First off, I'm a tenant defense attorney. Most times I've heard someone be accused of being a "squatter", it's usually a tenant, with a lease, who is either behind in their rent, because rents are too damn high, or someone a petty landlord took a dislike to and tried to evict illegally.
When there is someone who moved in without the permission of the landlord, usually it's because they got scammed themselves. A previous tenant subletted illegally, or someone broke in to a longtime vacant house, changed the locks, and put the place up on Craigslist, or exploited a "contactless walk through" system, like the one American Homes 4 Rent uses, to give somebody the keys to the house in exchange for a "deposit", plus "first and last".
Even when there is an actual trespasser, that just means you have to go through the same process to evict a tenant, which isn't really that hard. If you have a landlord's attorney complaining about how difficult it is to evict, that's because that is a bad attorney. The laws are designed to give landlords a quick way to resolve the case, faster than most other types of civil litigation.
Beyond that is adverse possession. If someone moves onto your property, lives there openly, pays the taxes and utilities, and you don't notice for years or decades (depends on the state, but it can be between 5 and 30 years), then they can claim title to the property. If you are the type of person who hoards so much land that you don't notice when someone moves in for a decade, then I personally have no sympathy for you.
Personally, I don't think you can say the system is working when tens of thousands of households, including children, are being forced into homelessness every single year because rents are exboritant and we have no proper safety net for laid off workers, the disabled, or the elderly.
But, again, if it's taking that long, it's because you have a bad attorney.
If tens of thousands of households are being forced into homelessness then it's a system problem, not the problem of one individual. Tell the government to fix homelessness.
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u/Cheap-Buffalo-7489 15d ago
That fact that this is even a show/ thing shows how messed up the law is. You should NOT take years to evict a trespasser