A HOMEOWNER had run into a sticky situation with squatters in his home, with the imposing party demanding $8,000 to pack their bags and leave the property.
The homeowner decided to make the risky step of moving in with the squatters, ultimately forced to shell out $4,300 in exchange for them vacating his home.
A Chicago man was confronted with a squatter situation that forced him to cough up $4,300[/caption]
The homeowner and squatters came to a cash-for-keys agreement[/caption]
Chicago homeowner Marco Velazquez was shocked when a routine showing on his for-sale home turned into a standoff with two strangers living inside.
Velazquez, the owner of a South Side property, told local ABC affiliate WLS-TV that when his realtor stopped by with a potential buyer, there were already people inside of the home.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was like a nightmare,” said Velazquez.
A woman named Shermaine Powell-Gillard and her boyfriend Codarro had been staying in his home, claiming that they bought the house recently.
The couple even presented what looked like mortgage documents to the police, but Cook County records revealed that there was no mortgage on record.
“The worst thing happened when police told me they couldn’t do anything. It needs to go to a civil court,” said Velazquez, told by the officers that they were unable to intervene due to Illinois’ current law.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to leave.’ Called a couple friends, stayed overnight and I knew they were not going to like that,” said the homeowner.
While he, his wife, and several friends camped out in the living room, Powell-Gillard and her boyfriend stayed in one of the bedrooms.
“We stayed in the living room, watching the door. We stayed a whole night with them,” said Velazquez, who realized come morning time that the couple was not going to budge.
Instead of leaving, the squatters demanded $8,000 in exchange for them vacating the property.
Velazquez negotiated with the pair and ultimately had them sign a cash-for-keys agreement, paying them $4,300 to leave his home.
While the arrangement is more commonly used as an alternative to the full eviction process during foreclosure or lease disputes, some property owners have used “cash-for-keys” as a way to quickly address squatter situations without waiting for a court order.
“We didn’t want to give them money, but we heard really bad stories about squatters taking over properties for six, eight, 10 months, even a year,” said the Chicago man.
LEGAL LIMBO
A few weeks after making a deal with the squatters, Velazquez was informed by a Chicago police detective that Powell-Gillard had previously been accused of squatting in another couple’s home.
Expert Advice: Actions to take if you have a squatter
The U.S. Sun’s Emma Crabtree spoke to real estate attorney Paul Golden about what property owners can do when dealing with squatters. Here is what he advised:
Police
- Call the police and hope they are successful in removing the unwanted individual(s), he said.
‘Self-Help Method’
- This is a risky method of evicting squatters but is accepted by at least one New York court “in certain circumstances,” Golden said.
- Using this method, property owners “physically remove the squatter(s).”
- However, if the person is deemed to have been ejected “forcefully or unlawfully,” then property owners may face paying damages and even be “subject to a civil penalty and be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Court Filing
- The third option is to go the legal route and file a summary proceeding after issuing a 10-day notice to those occupying the property.
- The downside to this option, Golden warned, is that “in New York City, it could take months before the court would finally issue a warrant.”
- It may take even longer for a date to be set for a city marshal to remove the squatter.
In the other case, the woman was arrested and charged with burglary, forgery, obstructing identification, and criminal residential trespassing, according to WLS-TV.
Velazquez is working alongside the detective in hopes that action is taken against the squatters in his case as well.
“I heard stories before about squatters. I never thought it would happen to me,” said the homeowner.
Powell-Gillard, on the other hand, argued that the allegations that she is a squatter are false, saying that she was innocent until proven guilty.
So far, no one has been arrested or charged in this case, per WLS-TV.
Squatting is relatively rare despite the large number of vacant properties across the US, with roughly 14.8 million empty homes, according to a study by Self Financial.
However, the concerning situation that went down at Velazquez’s property is not an isolated incident.
One man, for example, faced a $25,000 bill after his home was “destroyed by squatters” who refused to go.
Other homeowners were forced into paying a squatter $2,500 to leave their own property after she took advantage of a law loophole.
