A questionable compromise but which undeniably saves time when justice is much too slow to resolve the situation…
This is the fear of all owners: being squatted! And, worse still, not being able to count on the justice system to kick out the squatters. While several media events have stirred up the debate in France, the situation also seems the same elsewhere. Particularly… in the United States. If we could have thought that on the other side of the Atlantic, justice would be more responsive, we were wrong. The proof with the example of this owner who found a solution to recover his property in a few hours. Should we be inspired by it?
In the United States, as throughout Europe, the authorities are facing a major societal problem: the squatting of empty or unoccupied housing for a certain period of time. Because, for the moment, the law largely protects tenants… even illegal ones! Across the Atlantic, certain states have to do without the police, who are prohibited from any intervention in this type of case. This is what caused a problem for Marco Velázquez, a Chicago-area owner. Indeed, while he was trying to sell his house, he realized that a couple had illegally taken up residence there on the basis of false mortgage documents presented in their name to the police.
Contacted immediately by the real owner of the property, the police admitted that they could not do anything immediately, being themselves bound hand and foot by the law in force in Illinois. Marco Velázquez therefore had to turn to justice, and its endless waiting times. Neither one, nor two, he therefore decided to use the strong method. “I called some friends, I spent the night in the house and I knew they wouldn’t like it. We stayed in the living room, watching the door. They stayed in one of the bedrooms.”he confided on ABC7. So understand that the official owner of the place squatted his own living room to try to dislodge the squatters… In vain!
Impatient, he made a tempting offer to the couple who were illegally occupying his home: he offered them money! For the modest sum of 4,300 dollars, or approximately 3,700 euros, he asked them to leave the premises immediately. Which they did without delay.
“We didn’t want to give them money, but we heard really terrible stories of squatters occupying properties for six, eight, ten months, even a year.”said the owner. Before declaring, relieved: “It’s true that it wasn’t cheap, but at least I managed to resolve the problem sooner than expected”. A “solution” subject to debate.
