O'Shea Puts Illegal Squatters On Notice

Caption: Fahim Ali is believed to be responsible for many of the Chicago area’s squatters, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office. | FOX News Chicago

A disturbing trend of people illegally moving into vacant single-family homes and filing false paperwork claiming them as their own has emerged in Beverly and Morgan Park.

Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) said his office has identified 13 homes in which squatters have moved in, hooked up utilities in their names, cut the grass, planted flowers, registered their kids in local schools and interact with their neighbors.

“They’re on Longwood Drive, Damen Avenue, 106th Street, 97th Street,” O’Shea said. “They’re in nice brick homes and they blend in. It’s destabilizing and it’s causing fear, because they’re illegally here.”

O’Shea told a group of residents during a town hall meeting last week that his office has been working closely with the Chicago Police Department and Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough, as well as other law enforcement agencies in building a case.

The way the scam works is that squatters file paperwork claiming a property has been abandoned. A public notice is posted on the home and the squatters move right in.

Some tenants believe they are paying rent to a legitimate landlord who is actually the ringleader and doesn’t own the property. In many cases the tenant is in on the scam too, O’Shea said.

“This isn’t some clown who got a door open and took possession to stay warm,” the alderman said. “They are taking illegal possession and filing false paperwork with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. They’re professional, they’re organized and they’re smart.”

In one of the squatter’s homes children’s shoes are on the front porch. O’Shea said that neighbor told him that she had brought the squatting family cookies. Some of the homes that the squatters have taken possession of are worth half a million or more.

“We’re building a case,” he said. “What we’re trying to decipher is who’s the victim in a house and who’s part of the scam.”

O’Shea said that his office has received many complaints from neighbors since the problem emerged last year.

Squatters have become an increasing problem in Cook County. Last year, FOX Chicago reported that a police SWAT team was needed to remove squatters from a home in the tony Sauganash neighborhood on the North Side.

The man believed to be responsible for many of the Chicago area’s squatters was confronted by FOX Chicago in an alley behind one of the many homes in Beverly and Morgan Park where he had filed phony paperwork and marked with “no trespassing” signs.

Fahim Ali told the TV news station that he had keys to the vacant properties but would not disclose where he or his “tenants” got them.

“That’s for me and other people to know, you know,” Ali said.

Ali further explained that “if you stake a claim on something, it’s yours within a certain amount of time.”

Illinois does have adverse possession laws when a person publicly moves into an otherwise neglected property, improves it and then is granted title to the property within a certain period of time.

Illinois’ laws require claimants to occupy a given property for at least 20 years and pay property taxes on it for at least seven of those years, according to the legal website FindLaw.

Yarbrough told FOX News Chicago that Ali has filed more bogus claims with her office than anyone in the country and has taken advantage of renters desperate for housing.

“This guy is notorious. I mean he really is notorious. So what he does is he gains access to these properties, he changes the locks, it’s an old story for us anymore,” she said. “He changes the locks on the doors, allows people to move in, and he’s a bad guy.”

The alderman said that other law enforcement agencies are involved in investigating the squatters, although he publicly alleged to FOX Chicago that Ali was the main culprit. He says that arrests are imminent.

“”We’ve been working on it and we’re very close,” O’Shea said. “When we finally do get this resolved there will be a press conference because it’s that big of a deal.”