Got Squatters?

[Mik]

Get shed of them.

Flash Shelton, also known as “Squatter Hunter" fights squatters by moving in with them and making the situation so uncomfortable that they leave, helping homeowners retake control.

Flash Shelton was grieving his father and trying to sell his mother's vacant California home when he got the call. Strangers had moved in.

Police told him it was a civil matter and there was nothing they could do. So he figured out how to become their squatter.

Shelton signed a lease from his mother to establish legal tenancy, drove 19 hours, camped outside waiting for the squatters to leave, then went in, secured the back door, installed cameras, and waited for them to return.

When they came back they found him already inside, legally. That method became the foundation of his entire business.

Once hired, his team secures a short-term lease from the homeowner, moves in alongside the squatters, and makes daily life uncomfortable, taking over common areas, playing loud music, and maintaining constant presence, until the intruders choose to leave voluntarily.

"What I used to save my mom's house, I am now using to help homeowners across the country," he said. "I've built a whole team ready to out-squat the squatters."

The legal genius of it is simple, squatters exploit the same tenant protection laws that protect genuine renters. Shelton just decided to use those same laws against them.

[jon-nyc]

I don’t understand how squatters are an issue. I mean, I get that they are, but it seems the most obvious deficiency in the law and I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be very popular to fix it.

[Mik]

I see no legal justification for calling trespassing a civil matter. GTFO.

[jon-nyc]

I get a certain amount of leeway when a lessee falls behind on payments and other systems that slow evictions.

But that’s for people who had a lease, not who broke in when you were on vacation.

[Axtremus]

Problem is when the local cop doesn’t want to make a call on whether someone has “fallen behind on payments” or “broken in.” So the property owner end up having to go to court to get the determination made. The legislative “fix” may be unpopular because it can easily be rhetorically positioned in the opposite of being “tenant friendly,” and “tenants” are a big voting block.

[kluurs]

Back in the day, I knew people who could fix such things with a short conversation.

[Mik]

Never a Luca around when you need one.