrone4066 She's not a professional manager, it's home she inherited which she was fixing up for sale. Then these screwballs moved in. The ringleader might be in jail but the other sqautters are still there.
Know why you don't hear about this much in rural America?
1. Acreage
2. Excavators
3. Pig Farms.
Also not near as many people live in rural areas as they do in urban areas.
Personal firearms and Second Amendment CC laws.
adverse possession happens rurally too. Happening to us.
@@traceystock7352 Adverse possession took years, and the person had to be living there openly. Not the same as these people aren't claiming to own the property, just to have a lease, (a right to live there).
PIG FARMS!!😂😂
I want to know what happens to the people doing these fake leases. They are ultimately the biggest malefactors here
They just print them out on thier own.
In Florida Rick made that an additional charge along with squatting.
That's just something the squatter says to make it sound like it's not their fault. When the owner first went to the home with the TV cameras in tow, the squatter claimed he had a lease. The reporter asked him to show it to them. He looked up some paperwork on his phone and showed it, and the reporter said "that's a bill." Basically the presence of the cameras deprived him of the time to forge a fake lease.
The biggest malefactors here are the legislators who skewed these laws so far in favor of tenants, that even squatters have more rights than the homeowner. I mean I get that tenants need to be protected. But the whole point of the law is to strike a good balance between outlier cases on one end (unusual situation for tenant) with outlier cases on the opposite end (unusual situation for landlord). But the laws in some places are skewed so far in favor of tenants that even illegitimate "tenants" (squatters) have a leg up on legitimate landlords (homeowner who never even rented out the home).
Basically this is the type of law that gets passed when a majority of lawmakers decide to make a law to punish a class of people (landlords). Same thing happened during the pandemic when they froze evictions. No real problem with that. But all the pandemic relief programs for businesses were crafted to specifically exclude landlords from eligibility. Yeah they were probably concerned that slumlords would get relief money. But the combination of no rental income with no relief drove a lot of legitimate small landlords into bankruptcy.
The squatters are forging the lease. There is no one else.
@@robert5 Sometimes it could be a 3rd person, posing as the landlord or real estate agent. So the squatter (tenant that got scammed) thought the 3rd person was the legit landlord/RE agent, since they got the key from them. If someone handed you a key to a house, with all the utilities & everything working, you'd think they're legit.
We don’t need expedited cases, we need police and prosecutors to enforce the law! The laws are there already.
Need a slight change to the law, the law says if the 'claim'. Anyone can claim without proof. Now if the law said they had to show a lease or something, it would be an upgrade, but you can print your own lease easily.
No, we need to examine the claims, as they should be quite simple to prove or disprove. This shouldn't take long, bank records and who made payments to who.
Even a simple register when a landlord rents a house would work.
Any tribunal with the power would work, not lumped in with every other civil claim.
The police aren't equipped to decide on the spot, and are in fact already following the laws.
Should be over in a week or two.
I let someone in my house - they changed driver license and got mail addressed to my house -
finally had to just Sell my house to get him out - was a nightmare 4 yrs - Texas
You let a rando into your home? My wife let her brother crash at our home while he looked for an apartment. I told her 29 days and he must be out. I was so furious as the 30-day mark came and went, I was certain she thought I was going to get violent with her. I told her I would shoot him dead before I'd let him become a squatter. Thankfully, he was out after about 35 days. Lucky him.
You let them in. That changes the equation they can't be charged with the crime of breaking and entry. If you did sell it you just transferred the problem to the next owner. If you notified him you were selling and that any agreement you had would be void after it sold and he would then have to deal with the new owner of the property the problem still remained. That said you probably lost money on the sale because of your squatter issue.
I bet you learnt your lesson and won't do that again!
Buddy of mine lost his rental property that way. Tenant moved to Florida, and illegally sublet the house to someone else. He then pocketed the rent money. The illegal tenant refused to leave OR pay rent, so my buddy filed for eviction. Bleeding heart judge denied the eviction- "But, she has nowhere else to go." He ended up selling at a loss, since he needed the rental income to pay the mortgage.
@@ostlandr This is why a landlord needs to occasionally show up to the property to make sure everything is on the up and up. Of course with the 24 hour notice that's required in most locations, or an agent of theirs.
“Police had no choice”? Kinda doubt that. Nuremberg defense.
I definitely consider this breaking and entering, burglary, harassment, vandalism, fraud and theft! Punitive damages for double the damage to an owners Life. I bet this guy is a lifetime scammer, and she'll never recover.
I agree but it should be for triple and paying the legal costs for getting them out of the property
@@johncherish7610Double….triple….sextuple?…..it’s all Zero, when they have no money.
@@jimtalbott9535exactly, the home owner looses either way.
@@jimtalbott9535 That's the good thing about garnished wages. They work, you earn. It's getting them it enforced that's the trouble.
The squatter should be also charged with defrauding an innkeeper, one count for every day.
State laws define what an innkeeper is. That designation usually comes with licenses, regulations, and taxes.
The only reason they are starting to change the laws is because this "civil matter" is affecting corporate "owners".
Don't forget rich people.
I imagine it's harming the police force moral when they repeatedly go out for problems on top of problems. The only officers they can keep from quitting are the ones willing to call our neighborhoods 'bad' on YT news.
Yep, people should look up the history of the depression, the California gold rush and shanty towns if the "correct people" start squatting it will be overlooked.
I think it's more because it's affecting the "upper echelons" of society. Nobody gives a rip when the problem affects only the lower and middle class.
Absolutely...for the win.
Whats amazing is he exemplifies the Squatter and the house owner was a example of how wrong all the laws were. This case went ultra viral. I wonder how he feels his case singularly is the biggest reason for recent anti-squatter laws popping up.
He doesn't feel Shame, he feels Entitled-- it's an epidemic!
It's often said that when punishment for corporations does not exceed their gain, it's just a cost of doing business. Unless his punishment exceeds what he's gained from this (probably living for years rent-free and getting income by subletting out rooms in other people's homes), he's still going to come out ahead.
Here in FL, if someone is trying to force their way into your home, the coroner will have the last say in the case.
That applies to my neighborhood in Michigan as well. The coroner may not be required, but the squatter will be removed, by force if needed. The squatter can feel free to call the police while their ass is layed out on the front yard.
True, but what if they're already living in your house?
Well, you’d have to be present for that wouldn’t you? Squatters target empty, unoccupied properties.
IT'S ABOUT FRIGGING TIME!
Can't the LEO be charged with aiding and abetting the crimes as well as breaking their oath of office by refusing to do their investigative and enforcing duty?
They shouldn't be punished for enforcing a law.
@@edcrichton9457. No law against breaking and entering? Trespassing? Vandalism?
@@paulb6736property destruction, utility damage
Squatting is not criminalized. There are no laws against squatting so it’s not possible for LEOs to aid and abett squatters and squatting because it’s not a crime. States need to enact laws to criminalize squatting this will allow LE, give them to power to arrest squatters. Geez gosh, please use your brain.
That DA in Queens finally woke up. These politicians need to wake up quickly, everywhere.
No. Political donors are now getting squatters so now they are doing somthing.
They were always awake. They had orders from above them (not the voters) to fight on behalf of the illegal aliens and to enable them to forcibly take houses. But be subtle about it.
Nah, it just happened to one of their own... rich and looking for votes!
_"Oh, I'm not a burglar! I'm just a very-very-short-time lease holder."_ 😛
We should all squat at every politicians house and see how fast the law gets drafted 😂
This is where you find out that important people are allowed to utilize the better applicable laws..
Gotta go after the cops too, for wrongful arrest, until they change how they do business. They gotta stop treating the real victims like criminals and the real criminals like victims!
They're trained to see every citizen as a potential criminal
When the government on longer protects you from the criminals- but protects them from you- by this you may know your society is doomed.
One thing I never quite understand, cops will say it's a civil matter but they drilled out that lock to get in and changed the locks, isn't that at the very least vandalism? There's immediately already a crime involved.
now he has room & board.
They DO NOT need to pass NEW LAWS!!!!! They need to REPEAL all the bullshit laws that took away property rights in the first place. Like you said, the language is important and needs to be framed correctly.
You understand that's done by passing a new law, right?
@@gatechmole Yeah, but that's not what he said. That's my entire point.
New York is the most muddled state where I've ever lived. They seem to go out of their way to make simple things complicated.
Yes, that's by their design. They hate property rights, property owners and Free Market advocates.
Sadly, without the pressure from the press, the DA may not have done the right thing.
I’m glad the trespasser got the boot and being charged.
Absolutely no "may not". 100% would not have done justice without international media coverage and threats of vigilante justice against squatters.
The squatter should get 5 years in prison.
@@emptymannull Federal court allows for 9x punitive damages. So, take your calculation, multiply by 10, and you have a reasonable CIVIL case. Then add criminal charges, etc.
5 years sounds a bit excessive.
He's looking at 15 years
5 years for every day they were on the property
@emptymannull i agree with you minus paying prison fees, imo thats a burden for the state or federal government.
It's about DAMN TIME that people are taking a stand & fighting back. Congratulations to this warrior.
I'm from NYC and this case hit the news recently and was a huge talking point everywhere! The guy, the squatter, claims that he's hired by someone to do renovations in the house and that someone refuses to pay. So he started renting out the place for payment. Then the true owner showed up and somehow was arrested. it's a crazy case!
its really not rocket science when the home owner hands over proof of ownership. you know Aemerica is fucked when they side with the criminal.
police are not doing their jobs. Politicians are worse. Both trying to destroy the country.
The democrats will of course tell you that crime is down and the lowest its ever been.
I got a lease from a guy at the laundromat, and when I moved in, I saw that there were clothes in the closets, and food in the kitchen cupboards.
I feel like I need to carry a copy of the deed to my house to protect myself against fake people at the laundromat.
Sue the cop for not doing his/her job and duty !!!
Good job Steve… you actually help make a difference by making people aware.
I hope she sues NY/Queens for 100 million dollars
In SC , you can live nearly anywhere rent free for a 1yr before the court system kicks you out .
I thought this s*** was bizarre it happened 12 houses away from me across my mother-in-law's house. The house was up for sale these squatters broke the back window and had a whole house full of furniture. Cops couldn't do anything they had to go to court to get them out of their own home.
For breaking a window to get in, the perp should have been charged with burglary, or breaking and entering, at a minimum.
Euphemisms tend to downplay the crime. Squatter vs thief. Undocumented vs. Illegal Alien.
It also works in reverse, to play up or exaggerate: a _"migrant invasion"_ versus mere, "asylum seekers."
It is about time . 😮
You and I both know, that the only reason he was charged with crimes, because of publicity in mainstream media. Also there was 3 squatters. The one that got arrested is only one of them who got owner arrested. The other 2 goes free
In NY or NJ, a guy kicking down your door might be considered a legal tenant and require an eviction process to get rid off. Because those two states favor criminals.
When a guy says he spent $25,000 on a house that he was renting, my "bull-hock-o-meter" needle moves into the red..
How did we get to this place in the USA?
What a nasty mess our country is in.
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." -Sir Winston Churchill
Squatters are a good reason for states to have a castle doctrine. Let the jury figure out who was there legally. Guaranteed fewer people would break in and claim to have a lease.
The problem is unless they have a carry and conceal the fire arms are most likely at home. This also brings up another headache that I never thought about, The squatter will now have access to all the fire arms in the house.
@@russellmania5349 - sounds like a good reason to get your carry license :) Also, a safe keeps them away from what you have stored.
About time but darn this country has gone crazy
I hope she sues the police for being arrested (the home owner)
They have qualified immunity. They would be protected by the belief they were doing the right thing in the moment and that no court from on high has told them they couldn't do that.
@goonerbear8659 if I run into your house and change the locks and say that "I live here now", the police need to know better. If you are not a lawful tenant or owner, you have no right to be there. They should know better.
@@Phil-D83 But the police don't know who is right and who is wrong. That's up to the court. The problem is that the police just throw up their hands and say they can do NOTHING and it is ENTIRELY up to the court, which can take a year. There should be a middle ground where the police can say "it looks to us like you are in the wrong, either get out in 3-7 days, or request an emergency hearing before a court to show cause why you may be right and get an extension for the time being. If they did that, I'm guessing that most legitimate tenants could get the extension, and actual squatters would be gone.
@@phillipsusi1791 the police do have some jurisdiction / ability to act
@@Phil-D83 Then why do they always claim that they don't?
I always say, take a picture of the “landlord and the vehicle they are driving including the license plates”. Also, take any paperwork that “the landlord “ has handled and put it in an envelope so you will have a record of their fingerprints. Ask them to show you their ID.
I really hate that this is a thing. Why do people have to be like this. This is exactly why we are still stuck on this planet.
I do have sympathy for renters given the insane monthly rental prices, coupled with low wages but making homeowners pay for their living costs is not the way to go.
So why didn't the cops tell Hertz when they falsely reported cars stolen that it was a civil matter?
This is why you don't call the police... but get a shovel...
Ding ding ding. Arm up and go take what is legally yours. Let the cops and coroner sort it out later.
Correct! The police have proven themselves to be of no value in these cases. No duty to investigate? Can’t show them your ID, then the deed in your file cabinet, then at least have an educated judgement of a fraudulent lease with a bad signature…..?
A buddy of mine is a biker. And not the fat-accountant-has-a-Harley kind. I'd just tell him and his buddies "Hey, keg party at my rental house!" If the squatters didn't take the hint and leave, well. . .
If someone basically steals your house, they should be charged for grand larceny for that.
Saying you have a lease isn't the same as claiming to own the house.
My heart bleeds peanut butter for the squatter. What a shitstick and his lawyer too.
lol. watched the news coverage of the guy's court appearance. His lawyer is older than dirt and just as competent.
Now we need lawyers and judges arrested for dismissing cases violating the United States Constitution. Especially the 4th amendment illegal search and seizure. The 5th amendment taking of property without just compensation. The 14th amendment taking of property without a fair trial and everybody being protected under state laws equally. Innocent people who have been locked up for decades will have just compensation for their time.
I'm having a similar issue now where my Health Department is refusing to enforce "a comprehensive drainage plan" for OSSFs on land with "less than 2% slope" which are required to have "drainage controls". They have this weird idea that I must prove damages using the 'water code'... no, it is a criminal public nuisance issue. Breeding Cesspit-mosquitoes is illegal but you won't be taught that from my local government.
Our court system is idiotic.
The squatters attorney sounds like a winner
Yeah, a real top -class ambulance-chaser type. The "tenant" is occupying the place illegally, but let's defend his "right" to be there because it's causing his mother stress-related health issues. Seriously?!?!!? Pro-tip: don't trust strangers you meet in a laundromat who claim to be realtors with a hot deal!
Sounds like he just passed the bar...
A GenX/Y/Z-er.
@jilbertb hey I'm gen x
Everyone has an attorney, as they should. Calm down. It's how the system works.
"If someone's busting down the front door, You call the police." I agree so long as this once the door IS busted down you have the other option ready.
We can't loose you Steve! You do to much good work raising awareness on important issues for us to lose you to some random criminal who doesn't want to risk a witness.
I still say the Institute for Justice should go after states that grant squatter’s rights. States are taking property and giving it to someone else. A straight up Fifth Amendment taking.
That's what I have been saying... It's illegal for them to be there in the first place and once it's been proven, burglary charges should be filed
I think i should move to New York and claim to be a tenant in the governor's mansion.
Nah. Crappy neighborhood, right next to the highway.
"Sure I stole the car, but I need it for another month or two before I can give it back."
Ben is on edge behind Steve's head
i never see it without comments pointing to where.
I like how the guy claims he put $25k towards home improvements on a house that he supposedly was leasing. Sure buddy, we believe you!
I don't know if I'm so rabidly hateful of squatters, but I really am baffled by the whole thing of them being protected so much. I mean, the rights of PAYING TENANTS are so few in most states (especially red states which I happen to live in). So why is it tenants are subject to owners' every little whim, every kind of hoop needed to jump through to get a home, then steady rent increases, inspections with little notice, and potential eviction for any violation -or no violation at all, just them selling the place without even telling you it was for sale, next thing you know a new owner is calling and they want you OUT (this JUST happened to my friend in New Orleans, and to me years ago in Arkansas) ...... but someone can just break into a place and eat, sleep and poop in it, and not get thrown out???!!!
Bad people always ruin things for everyone else. My mom owns a few units of low end rental property and rents it cheap. (she's raised rent by a whopping $30 over the last 20 years...) She's very lenient about late rent but people have begun to take advantage of her. The court isn't much help either. She just recently managed to evict a guy who hadn't paid rent in over a year. It took multiple court appearances. Meanwhile the guy was on fb marketplace selling the furnace, cabinets etc. out of the place. The judge just didn't care. They made an 80 year old woman with limited mobility and poor health show up in court multiple times to get the dude out. Whenever I see things like this online a lot of people seem to think the landlord has it coming.
It should never have been determined by any government entity that stealing a property would be a civil matter. Stealing is stealing - can only be a criminal matter.
Finally
The worst case is evicting the person in the White house, takes 4 years!
Install an alarm and a person entering would never know if its not connected to police.
Start showing up and “moving in” to the homes of prosecutors and judges and these laws will get straightened out VERY QUICKLY
Let's see the cancelled checks he wrote to the person in the laundry room.
EXACTLY. So the place cost $3000/mo. And you handed over first, last and security over in CASH?! NOT.
You paid the $9,000 in cash and didn’t demand a receipt to prove it was paid?You were able to keep track of the lease so well that you could produce it on demand for the police on the scene but after causing the owner to be arrested you didn’t think you might need to preserve the receipt as evidence? No proof of payment is no payment.
So the lesson is - don't tell the police "I want them evicted." Break into the home, then call the police from inside and say "These people broke in while I was sitting here watching a broken TV amidst all this squalor!"
New York….. Hell, the DA won’t prosecute. All charges dropped…….
Unless you're the wrong political party and offend a politician. Then they lock you up and throw away the key.
I would guess that at least charging squatters with "breaking and entering" should be a no-brainer.
New York state just passed a law redefining tenant and removing the word squatter from the word word or the meaning of tenant. I giving police more more arresting powers against squatters. We just waiting for the governor to sign
Good luck getting Gov. Hochul to to sign it. If they wanted to, Gov. Hochul and the Legislature could just declare Emergency Powers and impose the law by fiat. As they have been doing.
@@ostlandr The problem with emergency Powers is only temporary. They just passed it on Friday. Let's see what happens. Trust and believe I'm tired of that lady
With the direction that courts are going with handling known criminals, it's not going to be much longer before people start taking 'justice' into their own hands - or purchasing 'justice' from people that know how to deliver.
Steve needs to be a judge.
Steve has said many times that he doesn’t want to be a judge. But I agree with you on a squatting case he would be great.
I think so too. But then he prob couldn't talk about the cases afterwards...
Finally a DA who's not on the side of the criminals.
Oh, no- this is a one-off. If it hadn't gotten international media attention, this never would have happened. Regular cases that don't make the media, it's catch-and-release for thugs.
It will be interesting to see if a new york jury will convict
I think they will and unless you are dealing with a far left Jury and they happen to marxist they will convict. Most center democrats are reasonable and feel that squatters should have zero rights. Even the young Turks believe squatters should have no rights and the squatting laws are outdated and no longer serve a purpose.
It will be interesting if it ever goes to court! Who wants to bet this will be swept away "all charges dismissed"?
"'I'm not getting involved with the papers,' he said to the papers." 😆
There’s a video of that woman being arrested on TH-cam! It’s nuts 👍✌️
Unfortunately this is because NYC has a unique history of landlords doing highly illegal stuff. Squatters rights are not the solution, but we can't go back to open discrimination and ripping off of renters.
Well at least he'll still be able to do squats in prison.
They don't do this in Florida. It's your castle, and castle doctrine applies
Had his tires slashed? Can you slash the tires on a skateboard???