{"id":1508431,"date":"2022-06-08T21:04:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T01:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1508431"},"modified":"2022-06-08T21:04:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T01:04:33","slug":"chicago-woman-found-a-squatter-in-her-home-she-cant-kick-her-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chicago-woman-found-a-squatter-in-her-home-she-cant-kick-her-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Woman Found A Squatter In Her Home. She Can\u2019t Kick Her Out."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchicago-woman-found-a-squatter-in-her-home-she-cant-kick-her-out%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1508431&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A Chicago woman in the process of renovating her home to sell it found a squatter living inside, and there is little, if anything, she can do to get her out.<\/p>\n<p>Danielle Cruz was renovating her home in the Chatham neighborhood of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/chicago\">Chicago<\/a>. She had listed the home for sale. But last month, a contractor who came to the home to perform some final repairs found the locks changed and a young woman with all her belongings living in the home. Cruz and her husband called police, but because the young woman showed them a lease agreement, they could not evict her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe honestly thought [the contractor] was joking because we knew the house was vacant,\u201d Cruz told <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/stranger-moves-into-cihcago-house-for-sale-chicago-homeowner-battle-with-squatter-problems-houses\/11935474\/\">ABC7<\/a> Chicago Tuesday. \u201cMy husband just repaired the house completely with his own money. So, we show up with the cops, and there\u2019s a young woman in there with all of her belongings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Cruz, the woman told police that she saw an online listing advertising the home for rent. She then signed a month-to-month lease, including an $8,000 upfront payment, with someone claiming to be the landlord, and began living in the home. Cruz told ABC 7 that she had never met the woman, nor did she lease the property to her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOfficers made contact with the individual inside the residence who related she met with an unknown male who claimed to be the landlord of the residence,\u201d Chicago police said in a statement, via ABC 7. \u201cShe also related she had signed a lease and paid a deposit prior to receiving keys to the residence from the individual claiming to be the landlord. Responding officers advised the owners of the home of eviction procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Sheriff\u2019s Office is responsible for removing people from their home when they fail to pay their rent or mortgage,\u201d the Cook County Sheriff\u2019s Office added in a statement of their own. \u201cThere is a clear civil process that individuals follow when that occurs. When someone breaks into a home that is up to the local police department to establish the law they violated and pursue that as a criminal matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cruz may have been victimized by a growing trend of scams run on vacant homes. A Google search of the phrase \u201csquatter scam\u201d brings up a number of results indicating that these scams are being run nationwide. According to a 2017 report from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/crime\/2017\/06\/08\/how-squatters-move-into-vacant-homes-and-scam-renters\/357994001\/\">Indianapolis Star<\/a>, the scams became popular in recent years, with a combination of a poor economy and local issues with vacant homes. The scam works like this: a con artist will identify a vacant home, be it abandoned, foreclosed, or even just up for sale. The scammer will then change the locks on the house, and present an otherwise unsuspecting tenant with a counterfeit lease agreement printed off the internet, and a set of keys.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago real estate attorney Mo Dadkhah said he has seen this phenomenon before. \u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s becoming more and more common,\u201d he told ABC7. Dadkhah suggested that the individual could either be a victim of such a scam, or she could have moved in herself, created a fake lease, and presented that to police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, generally speaking, squatters have to figure out a way to show some sort of residency,\u201d the lawyer said. \u201cSo I\u2019ve heard a variety of stories \u2014 forged leases with the landlord\u2019s name, I\u2019ve seen forged leases with realtors\u2019 names.\u201d In any case, police officers have no way to determine whether the documents are real or not, so they have no recourse to arrest or evict the squatter. Dadkhah said the case has to proceed through the Cook County eviction courts, which are currently backlogged. \u201cThe process could take six, 12, 18 months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI definitely do feel violated,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cLike I said, we may not live here, but it\u2019s still our property. I own this house, and it feels like if anyone can just break into your house and kind of take over \u2013 that\u2019s a scary feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Chicago woman in the process of renovating her home to sell it found a squatter living inside, and there is little, if anything, she can do to get her out. Danielle Cruz was renovating her home in the Chatham neighborhood of Chicago. She had listed the home for sale. But last month, a contractor &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":1509113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1508431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1508431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1509113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1508431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1508431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1508431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}