What Everyone Should Know About Squatter Rights

Rents continue to rise and houses are expensive (and so-called “beginner houses” are no longer being built ), which makes many people feel a little desperate. One of the strangest aspects of the current housing crisis is the fact that there are about 16 million vacant houses across the country – houses and apartments that no one lives in.

If you have one such home in your area, you may be forgiven for asking why you can just live in it . And the strangest thing maybe you can do is through a legal mechanism known as wrongful possession, also known as squatter rights. To be clear, this is not what is known as ” frogging “, where people secretly live in people’s homes for a short period of time, or the situation in the Parasite movie where a man secretly lived in someone’s home for years. Squatting means living in a house illegally, without permission, and long enough to claim ownership of it.

It may seem illegal, but under certain circumstances, you can actually take ownership of a property simply by living in it – in fact, this just happened to a man in Delaware who discovered that a woman had been using some of his property for decades. . Here’s what you need to know about squatter rights.

From illegal to legal

First, let’s be clear: squatting isn’t as easy as bursting into someone’s home and yelling out “INCORRECT POSSESSION!” like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy. And from a legal point of view, this is dark ground, because any squatting begins with illegal entry. You have entered someone’s property without their permission and you are using it without their permission. If they see you doing this, they can – and most likely will – remove you.

When things start to get legally complicated is when you continue to use the property for an extended period of time without any claims. If you are squatting with the idea of ​​claiming wrongful possession (or at least remaining in possession after the owner has objected), there are six basic legal requirements for filing any kind of wrongful possession claim:

• actual ownership. You must have literal physical control of the property—in essence, you must live there. This is not something you can do over the Internet.
• Open ownership. You must be pretty egregious about this. That’s why frogging doesn’t count – if you’re trying to hide your presence, you can’t claim wrongful possession.
• Hostile possession. You may not have any permission from the owner to be there. If you are there with what could be construed as consent, the owner still exercises his control over the property.
• Continuous ownership. You must reside in the property for an uninterrupted, uninterrupted period.
• Exclusive ownership. You cannot share ownership of property with anyone else – if there are other squatters, you cannot claim wrongful possession. Essentially, you should treat the property as if it were your private property.
• Length of ownership. Laws vary from state to state , but you must have actual, open, exclusive, continuous, and hostile ownership of property long enough to satisfy local requirements. It’s important to know that some states have lengthy tenure requirements—for example, in New Jersey, you must occupy property for thirty years (subject to other requirements) before you can file a wrongful possession claim. On the other hand, in California it’s only five years .

If you find an empty house or apartment, move in without permission, make it obvious that you live there, and live openly in it for several years, then, depending on your state, you may have a legal claim to the property.

Victory over squats

However, it should be noted that it is easy for a property owner to thwart any squatting attempt. Various ways your circuit can (and will) go awry include:

• Signboards. In some states, simply putting up signs to warn people that it is private property or that trespassing is prohibited is enough to disprove any claim of wrongful possession.
• Law enforcement will remove you. If your presence is noticed before you have established the proper length of tenure, the owner can simply call the police and file a burglary report or send you an eviction notice if they claim you are damaging property or doing something illegal. These notices usually specify a certain period of time (usually several days) during which you must leave the territory before the authorities are involved.
• Eviction. If a simple eviction notice is not applicable, the property owner can (and most likely will) initiate eviction proceedings against you. This is a longer and more complicated process, including court hearings, but will most likely end up with you being forcibly removed if you can’t demonstrate wrongful possession.
• Physical ban. If you leave the property at any time, the owner can simply change the locks and/or reclaim their property by moving in or renting the place legally to someone else.
• Written permission. It may seem counterintuitive, but if the property owner suspects that you are trying to file a wrongful possession claim, they may actually give you permission to live on the property as a tenant. While this may allow you to live there for a while, it removes the “hostile” part of the claim and confirms their ownership and control of the property. In addition, they may also try to charge you rent and possibly sue you for it.

And, of course, the owner of the property may also try to negotiate your move out amicably, perhaps paying you to leave.

Taking over property by squatting and claiming wrongful possession can actually work, but it takes a lot of time, patience and determination. On the other hand, even if you do not own this place, you can get several weeks or months of free accommodation from it. Unless, of course, you’re willing to risk arrest and potential punishment.