It Is Time New York's Archaic Squatter Laws Were Evicted

Many property owners in the state of New York remain dangerously unaware of just how convoluted the legal process is when it comes to getting rid of people who have illegally taken possession of their property.

All it takes is 30 days of being on a property before a squatter is upgraded from illegal trespassers to legal tenant under New York State law. At that point evicting them requires the same lengthy and costly process that evicting a legal tenant would.

Unfortunately, this law is one that I discovered the hard way recently. To clarify, I was in the process of purchasing a property and, prior to the closing, I discovered that a female squatter decided that she preferred sleeping in someone else's home rather than on a park bench and unceremoniously moved in (or rather broke in and stayed).

Prior to closing on the deal, the owner called the police and tried to have the squatter removed from the property. The squatter claimed to have been there for 30 days (it's unclear whether he actually had been, or whether he had any proof to back up that claim) and that was that. The police told the prior owner that there was nothing they could do and that the trespasser would have to be evicted through the court system.

I proceeded to closing with the squatter in place and a few months and a few thousand dollars later, I was finally able to accomplish what should have been handled the day the police were called: having an illegal trespasser removed from my property.

Property Owners, Local Authorities Taking the Fight to Squatters

The supposed necessity for giving squatter's rights is to protect legitimate tenants from being unlawfully evicted as squatters themselves without any sort of due process, but that argument doesn't hold much water. It's relatively simple for a legitimate tenant to prove their legal claim to have been inhabiting a property up until that point, primarily through their lease or rental receipts.

Certainly, there could be cases where legitimate tenants don't have those documents for whatever reason. However, in most cases squatters aren't even making any pretense of having been a legal tenant at any point; yet squatters are quickly granted the same due process as those who are claiming that to be the case.

It's clearly an absurd system without any level of nuance when rightful tenants and illegal squatters are bestowed the same rights based on one simplistic criterion of how long they claim to have lived at the property, regardless of whether they've been living there legally or not.

With the state doing little to protect homeowners and local communities from predators, those groups have increasingly taken it upon themselves to do so.

The Long Island village of Mastic Beach launched Operation Take Back in July 2015, which successfully removed squatters from more than a dozen homes before they were able to achieve their 30-day objective and score a few bonus months or more of free living in someone else's home.

Many of those homes were considered unsafe, with some having been damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The Long Island hamlet of North Babylon has also been proactive in tackling squatters taking up residence within foreclosed homes in recent years, a problem that has plagued many Long Island communities.

With New York having one of the highest rates of foreclosures coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, it's given squatters plenty of places to bunker down and embark on the month-long transformational journey to tenant. Banks often freely welcome squatters inside with signs posted to the doors of foreclosed homes advertising that the home is empty; not for long.

What Property Owners Can Do to Protect Themselves from Squatters

Property owners in New York should be extremely wary of the many savvy and even professional squatters that are on the prowl by actively monitoring their vacant properties to ensure that none have taken up residence. If the property owner is out-of-state or too busy, they should hire someone to do so.

By making routine inspections, a property owner can have squatters kicked to the curb before they've achieved their 30-day milestones. Likewise, by documenting their inspections, they can refute a squatter's potentially false claim of having been living there for 30 days, possibly saving themselves the hassle of having to go to court.

A secondary option that property owner's should consider is to work out a payment with the squatter. That might be a tough pill to swallow for some owners based on the principle of it, but it could ultimately make a lot more sense than going to court and having the property tied up for months, particularly if time is of the essence.

If having to pay off squatters to regain control of your property sounds ridiculous, well, it is. But until New York's squatter laws are injected with a dose of sanity, it's a scenario property owners in the state will continue to be confronted with.

-MW

This article is not intended to constitute legal advice or the provision of legal services. By posting and maintaining this blog and its contents, The Law Offices of Marcel Weisman and Mark Weissman does not intend to solicit business from clients located in states or jurisdictions where they are not authorized or licensed to practice law.

About the author
Mark Weissman has been a personal injury attorney for more than 25 years in the state of New York. Following in his father's footsteps, Weissman joined the family business following a brief career in commercial law, and has since launched his own real estate investment firm. Mark and his wife Sharon, live in Lawrence, New York, and enjoy spending time with their four children and nine grandchildren.