The issue is the laws treat it as a civil issue between Landlord/Tenant because in most of these cases the squaters are claiming to be a tenant. They have fake leases, or bills (real and/or fake) "proving" (or at least giving a possibility of) legal occupancy. so it has to go through civil eviction processes with renter protection laws varying by how much a state or locality dislikes mean old landlords.
As far as I can tell, even if you get them evicted, there's no criminal follow up for fraud or attempted theft, trespassing, or whatever. So there's no real downside to the thieves. I'd like to see us add consequences to attempted theft, but the criminal justice system seems uninterested in pursuing criminal charges. These idiots are essentially judgement proof for getting your costs back after you get them out.
The answer is going to probably changing the law to some stricter version of establishing rental residency, but that will run us back into the "predatory landlords can throw moms out on the street" that got us here in the first place. Do we require every renter to have a lease on hand and to show it to cops on demand or risk being trespassed from their home? A new government office and require leases to be registered with the .gov so they can be checked by LE when conflicting claims arise? (
![[barf]](http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/Smileys/default/barf_smiley.gif "Barf!")
) What's a fair way for LE to establish if someone is a real renter when they say they are, and some rando outside says they aren't? Dunno.
In the meantime I think you're correct WLJ, if it keeps going this way you'll see squatters just disappear into the night.
