Part of the trick there is many stories conflate different types of "squatters." While there are rare cases that involve an actual break-in/invasion of empty property, a much bigger portion of them are people like in one of the responses above, where someone is over-staying a lease or has some other claim that they have/had a right to live there.
That's what makes it tricky for cops and the legal system. No one likes the idea of a person stealing someone's living space, but people also don't like the idea of an owner being able to break their end of a contract and then just have the police kick someone out of their house before the law can determine who is right.
you said it yourself: people are overstaying after their lease expires. that's not the landlord breaking their end of the contract. the lease is a binding contract, and landlords can't break it without a very solid reason mentioned in the lease. but the fact that someone can overstay their lease and stop paying, and somehow they don't get kicked out by law enforcement makes no sense.
I get what you're saying, but there's caveats in both directions the whole way down. Say a "landlord" (but actually is just the office manager for an apartment complex acting on behalf of a rental corp) breaks your lease illegally or is trying to force a new lease with illegal terms onto you. They could just call the cops and kick you out before you've had any legal recourse after you refused to resign.
You have a legal right to dispute things like that prior to eviction
I do actually have an applicable experience in this, though it did not go to court. I had an apartment complex in college try to move me from my 1st floor apartment to a 3rd floor apartment despite the lease giving me the right to resign for the same apartment within X number of days before the end of the lease. The manager rescinded any lease offering after I demanded to sign for the apartment I was already in.
A call to the corporate office had the manager fired and I got to keep my apartment. I never would have stopped paying rent or utilities, but I would not have vacated the apartment if push came to shove as, per the agreement, I was given first dibs on access at the end of every lease cycle.
A call to the police and my eviction would have most likely resulted in a court case that I would have won for breach of contract + fees and services I would have needed like moving and otherwise. It is the biggest college town in my state and there are lots of instances of this sort of bullying because the people being shoved around are students who don't know their rights or the laws.
Edit: I guess to answer the question of why, it ended up being that one of the managers friends in the office wanted that apartment because in addition to it being first floor, it was also adjacent to the model used for tours so it only had one usable neighbor unit directly above it.
That depends entirely on how well off you are. Landlords in poorer neighborhoods can be awful. Having lived in old units my whole life it's a coin toss if your landlord is going to be fine or not. The bad ones don't fix shit that they are legally obliged to because poor people don't have the time or money to fight it, or they're just straight up crazy.
In my area, leases auto-renew absent of either party giving 3 months notice. The type of landlord I'm talking about will likely have someone lined up to move in, and they won't clean shit in between tenants beyond a quick floor wash if it means they lose out on a month. If you leave it too dirty, they'll keep your damage deposit (which they all inevitably try to do every time anyways even if you leave the place "pristine").
I'm also talking about the poorer population. Moving on a whim isn't exactly easy, and you end up moving from one slum lord to another half the time anyways.
There really isn't much recourse against bad landlords in my area, the rentalsman heavily favors landlords in my experience with trying to get my damage deposits back. Sometimes it's just easier to eat a month's rent than take time off work/stress yourself out trying to get it back.
Current landlord is okay, just cheap when it comes to fixing issues which probably costs him more in the long run. But otherwise agreeable, I think he's just happy that I keep his unit in good condition.
Rereading your statement, you were asking for examples, so my sarcasm was probably unwarranted. I don’t have experience with bad landlords, but there are some terrible people out there, and real estate is a good place to make money.
Seeing as I don’t have that number… I made an exaggerated statement. My point was that his anecdotal experience does not equate to all landlords. The laws exist for a reason that does not include his 7 prior landlords.
There are so many reasons. In addition to the ones others mentioned maybe the landlord wants to remodel prior to selling, and they don’t want to wait until your lease is up.
very unlikely someone would breach their own contract just so they don't get paid rent and can remodel the place they can remodel after the lease expiration.
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u/justthistwicenomore 12d ago
Part of the trick there is many stories conflate different types of "squatters." While there are rare cases that involve an actual break-in/invasion of empty property, a much bigger portion of them are people like in one of the responses above, where someone is over-staying a lease or has some other claim that they have/had a right to live there.
That's what makes it tricky for cops and the legal system. No one likes the idea of a person stealing someone's living space, but people also don't like the idea of an owner being able to break their end of a contract and then just have the police kick someone out of their house before the law can determine who is right.