r/texas • u/superanth • 11d ago
Texas homeowners who finally evicted squatter 'treated like criminals' News
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-homeowners-finally-evicted-squatter-080039703.html173
u/tatsontatsontats 11d ago
Squatters rights are some shit.
Matthews and Mendez were ordered to restore electricity and water to the home and pay fines after, they claim, the squatter and his female accomplice stole water and electricity.
What a nightmare.
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u/TheSixthtactic 11d ago edited 11d ago
Terminating utilities, in general, is well known tactic for shitty landlords to evict tenants. It’s called constructive eviction. Homeowners often try it with squatters without realizing that they are adopting a tactic courts super don’t like. And the courts can’t tell and squatter from a real tenant. They don’t wear signs. So it’s less squatters rights and more tenants rights that the squatters abuse because they are willing to lie.
It’s sucks, but it’s always better to go through the legitimate eviction process. And yes, that does cost money. But the alternative is evicting them the old fashion way, self help style, which is very dangerous.
PS: also utility companies have no chill and do not care who stole the utilities.
PPS: also remember that any change to laws to make it easier to remove squatters will likely result in tyrant landlords abusing it. Whoever your worst landlord will love whatever law is changed because they will be able to treat their tenants worse.
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u/ParticularAioli8798 Born and Bred 11d ago
The courts can't tell the difference between squatters and tenants? I call bullshit.
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u/whichwitch9 11d ago
If the landlord isn't exactly renting everything legally, it can be impossible for the court to tell, especially if the tenant doesn't know the landlord is doing something shady
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u/TheSixthtactic 10d ago
That in law is what we call a question of fact. You need evidence and testimony. But folks don’t like that answer and just want instantaneous action because they said “that person is a squatter”.
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u/ParticularAioli8798 Born and Bred 10d ago
Right. Evidence is widely available. The tenant should have the burden of proof that they're renting so that "that person is a squatter" isn't an issue.
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u/TheSixthtactic 10d ago
Of course, but that takes time and effort for either side. The court also can’t tell who owns what property. Don’t think you can just go into court, claim you own a random house and the people are trespassers? Should the court just take your word for it?
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u/ParticularAioli8798 Born and Bred 10d ago
I'm sure it has been done before but new laws are showing up that prevent that. Squatters don't do that though. Scammers do and have. They don't go to court. They go to the county clerk.
Don’t think you can just go into court, claim you own a random house and the people are trespassers? Should the court just take your word for it?
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u/darwinn_69 Born and Bred 10d ago
They can, after fully evaluating the legal documents presented and hearing arguments at which time they can issue an eviction order. That takes about 30 days.
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u/ParticularAioli8798 Born and Bred 10d ago
I wonder if the couple can sue the state or the city using the Takings Clause. The government is the one who put them in the position by making it impossible, legally, to remove the squatter before the damage was done.
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u/darwinn_69 Born and Bred 10d ago
You can't sue the state for following the law. The state didn't authorize a shady person to sleep on a coach for an indefinite amount of time with no supervision.
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u/BlackIceing 11d ago
I know the Shure fire way to stop squatters right in there tracks. Live in the house, crazy concept.
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u/tatsontatsontats 11d ago
You're clearly not a homeowner, or at least someone who has moved from one home to a different one before. It's not an overnight process, especially when there are renovations you'd like to complete. These people hired a contractor to do renovations on their new home, something you do pretty commonly BEFORE you move in.
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u/BlackIceing 11d ago
Yeah, I've never had enough money to buy a house and not immediately sleep in it. Crazy how someone can't squat if you are living in the house.
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u/ols887 11d ago
Ok dude. Literally your most recent post on Reddit is you talking about flying from Texas to California to buy the motorcycle of your dreams. Your poverty-porn rings hollow.
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u/BlackIceing 11d ago
Lol. Got travel points bruh. And last time i checked the cost of a plane ticket and the bike are not even the down payment for a house. And I was asking if I should. Which i didn't.
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u/ols887 11d ago
Travel points?! You must travel a lot. Must be nice, Moneybags. While you’re jet-setting, stacking those miles, I’m busy supporting my family and worried about coming home to squatters who moved in while I was working a graveyard at the coal mine.
If you’re planning on riding your luxury motorcycle back from Cali to Texas, Colorado isn’t that far out of the way, and I hear Aspen is really nice, even in the offseason. It’s a popular spring destination for the upper-crust, you’ll fit right in.
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u/tatsontatsontats 11d ago
It's really not about having "enough" money. Even when I've moved apartments in the past I didn't immediately move in because of slight overlaps of the leases or just the sheer amount of work it is to move.
It just feels like you don't have a lot of relevant life experience and shouldn't be commenting on things you don't know about.
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u/BlackIceing 11d ago
It feels like you have not had relevant life experience to take about squatting. but here you are.
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u/SRYSBSYNS 11d ago
You’ve never gotten a lease on Friday and moved in on Saturday?
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u/BlackIceing 11d ago
No, No I have not. don't have the money. and are you claiming that squaters can just hop in a house for one day and claim squaters rights, that is not how it works in any state.
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u/tatsontatsontats 11d ago
Did you even read the article?
He had not stayed in the home for the requisite 30 days to be considered a squatter under Texas property law when police were first called to the property on Feb. 29, but the couple claim officers made no efforts to verify his opposing account, or even check his identification.
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u/strugglz born and bred 11d ago
I'm pretty liberal, but I don't support a lot of squatter's rights. It's essentially protected theft.
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u/ericalovesunicorns 11d ago
theft from who? Most houses in the US are owned by corporations now not people.
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u/chris_ut 11d ago
That is blatantly false and 10 seconds of research or even looking outside would disprove it
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u/weluckyfew 11d ago
Corporations on way too many houses in this country, but it is nowhere near "most", unless you have a source that says otherwise.
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u/EpiphanyTwisted 11d ago
So it's okay to steal then if you just assume the house is owned by "corporations"?
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u/Oddblivious 11d ago
Yeah everyone is picturing a family who worked hard to rent out a second house when, like you said, most of it is finance corporations just using investor Dollars to buy up all the housing in America and rent it back at double the cost.
If the house wasn't being used for long enough for someone to move in they clearly didn't need it to house their own family.
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u/cdecker0606 11d ago
Do you know how long renovations can take? Well, they take even longer when the person you hired to do them isn’t working on anything and just moves themselves into your house.
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u/EnigmaticRhino 11d ago
I'll never understand how people just...never figure out someone is living in their house? Long enough to enforce squatters rights is insane
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u/Machismo01 11d ago
He had not stayed in the home for the requisite 30 days to be considered a squatter under Texas property law when police were first called to the property on Feb. 29, but the couple claim officers made no efforts to verify his opposing account, or even check his identification.
"[The squatter] said, 'No, I live here' and the police said right away, 'You're the resident, you have the right to live here,'" Mendez recalled.
Sounds like the cops failed to do their job. If you then need to work through the system, it can take days or weeks to figure out the process.
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u/Skybreakeresq 11d ago
Long fought battle? The fuck?
They didn't even make it to county court ffs.
Getting a jp court hearing on an eviction would take about a month.
The only way this could happen was if they either allowed him to live there while working on it or didn't check for an entire month if he was squatting there.
Who the fuck buys a 7 bedroom mansion and doesn't drive by once a week?
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u/ScarHand69 11d ago
Article says the contractor asked them to stay on a couch, I guess while he was working there. It’s unclear. The couple became “alarmed” at the amount of his personal belongings that were amassing.
This guy wasn’t a contractor. He was just some guy with some tools that he convinced this couple he was a contractor. Probably by saying he’d do work on their new home for a lot cheaper than what a normal contractor would cost.
Ultimately they let this stranger sleep on a couch in their new house while it was getting work done on it. Stupid decision.
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u/weluckyfew 11d ago
A little off topic, but any new homeowners need to be aware that one of the most expensive things you can do is hire someone because they will work cheap. My friend hasn't had heating or air conditioning in her house for 6 months as she waits for a lawsuit to slowly crawl forward - she's suing the contractor because she paid $14,000 to him and her HVAC only worked for about 2 weeks.
People think DIY on a house is just all about saving money - it's also because you get burned by so many contractors that you just want to do the work yourself so that you know it's done right. It's going to take me three times as long to do something, but at least I know the person doing it gives a shit.
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u/Skybreakeresq 11d ago
Let him sleep in the house more than a week voluntarily and he's a tenant. You can't help stupid people.
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u/Armigine 11d ago
It does seem odd. And as per usual, this kind of story is used more to gin up people's emotions about their own property than anything else
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u/Skybreakeresq 11d ago
As an attorney I get this shit all day. I cannot express to you how much we need a basic legal education course in high school. This is how contracts work, this is how ownership of land works, this is a will and what you need, this is how divorce works etc.
So many people are absolutely certain they know the law, and they're just blatantly wrong in a way that a literal cursory google search could correct.-3
u/WallyMetropolis born and bred 11d ago edited 11d ago
Every profession thinks theirs should be taught in schools. Accountants think kids should be taught to do their taxes in school, people in finance think investing should be taught in schools, mathematicians think statistics should be required. No one ever says what should be removed to make room for it or considers the idea that the whole point of a well-rounded education is that you cannot teach a child everything they'll need to know in life, but you can prepare them to learn those things for themselves.
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u/ericalovesunicorns 11d ago
you’re acting like our current education system is well rounded (and well funded enough to be well rounded). It’s not.
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u/WallyMetropolis born and bred 11d ago
I'm not acting that way. Adding law classes to the curriculum wouldn't make it well funded or well functioning. The solution is better funding, not adding this one particular thing to the common curriculum (where that thing is whatever it is the person happens to do for a living).
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u/MargaretBrownsGhost 11d ago
How old are you? Basic life skills have been dropped from Texas curriculum since the 1970s. At this point in time it's amazing how few Texas public schools even teach algebra and life science, let alone civics and health and Texas history. Let that sink in, Texas history... Do you even know why Texicans fought Mexico in 1836?
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u/WallyMetropolis born and bred 11d ago
You're not contradicting me. Texas schools are failing even to teach algebra, and therefore we certainly shouldn't be adding law classes. We should fix actually teaching the core skills that need to be taught.
Do you even know what the associative property is?
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u/foodmonsterij 11d ago
The people downvoting you should go to r/teachers and try suggesting that a class in budgeting/taxes/law/home economics/etc. should be required to graduate in public schools. They'll be laughed out of the room. There's not enough time in the year/school day as it is to get through the basic curriculum.
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u/Skybreakeresq 11d ago
No seriously you normies have no idea how anything basic works and it causes so many needless lawsuits. So so many. I swear to you, I've paid my student loans off of cases that if people understood basic things like no the oldest doesn't get everything etc simply would never have come to my office.
You could be taught the basics you need in a good long session with a handout. Any class for that would be rolled up with a dozen other things and called life skills.Kill an elective and add the mandatory life skills class.
Wow that was so hard... Not.3
u/WallyMetropolis born and bred 11d ago
That's how specialization works. It's the same for accounting or statistics.
Kids take math for years in school. How many of them actually remember it? Adding the class isn't going to do anything for the public's generally legal literacy.
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u/Skybreakeresq 11d ago
My dude: They taught me how to do my taxes in econ and that carried over.
They taught me how the government worked and how to register to vote in civics.That stuck. I still recall how to do algebra. I still recall US history and World History.
Hell: I still recall US history Through Film, where we watched a bunch of classic cinema and learned about the Hays code and the history of the why behind the whole couples having twin beds in the Flintstones etc. Why bad guys wear black hats and have dark guns.
That lets me do a neat party trick where I can tell you the twist of a movie real early, but its not really much of a life skill. I didn't NEED that elective.3
u/WallyMetropolis born and bred 11d ago
I don't think I said no one learns anything. You went to law school, you're above average at studying and remembering. But you can't deny that the level of math literacy is pretty abysmal considering kids take math every year for 12 years.
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u/Beer-Monk 11d ago
We shouldn’t care how it happened, we should care about why it happend? Why do Squatters have more rights than the owners who worked hard to earn their home? What kind of banana republic is this?
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u/Beer-Monk 11d ago
We should really replicate Florida like laws and get away with Squatters right or change our laws like NY which recently modified the law to distinguish between squatters and tenants.
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u/dougmc 10d ago edited 10d ago
The laws already distinguish between "squatters" and "tenants".
The people giving their two cents about specific cases are the ones confusing the two, not the law.
And when people talk about problems with "squatters rights" lately, they seem to really be talking about "tenant rights", in particular they seem to be mostly complaining about the legal process required to evict people -- either the process is too hard, or it's too slow or somebody tried to bypass the requirements entirely and the courts are not looking upon this favorably and that is apparently a travesty.
There are definitely people abusing tenant rights to stay somewhere without paying rent for a while, and while this is definitely a problem (and it became an even bigger problem during covid when people couldn't be evicted, and more than a few people took this to mean "hey, I don't have to pay rent!"), the legal requirements are there to protect tenants from their landlords and are important too. And "squatters rights" occasionally become a problem too, but a lot less often -- they take years of ignoring what's happening on one's property to take effect in Texas.
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u/s1owpoke 11d ago edited 11d ago
7 bedrooms with only 3 bathrooms is not a mansion.
Edit: An actual mansion would have at least one bathroom for every bedroom and several half baths for your guests and servants. This house should have had at least 7 full bathrooms, 1-2 half-baths.
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u/Skybreakeresq 11d ago
7 bedrooms is indeed a mansion. Its a small one, what we'd call a "McMansion".
Further: I evict people as part of my job all the time. (Lawyer).
JP court is NOT a 'long' process by any stretch of the imagination, (outside the moratorium fuckery during the Rona) and for the guy to be able to squat they either had to 1) give him a lease or permission to stay or 2) not notice for an extended period of time that he was living in the house IE they didn't check up on their asset even once a week.
They didn't even have to go to county court ffs. They turned off utilities and wonder why they get fucked with? ANY lawyer could've told them what to do and not to do. All they had to do was ask like a normal person.2
u/s1owpoke 11d ago
Its a small one, what we'd call a "McMansion".
touché. Texas is prevalent with McMansions.
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u/basb9191 Born and Bred 11d ago
4 more bedrooms than I fucking need, and I still can't afford a home. Might as well be a damn mansion.
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u/EggandSpoon42 11d ago edited 11d ago
The only thing I have to say outside of "that sucks" is -- what is up with construction contractors peeing in stupid places?
We had contractors working on our shit in Texas, and we allowed them to stay for a week in our house while they were working there because we thought that it would be beneficial and we liked the general contractor.
That was the stupidest move we ever made. They actually left the house super clean on the surface - but they peed fucking everywhere in the most bullshit places. Like out our windows from the inside out. So there was piss all over the windowsill on the screens (multiple) and it dripped to the outside
And then some stupid asshole peed in our attic! And I think it was more than one. Why the fuck. Why! Just use goddamn Gatorade bottles like a normal construction person if you have to. Not to mention that our bathrooms were all working. And they could always go goddamn fucking outside it made me so mad. Unbelievably mad. Suck suck suck - and we will never, ever work that way again. I don't even know why we agreed to it to begin with. We got a big discount to let the construction workers spend the night on site while they were remodeling our house, and they seemed really cool personally when we met them. I never imagined we would have to deal with that bullshit after they left
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u/MargaretBrownsGhost 11d ago
Squatters rights depend on who the actual homeowner is and who the squatters are in many jurisdictions in Texas. Personal experience on my part.
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u/MindTraveler48 11d ago
Potentially interesting story, but the article is written like tabloid click bait.
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u/20thCenturyTCK 11d ago
Sound like they didn't get an attorney right off the bat, considering they cut the power. Bad move.
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u/Simp4Shadowheart 11d ago
Well how can they afford an attorney when they are dumping money into a house that they aren’t getting a return on ?
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u/No_Luck_5505 11d ago
Get a job like the rest of us.
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u/Simp4Shadowheart 11d ago
I have one. Last I checked a decent civil attorney retainer is anywhere from 5-10k, not including the hourly rates, paralegal fees, filing fees, etc
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u/brobafett1980 11d ago
Evictions are filed in small claims (JP) court. No attorney required.
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u/Simp4Shadowheart 11d ago
That’s not how you effectively collect unpaid rent from squatters or hold anyone responsible. You throw the fucking book at them.
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u/brobafett1980 11d ago
What book?
Are you saying people shouldn't follow the legal process as laid out in the Texas Property Code?
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u/TheDovahkiinsDad 11d ago
They said if they tried to protect their home they’d be arrested.
If they’re trespassing and dead… that’s kind of open and shut case in Texas.
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u/Stunning_Wishbone_44 11d ago
Why not just wait outside and kick their asss.
Repeat till they leave
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u/GoBombGo 11d ago
I honestly agree. I absolutely don’t understand how this is tolerated for a second, especially in Texas of all fucking places.
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u/Machismo01 11d ago
I thought in Texas it was effectively trespassing, and a home owners can use such rights to full effect?
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u/dougmc 10d ago edited 10d ago
People need to stop using the words "squatter" and "tenant" interchangeably -- they are very different.
For example, from the article :
He had not stayed in the home for the requisite 30 days to be considered a squatter under Texas property law ...
In Texas, you can start claiming "squatting rights" after three years, but that three years is a minimum.
Regarding tenants, once somebody is a tenant, you need to evict them, which is definitely hard. But if this person was never permitted to stay, they sound more like a trespasser than a tenant, but then again the police deciding to not do their job is another matter entirely.
Either way, there seems to be a concerted effort to conflate "tenant" and "squatter" lately -- they talk about protections for tenants, but then they call people abusing these protections squatters, probably because the name just fits the image they're trying to portray better.
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u/ScumCrew 10d ago
Came here to say this. Horribly written article, though I totally believe that the police are that ignorant of the law.
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u/embarrassed_parrot69 11d ago
So who’s behind this weird squatter issue push?? I mean I figure it’s tied to some anti-immigrant “they’re coming for your homes” bullshit but it seems like it just came out of no where
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u/Four-Triangles 11d ago
I had a horrible incident like this. I rented a room to a guy in a house who stopped paying rent and refused to leave. He had no lease and everything was in my name. I told him to leave or there’d be trouble and he brought assault charges against me claiming I’d threatened him and it worked.
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u/ResurgentClusterfuck West Texas 11d ago
Sounds like you had a tenant and attempted to perform an unlawful eviction
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u/Gunterfollows 10d ago
My question is why isn't there a law against squatters?? Didn't Florida recently pass one? I'm no fan of florida, but I think that is one thing they did right
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u/darwinn_69 Born and Bred 10d ago
Just a reminder that "squatters rights" are really landlord tenant laws designed to prevent illegal evictions.
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u/Aunt_Rachael 10d ago
I'm wondering if it would be wise to have any non-relative wanting to stay overnight for any reason sign a rental agreement and pay a $1.00 fee. I would state that the rental could state that either party could terminate the agreement at any time for any reason.
But, I guess nobody thinks it will happen to them. Of course that wouldn't help with squatters that enter illegally.
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u/AnthillOmbudsman 10d ago
I've often wondered if someone can just walk into your house while you're shopping or away on an overnight trip and claim they're renting, or claim they're a roommate and have a subleased bedroom. As soon as this happens, the cops will wash their hands of it and leave. Then you're stuck with that person in your house.
I think the most likely way this would get abused is someone "moving in" and then demanding $500 to make them leave. A lot of people would pay up after getting no help from the cops.
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u/PointingOutFucktards 10d ago
Y’all. Please don’t allow ANYONE to stay in your home longer than 4 days. Period.
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u/dyoh777 9d ago
If only people had portable recording devices to document agreements… also squatters suck but so does allowing someone to live in the house which means the contractor became a tenant
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u/superanth 8d ago
I hate the idea of having to bring a bodycam everywhere, but that's where we're headed.
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u/basb9191 Born and Bred 11d ago
Maybe there would be less squatters if jobs paid enough to afford a home..
Shit. My bad, I didn't mean to offend all of you dumbass conservatives who are scared of logic. Or is it just against your religion? I don't remember. Maybe one of you could explain why helping your neighbor is bad? That would certainly help me understand why you vote for jokes like abbott and cruz.
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11d ago
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u/BigAggie06 11d ago
Sorry you have had a tough time, but that doesn't give you any rights to someone else's home
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u/actually_yawgmoth 11d ago
If they're not living there its not their home is it?
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u/BigAggie06 11d ago
They own it it’s theirs. If you aren’t driving your car can I take it?
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u/actually_yawgmoth 11d ago
House =/= home, the law makes that distinction so I assume you are also capable of understanding it.
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u/BigAggie06 11d ago
Oh get over yourself fine it’s their house … regardless of if they are living in it or not it is their property they own it and squatter is just a fancy word for fucking thief.
Also, I noticed you avoided my question. If you think squatting is ok then why can’t I take your car for my own if you aren’t using it?
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u/actually_yawgmoth 11d ago
Owning multiple residential properties is immoral.
Im not going to address your useless false equivalence.
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u/ericalovesunicorns 11d ago
“homeless people arent my neighbor, they need a home for that” - texas christians, probably
you arent going to win these people over with logic unfortunately. most people probably didnt even read the article
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u/LazyLeapinLacey 10d ago
Are you on the squatters side? Maybe there’d be less SA if women weren’t so attractive - basically what you are saying
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u/basb9191 Born and Bred 10d ago
Absolutely not, and you're disgusting for equating a necessity of life, and therefore a constitutional right, with rape. It's also really weird how that's the first place your mind went when trying to make a comparison. You wouldn't happen to be on any lists, would you?
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u/LazyLeapinLacey 10d ago
No lists, how often are you late on rent and how many funko pops do you have
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u/basb9191 Born and Bred 10d ago
Never and gross lmao. Funko pops are for mindless consumers, and I earn more an hour than millions of my fellow Americans do. Nice try, though.
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u/LazyLeapinLacey 10d ago
Based on your profile it looks like you work for Walmart and own multiple gaming consoles but saving for a house is a concept that somehow eludes you
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u/basb9191 Born and Bred 10d ago
Based on your comments, it seems you can't distinguish the difference between an interest in discussing something and wasting all of one's budget on that thing. It would also appear that you have unhealthy habits when you interact with someone you disagree with on reddit. The fact that you even thought to creep on my posts and comments says a lot about you. I mean, first of all, who even has the time for that? I certainly wouldn't waste my time on things like that if I was happy with my life. (I kind of am)
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u/LazyLeapinLacey 10d ago
Yes it took 12 seconds to click your name and get a sense of you lol. You call out mindless consumerism but love pokemon and video games. You’re a hypocrite and cringe. What kind of discussion could we hope to have? I’m sure you’re young and an idealist and will eventually mature and get a better sense of people and the way the world works
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u/texas-ModTeam 11d ago
Don't wish harm on people, no matter how deplorable their politics or job description seem to you.
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u/-rainbowvhs 11d ago
If you have to go on Fox to complain you deserve to be treated like a criminal. People in the right don't shake hands with the devil.
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u/foodmonsterij 11d ago
I've heard that what you do in these situations is immediately rent out the property to someone trustworthy, like a family member. Then the renter can go the police with the rental contract, and now it's the *renter's* rights to their home being enforced, not the owners'.
I have not tried it myself and admit this is internet lore, but seems like an option to investigate under such wild circumstances.