When Squatters Strike: Why Squatting Is On the Rise—and So Hard To Solve

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Atlanta attorney David Metzger recently got a call from a client in a tricky situation: She’d gotten engaged, moved in with her fiancé, and decided to rent out her house in Dekalb County.

The day her home was listed, moving trucks arrived and a woman moved in with two kids, one a baby.

The problem? The house had not yet been rented out.

Metzger’s client, who’d heard about the moving trucks from her former neighbor, had her property manager call the police. When they stopped by to check out the situation, the “renter” presented them with a fake lease, with a fake electronic signature.

Presuming this “lease” was legit, the police left.

Metzger and his client spent three months legally wrangling before they were able to remove the squatter in February 2024 (which he says was a relatively short amount of time).

Yet although the mother was removed by the sheriff’s department, Metzger is not aware of any criminal charges brought against her. In another case, he says that his client’s squatters were given 15 minutes to remove all their belongings and then allowed to drive off in their car.

Such stories—of squatters taking over vacant properties, costing homeowners thousands to evict—are becoming shockingly common today.

“This is a real problem,” says Metzger, an attorney at Williams Teusink. “It’s not getting the attention it deserves.”

Why squatting is on the rise

When Metzger began practicing in 2011, squatter cases were “very rare.” But starting in 2023, there has been an “explosion” of them.

“People came out of COVID lockdowns to find out rents were no longer $800 a month, but $1,800,” he says. “They’d say, ‘I can’t handle that.’”

Metzger adds that while squatting used to exist mostly in low-end properties and neighborhoods, he is now seeing it in “bigger, fancier” properties, including in new construction.

According to the National Rental Home Council, there are at least 1,200 properties currently occupied by squatters in the Atlanta area.

Flash Shelton, founder of Squatterhunters.com, which can be retained to clear a home of a squatter, says the situation has reached epidemic levels in Atlanta.

Metzger agrees that the law needs to take squatting more seriously.

“The people doing this know there’s no legal consequences,” he says. “They’re not likely to be charged with anything.”

Once police are presented with a “lease”—even a forged one—it is considered a civil, not criminal, matter, and they leave.

“The squatters know this,” says Metzger.

A new piece of proposed state legislation—HB1017, the Georgia Squatter Reform Act—would make it easier for owners to remove squatters by focusing on the illegality of fake leases.

Metzger, Shelton, and other property law advocates say this is a good first step.

“It’s frustrating because police are very hands-off,” Metzger says, “even though there is no such thing as squatters’ rights.”

How to get rid of squatters

To get squatters out of a property, Metzger uses a little-known Georgia state “intruder removal” statute that predates the Civil War.

“Most people don’t know about it,” he says. Under this statute, the property owner can execute an affidavit setting forth that the squatter is, in fact, an illegal intruder. Unless the squatter has a counter affidavit, this gives the sheriff’s office the right to remove the squatter.

But it’s not always that easy. How a sheriff’s office responds to a squatter case can vary greatly by county. And squatters are geniuses at finding legal loopholes and how to drag out the process. Typical eviction methods can take a year or longer. Meanwhile, the property owner is on the hook for loss of income and legal bills.

The best way to not have to deal with a squatter is prevention.

According to Metzger, the vast majority of squatters aren’t moving in when homeowners are away on a two-week vacation. They’re doing it when a property is listed for rent. They scour real estate listings to learn which properties are sitting empty.

Since squatters target vacant properties, anything an owner can do to make a property look occupied would go a long way toward discouraging intruders. Photos in a listing could include a person, or even a dog (perhaps a big, don’t-mess-with-me-looking dog).

“Try to have a camera and security system in place,” says Metzger.

Normally, when police show up to confront a squatter, and the person claims they have a lease, there is no way to prove the person broke in. However, camera footage can do that. This would generally move the case from a civil one to a much more enforceable criminal one.

Coldwell Banker agent Cara Ameer in Florida agrees that cameras are a deterrent but warns to make sure they are placed securely, or squatters can simply block or remove them.

“We’ve all seen those stories of people removing Ring doorbells,” she says. She also suggests using timed or motion-triggered lighting to make a property seem occupied.

Metzger also suggests alerting neighbors that your property is vacant and asking them to get in touch if they see any unusual activity.

And never leave a key in a key box, which can be broken into. Leave it with a property manager.

If a squatter gets in? Do call the police but do not try to handle the squatter yourself, experts warn.

“Unfortunately, it is a legal game to play and you want to comply with what is required by the law to ensure a successful outcome,” says Ameer. “Don’t confront them or try to turn off utilities.”

With rents at all-time highs and little to no legal repercussions for the intruders, the squatting crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better.

It can’t stay this way,” Metzger says. “Something has got to change.”

Source: Realtor.com