Is Your New Neighbor a Squatter?
In an upscale enclave in the San Fernando Valley, there's a new neighbor on the block. He drives a big Mercedes, sometimes a fancy SUV and residents say he's been living in a three-story mansion, which was empty and going into foreclosure.Apparently this is becoming more and more common as the housing market struggles to return to some semblance of sanity. With houses sitting empty and unused, and the penalty for squatting seemingly zero, more and more folks are seeing "neighbors" moving into abandoned houses simply because they can. The story doesn't get into it, but one wonders how they got electricity, heat, and water into the house; the story claims the squatter produced a fake lease, but since utility bills are required to prove proof of residency, one would hope the bar would be higher than that.
Then again, this is CA we're talking about...
That is all.
Another story brought to us by PISSED in his quest for the elevated blood pressure level... ;)
8 comments:
Actually, when we moved into our new home several years ago, all we had to do was contact the utility company and have them turn on the electric and put down a security deposit. (We were able to skip the deposit because we were moving from one place to another in the same city, and already had established utilities.)
The utility companies don't care about providing utilities as long as they're paid. You can even have the bill sent to a PO box. At least, you can here.
When is that ass-hat gonna start posting to his own damn blog. I have it book-marked for nothing. I'll just keep reading here. Happy Thanksgiving.
WOW tough crowd :) cheifjaybob.
I still enjoy being a correspondant for my blogfather, and I'm just getting used to using the blog to post things. I think I might need a little help.
Maybe Jay would offer some tips if I offered him beer ;) ?
PISSED, get the tips before he drinks the beer. Otherwise you don't know what kind of tips you'll get.
I love this blog. Happy Thanksgiving PISSED!! :-)
I'm one of the thousands of spineless arm-chair quarterbacks. I have no blog of my own, but I'll certainly bitch about others.
Beer is always welcome, but I'll do the buying. You have far more content than I.
Most nice home that are empty, the owners (be they people or banks) leave the power on. It keeps heat up, water running, makes the place showable for sale.
The few times I have been house shopping in my life, most of the places I saw could be lived in with nothing more than a sleeping bag and a few grocery bags of food and supplies.
Utilities? They don't even ask who owns what... as long as they get paid. Furniture rental outfits? As long as the check clears, they will deliver bed/couch/TV to anyplace you name.
Typically, the only outfits who demand you 'prove' you legally live where you say you do are busy body jerks like PayPal and local government.
Jay,
"..is living in a stable, secure neighborhood where stuff like this is unlikely to happen:"
The neighborhood in the article wasn't the 'hood or a trailer park. It was a nice, upscale subdivision.
I've wondered about some of the houses in Broad Ripple that have sat empty and unsold for a couple years...
Tam,
Your point is well-taken; however what I meant is that I know my neighborhood - there are no vacant houses here, and of my neighbors, I can't imagine anyone packing up and moving overnight. Most of the houses on my street have been occupied by their current occupants for 10+ years; some for considerably longer than that.
But yes; this sort of thing *can* happen in the "nice" neighborhoods just as easily as in the less-nice neighborhoods.
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