Two Los Angeles investigators say a sophisticated form of squatting is putting some homeowners through months of misery. In their telling, professional squatters use forged leases and fake deeds to take over houses, then dare the owners to remove them. Retired LAPD detective supervisor Moses Castillo and private investigator Michael Youssef told Fox News that the worst cases go far beyond a landlord-tenant dispute. They point to fraud, identity theft, and demands for tens of thousands of dollars to leave. Both want Los Angeles to build a dedicated police task force to deal with it.
For those caught up in it, experts say the cost is pretty high. Castillo spoke of months of legal bills, private investigators, and lost income while a stranger occupies the home, sometimes leaving damage behind. Some owners, he said, end up paying the occupants to leave, cash-for-keys deals that can run from $20,000 to $40,000. Youssef cited one case with a demand for half a million dollars. Castillo summed up the owners’ position by saying they are “held hostage in their own homes.”
Squatting isn’t tracked in the FBI’s crime data, and reliable numbers are scarce. Boaz Abramson, a housing economist at Columbia Business School, told Fortune that the problem is a lot less common than the media would suggest. He pointed out that the clearest sign of a “trend” has been a rise in Google searches. He went so far as to call it “rare,” in fact.
Dealing with squatters has also become a topic of political conversation. Some officials tie it to immigration and to viral videos. At the same time, many housing officials warn that the laws being rushed through to protect owners could sweep up legitimate tenants who get wrongly branded as squatters. But how large is the problem, really, when all reasons for alarm are ignored?
How the Scheme Works When It’s Real
According to Youssef, some occupants forge a lease, then have mail delivered to the address for some proof of residency. He said there are online forums and paid coaches called criminal consultants who walk people through it, down to which laws to invoke. Once an occupant looks like a resident on paper, the owner can no longer just call the police for an immediate removal.
The law gives people who live somewhere certain due-process rights that the paperwork empowers them with. Those rules exist for a good reason: to keep real tenants from being thrown out overnight. Some owners decide it is cheaper to pay the occupant to leave than to fight. That is how a cash-for-keys demand of $20,000 or more comes about. Castillo argues California’s rules have tilted too far toward occupants and that a task force could help police separate actual tenant issues from fraud problems.
How Common Is This Scam, Really?
Here’s the thing: some of the horror stories are real, and they’re not kind to the families in them. As a trend, though, professional squatting is hard to pin down. It is not counted in federal crime data, and researchers who study housing say the reliable numbers are thin. The clearest evidence of a surge, the Columbia economist Abramson has noted, is a jump in how many people Google the word.
Several states have passed laws to help owners remove squatters faster, and housing advocates warn the same speed could hurt legitimate renters who are wrongly accused. A fair system has to catch fraud without stripping real tenants of their rights, and that balance is hard.
If you want to protect yourself, keep proof of ownership current, and don’t leave a property standing empty and unwatched. Act at the first sign of an unwanted occupant and make sure you talk to a lawyer early. The faster you get things done, the better. You never know when this might happen to you, and you’re going to want to be ready if it does.