Part Two: Dealing With Squatters and How to Avoid It from Happening in the First Place

We’ve all seen the videos on social media.  A landlord or developer shows up to their vacant investment property to find someone has moved in and is claiming they have the right to be there.

Last week we discussed what squatting and adverse possession are and how it can affect your rental property.

This week we are talking about what to do if a squatter moves into your rental and how to protect yourself from it even happening in the first place.

Worried this might happen to you?  Give this episode a listen to see how you can reduce that risk!

LINKS

👉 Episode 69: Part One: What Exactly is Squatting and Should You Be Worried About It?

👉 NOLO: State by State Rules on Adverse Possession

👉 FREE 10-Page Guide: How to Place Your Ideal Tenant

👉 Episode 49: Analyzing Credit Reports for Tenant Selection

👉 Grab our FREE Landlord Verification Form: The template we use to ask the previous landlords of our applicants all we want to know.

👉 Ring Alarm System: Indoor Security Monitoring 

👉 Ring Security Camera: Stickup Camera with Indoor/Outdoor Two-way Talk, Color, Night Vision

👉 Episode 20: Part One: The Nuts and Bolts of Residential Property Insurance

👉 Episode 38: Avoid Evictions with Tenant Buyouts

👉 Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
👉 Text Us a Question! Two ways: SMS text to 650-489-4447. OR

One way text only, you need to include your email for a response.

👉 Email us your questions! Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
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Transcript

Stacie: 0:00

But here's the thing. These squatters break into property, and often will bring their pets, and then offer to rent rooms to other people, and before you know it, the home is full of people and animals who are not concerned about taking care of the place, and it gets completely trashed.

Kevin: 0:15

And remember that you have to prove they cannot be there to a judge, and that takes time. And legally you have to provide a working living environment for this so called tenant, so you cannot just cut off the power or water to the rental with the hopes of pushing them out. They can complain and get you into even more trouble with the housing board in your county, which means you have to leave everything as is. You have to treat these trespassers like they are actual tenants until you can get a judge to sign off on the eviction papers. Now, I can just imagine so many of you are sitting there shaking your heads and going, No Way! Unfortunately, unless your state has already passed and updated their adverse possession laws, yes way.

Stacie: 1:06

Welcome to your Landlord Resource Podcast. Many moons ago, when I started as a landlord, I was as green as it gets. I may have had my real estate license, but I lacked confidence and the hands on experience needed when it came to dealing with tenants, leases, maintenance, and bookkeeping. After many failed attempts, fast forward to today, Kevin and I have doubled our doors and created an organized, professionally operated rental property business. Want to go from overwhelmed to confident? If you're an ambitious landlord or maybe one in the making, join us as we provide strategies and teach actionable steps to help you reach your goals and the lifestyle you desire, all while building a streamlined and profitable rental property business. This is your Landlord Resource Podcast. Hey there, landlords, and thank you for tuning in to listen to the Your Landlord Resource podcast today. I am your host, Stacey Casella, and I'm here with my co host and better half, Kevin Kilroy.

Kevin: 2:08

Hey, all you landlords out there. We appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to listen to all we have to say.

Stacie: 2:15

All right. So this episode is part two of our squatters or adverse possession episode. Last week, we talked in depth about what constitutes a squatter and the history behind the law that most states have to protect them. This week we want to finish that episode and talk about what to do if you end up having to deal with the situation, as well as how to prevent this from happening to you in the first place. So if you have not listened to part one that came out last week, you might want to go back and give it a listen. We went over the law that protects the quote unquote squatters when they take property by adverse possession. And Kev, do you want to give a quick explanation of what adverse possession is?

Kevin: 2:59

Yes. Of course I do Stace.

Stacie: 3:01

I know you do. I knew it.

Kevin: 3:04

Did you know that you can take title to someone's land if you're a squatter on it long enough? It's a very strange concept in law that allows a trespasser to end up actually owning the land which they trespass on as long as certain conditions are met. And for the most part in previous years this law has primarily been around land and property lines and very rarely was it found that someone could actually take someone's building or home under the law of adverse possession. But it has definitely happened and folks, it is not pretty for the owner when they find out. So between 1960 and 2015, there were over 5,000 legal cases involving adverse possession. And like I said, this is mostly neighbors fighting over property lines where either landscaping or fences were improperly placed. However, recently we have seen an uptick in homeless people who were moving into vacant properties as well as short term rentals, where landlords may foolishly rent to someone off platform, meaning not through airbnb or vrbo where their leases have provisions to protect landlords from this type of thing happening. Bottom line, once someone is in your property, furnished or not, and moving their own personal items, they can claim they have permission to be there, and even sometimes will create a fake lease to make it seem more official. What happens is, when the landlord finally figures out that someone is living there without permission, they'll call the police. The trespasser will show the fake lease and say they have a right to be there. And at this point, the police will just walk away and tell the landlord that it's a civil matter that has to be decided upon in court. Which means the landlord now will have to leave this trespasser alone and file a formal eviction to get them removed. And we all know that this process takes months and in some states, years, plus a lot of money to be completed successfully.

Stacie: 5:03

Yeah, exactly. So today we want to spend some time going over how to avoid this from happening to one of your units and talk a little bit about what to do if this does end up happening to you. Again, we're going to give a disclaimer that we are here to provide information only. We are not lawyers or giving legal advice. We are landlords sharing information that is to make you aware of a situation, that could happen, hopefully not, to your rental property, your land, and even your personal home. We're here to give you tips on ways to avoid this very unfortunate situation from happening to you in the first place. One thing that I want to repeat from last week was that there are people out there that are teaching other people how to do this. There are people spending, I think it was$75,000 to learn how to legally adversely possess another person's home or land. And it's absolutely sickening and absolutely legal to teach about too. The one problem we found was that there are homeless advocates that have learned this method and some advocates are now teaching and encouraging homeless people to squat and adversely possess vacant property. And in pro tenant states like here in California or in New York, the process of removing those trespassers can take a really long time and like Kevin mentioned, cost a lot of money. And again, this is not to scare you. The sole purpose of those advocates is to teach it to the homeless is to get them off the streets and find them shelter. They're not teaching it to them so that they can move in and take over ownership. At least, there's no record of that happening as of yet. But here's the thing. These squatters break into property, and often will bring their pets, and then offer to rent rooms to other people, and before you know it, the home is full of people and animals who are not concerned about taking care of the place, and it gets completely trashed.

Kevin: 7:03

And remember that you have to prove they cannot be there to a judge, and that takes time. And legally you have to provide a working, living environment for this so called tenant, so you cannot just cut off the power or water to the rental with the hopes of pushing them out. They can complain and get you into even more trouble with the housing board in your county, which means you have to leave everything as is. You have to treat these trespassers like they are actual tenants until you can get a judge to sign off on the eviction papers. Now, I can just imagine so many of you are sitting there shaking your heads and going, No Way! Unfortunately, unless your state has already passed and updated their adverse possession laws, yes way. So, let's start with how you can avoid someone trespassing and moving into your property and claiming adverse possession. First and where we posted this last week too, in our show notes we have a link to an article that lists each state and what their adverse possession laws are. We highly recommend that you go and check it out. Okay, so I wanted to make one thing clear. When you sign a lease with someone, you are giving them permission to live in your property. If their lease ends and you decide not to renew it, and they fight you about staying and remaining the property and the law, meaning police, will not see that as squatting. This is a civil matter that the courts will have to make a determination on. You initially gave them permission to live there, so they cannot state they are adversely possessing the property. order to be legally adversely possessing a property, it has to be a hostile takeover of the property. If you have granted them permission at any point, that is not hostile. That would be a straightforward eviction case where you have to prove the lease ended and you have other plans for the rental. Be it to rent to someone else, move in yourself, remodel it, or sell it. Again, the ability to evict has everything to do with what your state and local laws are. Here in California, depending on the size of the rental, we have rent control and cannot kick anyone out unless they have violated the lease in a grave matter or unless we are going to remodel sell or we or a family member are going to move in. Several other states have similar tenant friendly laws in place now, so, as we say with every episode, know your landlord tenant laws. They can vary by state, county, and down to city ordinances as well.

Stacie: 9:37

And those laws change often, so think about ways that you can keep up on them. We joined the local rental housing association and investor clubs in both California and Idaho where we own rental properties. You can also, as Dan Barrero suggested a couple episodes ago, get on the email list for all the various political parties regardless of your affiliation, because they will send out newsletters that include the laws and ordinances that they have on the books that they want to try to implement as well as fight against, especially when it comes to housing issues. Okay, so the first thing to do is get familiar with your state's adverse possession laws. Check out the link in the show notes, and then second, make sure your lease is ironclad. You can certainly run your lease by or even have a real estate attorney create a lease that has your best interest in mind. Many of the landlord software apps now offer pretty good leases, but I'm not sure that they are all state specific or not. Now we do recommend checking out EZ Landlord Forms. You can sign up for a free account and get access to over 200 free forms, so that's a huge plus right there. But they do have state specific leases and really great addendums to create a solid lease package to use. And of course they charge for the use of that lease and we do happen to have a 15% coupon that you can apply to that fee. I think it's like 29 bucks for the lease or something like that. And you can use our code which is STACIE15. That's Stacie That Stacie with an ie and the number 15. If you need more than just the lease, they have paid accounts that can be charged monthly, annually, and they even have a lifetime member account where you can pay a one time fee and get whatever forms you need forever. And ding ding ding there is a bonus. EZ Landlord Forms is allowing our listeners to use that 15% off on your first purchase, regardless of if it's just a one time lease or if you want to buy that lifetime account, which would save you about 50 bucks or something like that. So you should go check it out

Kevin: 11:47

Yeah, so if we were just starting out EZ Landlord Forms is what we would use. As Realtors now we have access to state specific forms through the Realtors association. Plus, we're also members of the California Apartment Association and get access to a bunch of really good forms there. Like we mentioned earlier, being a member of this association allows us the benefits of education as well as keeping up on changing laws surrounding landlords, tenants, and rental properties. So, check out your state and local rental associations and see what they have available to you as well. Now to follow with what Stacie said about having a solid lease for your tenants to sign, and where it is true and very important, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it is equally, if not more important, to make sure you are screening your applicants thoroughly. Now I'm not going to go into the process we do here, but just know that, knock on wood, so far we have never had to evict one tenant.

Stacie: 12:50

Not in 19 years of property management have we ever had to evict someone. Only one time did we not renew someone due to a lease violation and they left willingly.

Kevin: 13:01

Right. So I think it's safe to say we have a really solid method that has worked successfully.

Stacie: 13:07

I would say so

Kevin: 13:09

And Without getting all salesy to our listeners, we are working on a course for our method and all the steps that we take to market for, vet, and place an applicant into one of our units. If you'd like to sign up to be on the waiting list for the course, you can find the link in our show notes. We also have a 10 page guide that you can download for free to use right now, which we will also link in the show notes. But there are specific steps you can take to screen tenants to protect yourself from placing someone who may end up being a real problem or headache down the road. One thing being checking their credit history, which we also did a podcast on how to read a credit report, so check the link in our show notes if you haven't already listened to that. And the other is to verify previous landlords. Which we also have a free download for the form and questions we ask. That is linked to the show notes as well. Bottom line there are many many steps landlords need to take to verify an applicant is the right fit for your rental. If you place a tenant with a solid rental history, they pay their bills and rent on time, has secure income, and basically shows they're a responsible person, your chances of having them become a squatter or a holdover tenant greatly diminish. Now, if you're in the middle of turning your unit or maybe doing some renovations that is leaving your unit vacant, we also have some tips on what you can do to help secure your unit and deter anyone from breaking in. Most of these seem pretty self evident, but I will say that we have not ever considered implementing any of these on a vacant unit until recently. Many of the things we are going to suggest are the same things you would do to prevent a burglary in your personal home. First, and likely the most cost effective and easiest, is to put up no trespassing signs. Put them on the side fences, maybe one in the planter out front, but make it obvious that you don't want anyone on your property without permission. You can pick these up at any hardware store or big box in their hardware department. And they're also available on Amazon in two and four packs. There are lots of options to choose from.

Stacie: 15:24

Yeah, we did put these up on a couple of our properties after having some homeless people hanging out and it did help on one, but did not do much on the other. So adding security cameras and or an alarm system can also deter someone from coming on your property.

Kevin: 15:42

Well, I do know around where we live It seems like every other home has a video surveillance in front of their house. And mostly I notice because when we walk our dog Gracie, she always seems to poop on a lawn that has cameras and I actually, I'm really paranoid about someone posting on NextDoor on how we didn't pick it all up or that we stepped on their lawn. I mean, I'm really looking over my shoulder.

Stacie: 16:07

Right? I mean, you got to get in and get out as fast as you can. Oh my God, that's too funny. But if you have internet on your property, you can set up a pretty inexpensive security system with cameras and alarm that's going to sound off. Plus for a small fee, you know, you can have them call the police if someone breaks in and the alarm sounds. We do realize this is more of an investment, but think of it as something you can use over and over as you have vacancies. For another vacant property, we did add an alarm system and video cameras after being broken into and robbed of a lot of items that were in this single family home. Unfortunately, being naive, we did it ourselves and placed the cameras too low. When we got a. notification of someone walking on the property one night, I clicked on the app to talk to them over the two way speaker just in time to watch them reach up and rip several of those cameras off the walls.

Kevin: 17:06

Oh man, I remember that night like it was yesterday. I mean, Stacie triggered the alarm on the app and they took off, but they did end up stealing like what, four or five of the cameras?

Stacie: 17:17

Yes. And I still have PTSD from that one property. mean, it was broken into the first time and they nearly burn it down. Then they came back and stole a trailer and loaded it up with all kinds of stuff, like a washer and dryer and a bunch of tools. And for the record, this was all in the same week. This was a single family home where my brother lived and rented. And he passed away suddenly. And boy, news traveled fast to the wrong side of town. And that place got turned upside down a few times. And we were doing our damnest to get in and get as much of his stuff out as fast as possible. And it took us a couple days or weeks to coordinate it all. I will say that the alarm was the biggest deterrent. As were the super bright motion sensor lights that would come on. And as soon as we installed those we rarely had any more issues.

Kevin: 18:07

Well, by that point we had practically killed ourselves to move a 20 foot trailer, three vehicles. What about 3, 000 square feet of this smoke filled belongings out of the home? I mean there was nothing left in there.

Stacie: 18:20

Nope. They stole or destroyed most of the valuables before we were able to wrap our heads around it all. But I was more concerned with squatters coming in and doing drugs there. Not squatting to take possession, but more like trying to find a vacant place to have shelter. We installed a ring security system and I was very pleased with it. It was very user friendly, cost us about 10 bucks a month in fees. And except us not thinking that someone would actually come and steal the cameras off the walls, it worked really well for us being able to keep an eye on the property that was 90 minutes away. I'm going to link the system that we bought in the show notes, if you're curious about it. We have no affiliation. We're just showing you what we use. This was like four years ago that this all happened. And because of what we went through with this property, we learned a lot. Because at the time we did not know to take out vacancy insurance. Actually, we had no idea it even existed until after we called the insurance company and we're told that we had no coverage because the home was vacant. So if you have a property that will be vacant for more than 30 days. And the property is not going to be checked on, on a regular basis, talk to your insurance company about adding a vacancy rider to your policy. And vacant can be an actual vacant rental, or in other instances it can be things like a vacation home, if you take a long vacation from your personal home, if you're renovating a home and waiting on permits, or if a loved one gets ill or in an accident and then has to spend time in an extended care facility before returning home. We did a podcast all about vacancy insurance and it'll be linked in the show notes if you want to give it a listen. But the bottom line is the smoke damage and damage caused by the break ins would have been covered if we had that additional coverage in place. As would the theft Kevin's going to talk about in a minute. Another lesson learned was that my brother did not have renter's insurance to cover the theft and destruction of his personal content.

Kevin: 20:21

Oh man, that would have been nice to know way back then, huh? One thing I just want to say vacancy insurance sometimes insurance companies will also call it unoccupied insurance. I think the difference there is vacant is well vacant and unoccupied like you said if you're going on vacation for a while, there's furniture and other personal possessions in the property So you guys what happened to this property and I also want to mention too, it's out more in a rural area. So I think that's why people were able to come in be in the home without neighbors right up against noticing what was going on.

Stacie: 20:56

Yeah, it's on it's on nine acres. Yeah, it's it's a it's a large property

Kevin: 21:00

So essentially what happened is he had a large gun safe in the living room of the home and being a general contractor, he also had a bunch of really nice tools in the garage. So this one day these tweakers broke in and tried to open the safe. When they were unsuccessful, they went to the garage, grabbed the acetylene torch, and tried to torch the gun safe door open. This caught the interior of the safe on fire and filled the entire home with smoke, ruining almost everything.

Stacie: 21:29

Yeah, and the kicker was that we had removed everything from the safe. I left the door open so people could see that it was empty, but my dad thought it was safer to close it just in case any kids broke in and thought it would be a good idea to play inside of it and get stuck. So we closed it and put the keys on top of the safe. The very next day is when the home was broken into and the safe was destroyed. So a neighbor called and told us that they could see smoke coming from the chimney and that it was kind of odd since it was the month of May in the middle of the day. But by the time we got there, the place was a mess. Because the home was vacant, the police took over five hours to show up. When we called back and explained the situation with the safe, they sent a fire engine out and the firemen removed the safe from the house, telling us that the safe was still registering at 400 degrees after six hours.

Kevin: 22:26

And by the way, they never got to safe open. These guys were not geniuses, but it was a crazy time. So later that day, I went over to Home Depot to get some plywood and supplies to board up the broken door. I made Stacie sit across the street in front of the neighbor's house in case these guys came back.

Stacie: 22:45

Because for the record, I stayed behind to wait for the police that were supposed to be showing up.

Kevin: 22:50

Well, I'm glad you did stay over there because later we found that someone was watching the property. So when we were getting ready to leave about 10 that night, Stacie was closing and locking the swing gate onto the property. And a big truck down the road, turn their lights on. So we decided to drive around the block to see if they were going to the property and they followed us on every turn. Long story short, we were run out of town. I mean, they followed us all the way to the freeway entrance, about two and a half miles away. And once we were on the ramp to enter the freeway, they took off and made a fast U turn and likely headed back to the property.

Stacie: 23:30

You guys, my heart was pounding. I mean, I thought this was it. I thought for sure we were going to get killed.

Kevin: 23:38

Yeah. Being chased isn't as cool as like a Bullitt or anything. It's like, okay, that was, that was crazy. And no, we did not go back to the property to see if that's where they went. At this point, they could have it. We are not gonna chance our safety to save the house or its contents. But I will say when we returned with a large U-Haul and several family members, about four days later, Stacie's brother's car trailer had been used to steal the washer and dryer she mentioned, some antique furniture, and a good amount of his tools. Talk about kicking us when we were down. It was a long ass day, but we got everything worth salvaging out for her parents to sort through at home.

Stacie: 24:18

Yeah, this is also when we installed a security system and for several months we had no issues. That is until someone came back and stole those security cameras like I talked about. But the moral of the story is, don't think for a moment that people don't know your property is vacant. Do what you can to deter someone from coming on and breaking in by using an alarm and security cameras plus motion activated lights. can also be in contact with a neighbor to keep an eye out for you or hire a property manager to handle surveillance on a regular basis. At the very least put some of those dusk to dawn lights or timers on some lamps in the windows and make sure someone is picking up the mail and any newspapers that might be lying around. Do what you can to make the house look occupied and not look vacant.

Kevin: 25:06

One more thing to note about the security cameras that were stolen. Ring alarm systems have a guarantee that if your system is stolen, they'll replace it. So, we were able to get the cameras replaced free of charge. Additionally because the original cameras were registered to us, no one could use them unless we transferred them. So several times on Stacie's email, she would get notification that the cameras were trying to be activated by someone else and the company was asking if she wanted to release them. Of course she didn't and hopefully taught the thieves that their expedition that night was useless.

Stacie: 25:41

Yeah, my thought was that they probably sold those to someone online and those poor souls were the ones that were trying to activate them through the ring system.

Kevin: 25:50

Yeah that that could be true, but I I still want to believe we messed with the thieves. But regardless, the stolen cameras were replaced free of charge and were of no use to whomever's hands they ended up in. Okay in some cities you can request the police to do a walk around the property But in ours, they would only do this when we were on vacation. They will not monitor a vacant unit.

Stacie: 26:15

So that's similar to what you were talking about, an unoccupied versus a vacant unit.

Kevin: 26:19

Exactly. This is probably a good time to tell you about what to do if someone does move in and squat on your rental property. And this is kind of the opposite of what we have said before, but the first thing you want to do is call the police. As soon as you find someone trespassing, call the police and file a police report. This is your first step in official documentation of the situation and will be important should you have to go the route of eviction. Because the more evidence and documentation you have that shows effort to remove the individual from your property, the stronger your eviction case will be.

Stacie: 26:56

And always remember that it's against the law to try to forcibly remove someone or intimidate them into leaving. This means physically removing someone. This also means changing the locks, turning off utilities, or making the home basically unlivable and violating their right to peaceful enjoyment. This also means using a gun or any weapon to threaten someone into leaving the property. And I know there's people out there saying that they're protecting their property, but the law will only support this if your life is in danger. Your property being trespassed upon is not a legal reason to branish a weapon and threaten someone. Your best bet is to have the police present to witness your interaction because if it does end up being that the determination is a civil issue, anything that that cop witnesses and documents is going to benefit your eviction case.

Kevin: 27:47

And I want to just inject in here, there may be some states that have, I believe they're called stand your ground laws regarding, you know, weapons and protecting your land. We don't know about that right now, so that's where you want to check your state or local laws to see how that applies. Okay, so your next step is to issue a notice to vacate or a surrender possession document. This is a document that has specific language in it that essentially states that a person squatting or trespassing has no legal right to be in possession of the property and that the owner does not consent to their possession. This is not an eviction notice. This is the step you have to take prior to that. Basically, it's telling them to leave or you will begin the eviction process. Make sure that you document the delivery properly, because in many states, if this is not processed correctly, you cannot move on to eviction. So, be mindful of the way it is delivered. Like handing it directly to the person, posting it on the front door, and mailing. All states have specific guidelines to follow for dates and delivery of notification, be it a lease violation, notice to vacate, eviction, notice of entry, etc. So make sure you have all your I's dotted and your T's crossed before you post the notice. There is nothing more frustrating than starting over, which is exactly what you'll have to do if you have not properly notified a tenant, or in this case, the trespasser. Now, if the notice to vacate does not get them out, which it likely won't, then you move on to filing an unlawful detainer complaint to get a writ of possession assigned which can be executed by the sheriff. That is a fancy way of saying you get the courts to agree that the trespasser has to be evicted.

Stacie: 29:36

There are a few states where squatters now have rights and it can take months, if not years, to get someone out of your property. New York is one of them. These are people that read obituaries and then search for the person's address and then watch the home to see if it's vacant. And once they're in, all they have to do is say that they have a lease and boom, it goes to court. And unfortunately in New York, squatters get rights after 30 days of living in a residence. It has been brought to our attention that it takes months to even get a judge to give a verdict on an eviction. And then the sheriffs or police or whatever authority landlords have to use to deliver the notice and get those squatters out are backed up well over a year. I mean, it's absolutely insane. There's also now professionals that you can hire to expedite the process of removing squatters. So here in California, there is a company called Squatter Squad, and they do the work just like this. And where we have no affiliation and have not used them before, I think the basic premise of their approach is to have the landlord or homeowner who is dealing with the squatter create and sign a lease giving them or someone else permission to be on the property and live there. Once that's in place, the squatter loses their rights because they likely do not have a signed lease to show and prove their right to be there. On the contrary, there are also sites online, which we have seen them on Instagram, and we have explained earlier and in the last episode, who sell courses to teach people how to adversely possess someone else's property.

Kevin: 31:13

Oh man, like anything for a buck these days, huh?

Stacie: 31:16

I mean it's freaking scary to see this stuff, and it's legal, because adverse possession is a legal law, and they can teach how to do it.

Kevin: 31:24

Yep. Possession is nine tenths of the law. And all it takes is for one person to promote the workaround on the law, and next thing you know, it becomes a common practice for many.

Stacie: 31:36

It's quite unfortunate. But let's wrap this up. So between the last episode and this one, we hope you've learned that there are squatters and there is adverse possession. And the terms are often tossed around as if they mean the same thing, but there are some differences. Problems that come with dealing with squatters are there is major physical damage that can come with them moving into your home, vacant or not. And trying to get squatters out can create significant legal expenses to evict them and reclaim your property. The presence of squatters can decrease the value of your property and the properties around if the home is not being cared for. There can be issues with your insurance company as well if you need to file claims if you don't have vacancy insurance to cover damages caused by the squatters. And, of course, the mental drain and the time lost of having to deal with the issue.

Kevin: 32:31

One last suggestion that we give to landlords who want to remove an actual tenant is to offer a squatter cash for keys. Now, of course, in this situation, there are no keys, but, you know, you get the point. If you could put a price tag on the cost and expense of eviction legal fees, repairs to the damaged property, lost rent, your mental health, and the time sucked you'd experience, what would it be? While it would really frustrate most anyone, they might realize it's easier to hand over a chunk of cash to get the squatter to move on.

Stacie: 33:03

Yeah, that's a good call. I forgot about that one. We did a podcast on Cash for Keys as well. We'll link that in the show notes if you want to give that a listen and see if any of our suggestions will work for you. All right, you guys, that is our show for today. Well, shows if you count the lead up we did last week. The bottom line is to be smart and make sure that your lease has verbiage in it that will protect you from a tenant squatting after the lease is concluded. If your unit is vacant, make sure you take the steps to protect yourself. You guys, we'd love to stay in touch with you. We have a bunch of free forms that you can download, a weekly newsletter that you can sign up for, as well as a private Facebook group and all the social media sites that we'll have links in our show notes for you to go check them out. One last request is that if you like what you hear, would you be kind enough to share our podcast with another landlord or leave a review? We're doing well, but we have a long way to go and we really do appreciate any help that we can get. Thank you again for tuning in and sharing your valuable time listening to all we have to say. Until next time, You've Got This Landlords.