Gray sent this story to Instagram after it aired and they removed the account for violating the app’s terms of service.
Well, thank goodness making a second account is so hard …
I don’t know much about American laws, and I strongly believe that basic housing should not be for-profit.
With those caveats, if a house is empty for such a long time that squatters can claim it (7-20 years according to Google), then I think it’s not only okay to claim residence there, I think it’s the morally correct thing to do.
Obviously, there are exceptions to anything, but generally speaking, it sounds like society could use more of this.
i HIGHLY doubt the houses being referenced in the article have been vacant for 7-20 years.
On the other hand, I can’t imagine they’ve only been “vacant” for 6 months or something.
Again, I’m far from an expert on American law - much less on a state-by-state basis, but I have to think you’d need to live there for quite some time for it to count for squatters rights.
In these situations 6 months is exactly what I’d imagine. Where I live I can’t imagine any house staying vacant for 6 months. It costs more to rent a house here than it does to buy one. My mortgage payment is $1400/month, but I could rent my house for over $3k a month. it’s ridiculous.
The 7-20 years you’re seeing is probably for adverse posession, which is a step above squatter’s rights. If you can show that you’ve been maintaining the property for that entire time without the landowner stopping you from being there, in some cases you can gain ownership of the property through adverse possession.
Squatter’s rights is more about the right to remain where you are as opposed to owning the place. Typically being given similar rights to a tenant.
You googled the wrong thing. You wanna squat, have your mail sent to an empty place, move in. Tell the cops you live there if they show up. Then you can’t be touched. The real owner files and pays to have you served eviction papers saying you have to leave in 30 days. Then if still there, it has to go through Court system that the homeowner once again has to file for and can take several more months.
It’s an abuse of Tennant protection laws.
First, squatters of this type are taking advantage of laws intended to protect renters from predatory landlords. Wherever you stand on people appropriating unused property, these laws need to stay in place even if they’re made more specific.
Second, news outlets like this will always quote a “guns and drugs” case and not the mom with three kids seeking employment or homeless vet cases.
Third, with security cams and doorbells being so cheap, there’s no reason why this should be an issue, especially for a large real estate rental company. That alone puts me in “cry me a river” mode. Notice again that the article lists interviews with individual homeowners but is actually profiling the impact on a rental company.
All good points—did you mean “tiny violin mode”, or have I been misunderstanding that song for a long time?
No, they mean the same thing, at least in my familiarity with the phrases. “Cry me a river” means that I don’t care to hear about their complaints, even if their tears were enough to fill a river, because I think they’re not legitimate.
“Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it.” Is a favorite expression.
IMO owning an unoccupied house thats off-market, or prohibitively-priced is probably a gambling chip.
IF there are ANY families in the same county that are homeless, it should begin being taxed as a gambling-chip. Sell-it very soon or it may used for a free shelter for however it remains unoccupied by the owner.
>squatters of this type are taking advantage of laws intended to protect renters from predatory landlords.
what makes you think that’s the intention?
Being from California (and earlier from New York), that’s very much the intention. Both states (and municipal laws in places like LA, SF, and NYC) make the landlords have to jump through a lot of hoops before an eviction can take place, and the tenants can file for protection.
I know that things vary from state to state, but I’ve only been a renter in NY, NJ, and CA. I’ve also successfully sued a landlord for over $100k in damages and expenses.
squatters rights precede the founding of the United States and have nothing to do with renters rights. You’re just wrong about why these laws exist.
I fucking hate squatters. They are just as bad as these giant companies swooping up all the properties. They are garbage humans mostly
I’d say that a vacant home - any place (lots of them) where the homeless are dying in the streets of hypothermia - is owned by a garbage human.
To play devil’s advocate, why not force churches to be shelters, rather than privately owned homes? Most places have dozens and dozens of churches with more than enough room for every homeless person in that community.
I don’t really think churches should be obligated to fix a problem that the government created and can fix. Religion sucks but they still have a right to not be drafted without compensation.
I’m mostly confused as to why an instagram account is in any way relevant to squatters.
Kinda. Didn’t make a lot of sense to me so I stopped when I saw how long it was going to be.
