Squatters meet resistance with red state push to protect homeowners
Wyoming is the latest state to push legislation giving homeowners and law enforcement teeth against squatters, following New York, Florida and Georgia.
Approved 10-4 by the state legislature's Joint Judiciary Committee, the bill now needs to be approved on the state Senate floor. If passed into law, the bill would make squatting that involves property destruction a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The law would also allow property owners to call law enforcement to remove "unauthorized residents" from their properties, provided that there is no ongoing legal dispute related to the property between them. Currently, law enforcement in Wyoming and elsewhere in the country often have their hands tied in these situations and instruct frazzled homeowners to address the issue in civil court.
Casper realtor Ronna Boril, who has sold homes in the state for five decades, helped set the bill in motion after a terrifying confrontation inside one of her rental homes.
She told Fox News Digital that her confrontation with squatters started after she evicted a previous lawful tenant from her property for nonpayment.
"I thought that the property was vacant," she recalled. "I was going into the property, and I heard footsteps, and I thought ‘What the heck.’"
Then, she saw a large, unfamiliar man at the top of the stairs.
"He says ‘Who are you and what are you doing in this property,'" Boril recalled. "I said, ‘Who are you, and what are you doing on this property? I could ask you the same thing.’"
FLORIDA HOMEOWNERS FIGHT SQUATTERS WITH NEW LAW THAT ENDS 'SCAM,' GOVERNOR SAYS
Suddenly, Boril said, "there were men coming out of all corners of the house like cockroaches."
Five other men appeared and told her that they had a lease to the property, but they could not produce any paperwork. Boril told them that she had owned the building in Casper since the '80s.
She said that she would be back with the police in the morning – but both the local police and sheriff's department told her that they could not help and that she would have to pursue the matter in civil court.
"The next morning, I went back with a large fellow. We unlocked and they were gone. But the place was trashed – filthy clothing, filthy mattresses, needles and drug paraphernalia everywhere," she said. "I started de-trashing the property. It cost me somewhere between $15,000 and $18,000."
'PROFESSIONAL' SQUATTERS MOVE HOUSE TO HOUSE, RETAIN STATE-BY-STATE KNOWLEDGE ON THE LAW
At that point, she contacted state Sen. Jim Anderson. Both were shocked to find that squatting was not a problem limited to coastal states like California and New York.
"It seemed like it might be isolated. But then I got to talking to other realtors and was told that there was a squatter problem in Casper, that they all had experiences with that," Anderson, who sponsored the proposed bill, told Fox News Digital.
"I talked to the State Realty Executive, and she got back to me and said 'Wow, I didn't realize what a problem that was.' It's really big in Cheyenne, Gillette, Sheridan… It's all over the state that people are having problems with squatters.
"They had the same complaint – that it had to be a civil case instead of a trespass criminal case. I'm really surprised… I couldn't believe it, in our own community [of Casper]. I had lots of people that had rental houses that had the same situation and had their place torn up… I had never heard of it in the news. I was really surprised at the magnitude of it."
Anderson said the bill was modeled off of Florida's HB 621, which was passed earlier this year.
The committee also passed legislation that would establish a criminal offense for using fraudulent documents to gain or remain in possession of property in Wyoming.
Attorney Joseph Cammarata, of Washington, D.C.-based Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C., told Fox News Digital that he supported the spirit of the legislation.
"You have people that are breaking the law, and they don't belong there," he said. "Your home is your castle, and it's being invaded by other people, and you want them out, and they should be out regardless of who they are. And these people that say, 'Well, we have to treat this; this group of people, these squatters, with special concerns and considerations, so if they stay a little longer in the house, it's okay.' Well, you know what? I'd ask those people, can they move into your house and see how you like it?"
Although he believes the bill is well-intentioned, Cammarata said it "would provide complete immunity to the police so that if they got involved in removing a squatter, they would not be responsible in any shape, way or form for any harm caused to either the homeowner or the squatter."
"To me, if you were to ask me, I think that goes too far in terms of providing absolute immunity to police," he added. "They know how to act. They know how to act. They know how to handle themselves within constitutional protections."
However, Anderson told Fox News Digital that the stipulation was added to help police deal with what is often a complicated situation.
"I like the police having immunity, it's thrown on them to make the judgment – supposedly the homeowner can produce a deed or any kind of paperwork, but many times the squatter can produce the same kind of document," he said. "It is difficult for the police or sheriff or whoever is dealing with it."
Cammarata also pointed out that, according to the wording of the prospective law, "the sheriff may charge a reasonable hourly rate that the owner shall pay to the sheriff," if "the owner... request[s] that the sheriff stand by to keep the peace while the owner or agent changes the locks and removes the personal property of the unauthorized occupant from the premises to or near the property line.
"Homeowners in exercising their rights and calling on the police would have to pay for the police. And if that is true, I think the legislature forgot that the homeowner already paid for the police as part of their taxes to provide safekeeping to the community at large."
Anderson pointed out that the bill is still subject to revisions before its potential passage into law, which he said he is "confident" will take place.
"I might bring something up in the session and remove that paragraph – I don't even like it," Anderson said. "I asked an attorney about it and he said 'I don't think it makes any difference [whether that portion is written into the bill] – the sheriff isn't going to stay if he isn't being paid.'"
Florida's HB 621 also charges the homeowner a fee in this situation, as well as a "civil eviction fee plus an hourly rate if a deputy must stand by and keep the peace while the unauthorized person is removed."
Cammarata also said that the $10,000 fine for squatters would likely be more symbolic than actionable.
"The $10,000 that the squatters have to pay? Yeah, well, first of all, try and collect it," he said. "You could make it $100,000 – it's a piece of paper. And that's worth just what the piece of paper might be worth. Not much. So I wouldn't hold out hope on that $10,000 coming back anytime soon… They wouldn't be living in your place if they weren't homeless."