When dealing with vacant or abandoned properties, owners—regardless if the building is privately owned or bank-owned—need to keep a close eye on the safety and integrity of the buildings. In a lot of cities, vacant properties are an open invitation for people who have nowhere else to stay to come in and set up camp for a while. There are a few reasons that you should be protecting your property against vagrants—besides just the obvious reason that you don’t want homeless people staying in your building for free. But how prevalent is squatting, and what can you do about it?
Is Squatting Common?
While it’s not easy to get hard numbers on how many squatters there are out there, there are plenty of cases to point to where new owners had issues with squatters already occupying their homes and claiming to have squatters rights. Oftentimes, squatters will show cops bogus leases or deeds in order to get police to leave them alone, and unfortunately for the new owners, it works a lot of the time. New owners may have to wait as long as several months to get the squatters out, since police may not be all that interested in dealing with these issues, because they don’t want to accidentally move someone who has a right to be somewhere. They have to make sure a crime is being committed before taking action, and that can prove to be too difficult.
What Can Owners Do?
If you’re a bank that owns a lot of vacant properties, it is in your best interest to set up a door guard system to keep squatters out. In many cases, squatters are able to get away with their actions because they have not broken and entered—they get in through an unlocked door or an uncovered window. That’s why it’s safest to install metal window guards and door guards in order to prevent people from entering the building. If you’re concerned about your property being tampered with, be sure to cover up and points of potential entry.
