landlords, how long to get rid of squatters
 

About to buy a house that has a dead beat in there. He's a relative of a seller without a job, but stays there in the back house. He's got nothing to lose. the owner can't get rid of him. Once escrow closes, I must start eviction. How long does it take to get him out. What's the worst case in terms of time. Any tips on how much it will cost to get him out?

Um, call the cops and have him arrested for trespassing.

If you lived in a Castle Doctrine state you could just bust a cap in his ass.

Not a typical LL situation (and I'm not sure it applies here either)...you're a new owner of the property. Around here, I suspect it'd take about 15 minutes...in CA who the heck knows??? I'd sure want to know beforehand and make it the PO's issue before I closed if it's not straightforward though...

College buddy has a 200 acre farm (wife recently inherited) with a similar issue to face (maybe)....

Why get into a situation like that? I'd make the property being vacant a condition of sale, no question. You don't want the potential headaches. Don't make it your problem.

POP, the price is more then right. He was a pro basketball player in Europe in the early 90s, but moved back home to his parents home after they past but could not manage money and let the house go to far that was left in uninhabitable condition.

Why don't you meet with him and offer him a lease at a very favorable rate to prevent his eviction. He will probably sign it to stall you, then in a month or so when he doesn't pay the rent, it is a much cleaner process. Maybe you are lucky and he does pay the rent.

I presume the house is in CA. I think you should hire a good attorney, or at least consult with one. I suggest you do this properly.

I'd at least talk to an attorney before closing. Some things just aren't worth the trouble, no matter how good they might sound at first.

Does the squatter really have any recourse if the place has been sold? I had a squatter that came with my building when I bought it. I simply just started to move his stuff to the outside, and told him that whatever was still there by the weekend would either be in the dumpster, or on in the burn pile.

Possession goes a long way. He can claim any number of reasons to stall his eviction. All he needs to do is claim a verbal rental agreement from the previous owner, etc. Dispose of his stuff and you are looking for a lawsuit in many places.

Send some bikers around

Pay him to leave.
Cheaper and easier than eviction, which could take months. BTDT.

"You can leave in a month with no money in your pocket, of you can leave now with $500 in your pocket."

Yep

He's not a squatter, for all you know he may have a verbal, lifetime lease for free.

As P-O-P said, I'd seek legal advice, and at least get something about the terms of his living there from the current owners, in writing, so you have something to fall back on. It's going to be your word against his, and last time i went to court for eviction in NJ, the tenant is always right, and gets a free public defender.

Since there is no 'security deposit' for the tenant, I'd also want to escrow $$$ from closing for eviction costs, lost rental income, and damage he may cause leaving.

You are inheriting their headache, make sure it's worth it in the worst case.

Sounds like a good time to do some fumigation...

This is correct. Under no circumstances should you close on that property with the squatter living there. Even in more conservative states than CA that squatter would probably be considered a month to month lease tenant and you will have to follow the same eviction procedures as you would with any other tenant.

Make the seller get him out and change the locks. Then close only when you see the building is empty. Then if the squatter comes back you can have him arrested for trespassing.

Here are three things that you should do (taken from someone who did sleep in a hotel 6 once time):

1. Google the term "adverse occupancy"... When you are weirded out enough to realize that you will sign the mortgage then find you have a surprisingly limited number of options for getting them out, then proceed to step 2.
2. Refuse to close until the property is vacant or the squatter has signed a month to month lease (you can get people to leave pretty easily with a month to month lease).
3. Hire an attorney if needed to extricate yourself from the purchase agreement if you did not already put vacancy down as a condition of sale.

If you are lucky, you can get the person to leave, even PAY them to leave (it is cheap in the long run). But you must have them leave before you take possession. Otherwise, you are stuck with them and could be stuck for a very long time.

You cannot harm them, harass them, and they have nothing to lose by you suing them. Proceed with caution.

angela

Use a good attorney..not an eviction mill like you see in Apt Owners Magazine. I have had to do three in 30 years. I have seen what happens if it is not done right. A good Attorney will suggest you pay him to leave...sometimes cheaper.
I am not sure of the time schedule as the courts have cut back on thier hours of operation.
Good Luck I have no use for deadbeats

I think a tenant can stay for 90 days, then police will evict them. But he is not your tenant.
I would think any agreement he has with the previous owner, is not your agreement. But first make sure he doesn't have some kind of 100 year lease for 1.00, regardless of owner.

I had to evict some people one time and I remember they stayed for 90. I don't think it should be too hard to make him move.
Do a little research, I like the trespassing angle.

there is no agreement with the previous owner. He is the previous owner. His uncle (50% ownership) bailed him out because the bank was about to take the house. All he wants is to sell and get his money out by selling me the house. He had to go to court and fight for the rights to sell. The judge rule in the uncle's favor within 10 minutes. The uncle wants to sell it to me but we know he isn't going to leave.

Flyenby,

Yes the courts have cut back hours like crazy. This case was delayed by 4 months.

Paying , to get him out, as advised earlier in the thread, may just be your best bet here . It sounds crazy, but we just did this with real bad tenants, and it saved us months of grief, and court dates. We basically gave them enough money to get into their next place, and sent them on the way. $850.00 out of pocket verse, them staying for 3 months , all the while trashing the place, not paying rent, and making our lives hell. Plus, I never missed a day of work for court, or to file papers at the magistrate.

His uncle tried to pay him 70,000 from the profit of the sale to get him to sign. This way they wouldn't lose the house with nothing. He did not take the deal. At this point, I am willing to pay him 5000 cash if he leaves.

The squatter is the nephew of the owner.

The uncle won't do anything to make him leave. You can try to PAY the nephew to leave, but I bet he will take your money and then not leave, and then you threw away that money.

In this situation, the cards are not in your favor.

__

No amount of $ would tempt me to enter into such a situation either :D

Life is just too short...

Sounds like the nephew is still disputing ownership if he refused $70k to move. He can easily fight eviction if he tries. Why would he take $5k if he would not take $70k? I think you need to lawyer up and hope he is too poor or stupid to do the same.

This is known as a sticky wicket.

He lost ownership of the place two weeks ago fair and square. The judge ruled in favor of the uncle for the sale so he can recoup his money. He is too stupid and have no money. I am afraid of lawyers who work for free and fight just to fight.

Been there done that...
 

I live in SF Bay Area and my wife and I went through a very similar process. My wife's father let an old acquaintance live in a camper on the back of their property to help him out. It was only supposed to be for a few months. No rent. All verbal. 10 years later we buy their house and left him a note on the camper that he needed to leave. We gave him a deadline. The deadline came and went and he was still their. A friend and I went to his camper with sledge hammers in hand as we were going to break the door down and drag the guy and his crap to the street but stopped when we found a note from his attorney taped to the door. We ended up using a lawyer to evict him. It is a simple and relatively inexpensive process it just takes time - like 60 days. It was about $1200. You have to go through the formal eviction process even for squatters.

BTW. This guy was using one of those free lawyers for low income folks as well. As long as you follow the legal process right down to serving the notice properly (there is a specific and exact way to serve the notice) you'll be fine. If he remains after the judgment the Sheriff will come remove him forcefully. I would highly recommend getting an eviction attorney involved before you do anything else.

No way. Friend of mine had a similar situation, bought a house with his RE partner and had to go through a whole process to get rid of the deadbeat prior owner squatting in the house. Finally jumped through all the hoops and the proud moment arrived when they walked up to the front door with the sheriff's deputy to pull the deadbeat PO out.

Deadbeat PO opened the door with a hand cannon and opened fire, ventilated my friend's partner - killed instantly. Everybody else made it out alive.

burn him out

I have no problem waiting him out for 90 days and have a lawyer do all the property paper work. Where do I start looking for such lawyer and not one of those guys who only file papers.

Another question. what do the sheriff do when they drag his ass outside? Do they leave him there in the curb or do they take him somewhere where they can't do any harm to the new owner?

Ya know, this has the makin's of a great midnight movie.

As I understand it, lawyers file an illegal detainer suit, go to court and get an eviction order. Then follow up with necessary paperwork to finally have the sheriff come and physically remove the offending party. It is a process routinely done by apartment building owners. You should easily find such a lawyer by googling eviction lawyers in Los Angeles.

the squatter might think its laundry day!

Send "Vinny" and "Dino" over to give him some "Dancing" lessons, and if he lawyers up, send them over to the lawyers as well!

Vinny's a fireman and contractor. What's he gonna to do, put out the fire? I don't know Dino on this bd. :D

What porwolf said.

You don't need a lawyer for an eviction. Just a properly served 30 day eviction notice. They can stay for 90, but after that, the sheriff will escort them out.
Of course, double check all this stuff, but i think i am correct.

You said earlier you didn't mind spending some money to buy him out. Screw that guy, if you can wait the 90, spend the money on some legal advice instead.

I think you'll be OK. It doesn't seem that complicated of a situation.