A recent story reported by ABC 7 was about a Tinley Park homeowner who listed his home for sale and was called by his realtor to inform him that he now had a squatter in his home. When the owner called the police, he was shocked to find out that the police officers could not do anything but tell him to go to eviction court to start the long 8-month process of evicting the tenant. (See the report here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQaqb_lMmCM.)
Unfortunately, since stories like this happen across the state on a regular basis, the Illinois House of Representatives just passed a new law to remove squatters' rights. It has also passed the Illinois Senate and is now off to the governor's desk to be signed into law. This bill was originally sponsored by Illinois state senator Lakesia Collins and cosponsored by Lashawn Ford. Let's take a deep dive into how the current law works and understand the impact this law will have going forward.
Under the current law, police officers are not able to determine if the tenant has squatter rights or should be arrested for criminal trespassing unless they have a court order. This means that the property owner in the story above had the burden to prove not only that he was the rightful owner of the vacant property, but also that the squatter had no legal claim to the property. This is a months-long eviction process that involves having to appear at a court hearing at least once (possibly more), and waiting for the sheriff to come and lock out the squatter.
Not only is the process to prove ownership of a property and a lack of legal standing for the squatter very long, but it also ends with a sheriff telling the tenant to leave and the owner changing the locks, just for the tenant to find another property down the block to squat in and start the process over. Something similar happened in this story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R6cmm7XPfo. Squatters not only steal the property of Illinois landlords but also homeowners who are on vacation or trying to sell their homes.
So, do you know how squatting works? Most squatters find ways into the home by drilling out locks or finding the keys inside a lock box that the real estate professional left at the property to do showings. They then write up a fake lease with the address of the home, or some have even gone as far as writing up a phony mortgage document. As a Chicago Property Manager, we have no way to get them out of the property until we go through a formal eviction process. Some landlords have gone as far as moving in other squatters to get the other unauthorized occupants to move out on their own. There have also been stories of some owners using physical force once they found out that the local law enforcement would not do anything to help the situation.
A quick synopsis of the proposed bill to prevent all of this is as follows:
"Amends the Code of Civil Procedure. Provides that nothing in the Eviction Article may be construed to: (i) prohibit law enforcement officials from enforcing the offense of criminal trespass under the Criminal Code of 1963 or any other violation of the Code; or (ii) to interfere with the ability of law enforcement officials to remove persons or property from the premises when there is a criminal trespass." (https://www.ilga.gov/legislation,)
This means once enacted, the proposed law will allow local law enforcement to remove squatters from a home without having to go through an eviction lawsuit, and in turn force the tenant to sue the landlord if they believe they had an actual right to the property.
This is by far one of the few landlord-tenant laws passed in the last 10 years that gives housing providers and Chicagoland property managers a leg up in the battle to provide better housing and more affordable housing to tenants. The current adverse possession laws mean that a landlord could lose 8 to 10 months of rent, plus have to make tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. This forces housing prices throughout the state to rise. With this law enacted, housing prices have a better chance to stabilize, and owners and property managers are better protected.
To help paint a better picture of the world that Illinois law currently has us living in, here are some examples of issues clients have called us to help them with:
1. The owner has a building condemned by the city. We have been tasked with keeping an eye on it as he works to get the funds to fix the issues in order to make it safe to live in again. Before he hired us, a group of gang bangers moved into the apartment. We currently have no access to the property and are sure there is illegal activity happening in the home, but because of squatter's rights, we are currently waiting on a court date waiting for the legal eviction process to go through so we can get them out.
2. We had a client hire us to take over a vacant unit. When we got there, a man was living there with a fake lease. The lease was not signed by anyone with legal ownership, and the squatter couldn't even tell us how to get a hold of the person he supposedly was paying rent to. Since we called, the police came, but they would not even go to talk to the man as there was nothing they could do.
3. We had a tenant who was under DCFS protective services. The abuser she was being hidden from found her and put her in the hospital, then moved himself into her apartment. When we called the police they did show up again, but they informed us there is nothing they can do as he is probably just a friend of the tenant.
4. A guy across the street broke into our vacant house, changed the locks, and then rented the unit to someone who thought he was the landlord. Despite the tenant being able to point out the man who gave her access, the police had no authority to remove her since she had a lease with a man who had no legal ownership of the property. They did have an idea this time, though. Since the lady had children, we threatened to call DCFS if she didn't volunteer to leave, and luckily that worked.
All of these examples are just a small sample size of what is happening across the state on a regular basis due to the current laws on the book. The hope is once the governor signs the law that is on his desk, the activity not only will be stopped when it happens, but fewer people will be brave enough to try it knowing they will be arrested and removed from the property.
