A Las Vegas man whose mother’s northern California home was nearly taken over for good by squatters is calling for major changes to be made to squatters’ rights after having to deal with them on his own.
That man is Flash Shelton, the founder of the United Handyman Association. When the squatters took over his mother’s home, he reacted with strength vigor, and craftiness, taking it back from them. Speaking on that in a YouTube video, Flash Shelton of the United Handyman Association said “If they could take a house, then I could take a house. They’re the squatter and they have rights. Well, then if I become the squatter on the squatter, then I should have rights, right?”
Watch him describe that here:
As you can hear in the video, Shelton said that his mother had to move out of her home when his father died, as she couldn’t live alone. So they put the house up for rent and, when a woman who said she was a prison guard but had no money or credit applied, said “no.” But then a truckload of furniture was delivered, which the woman said was a mistake. In his words, “She said that it was delivered by accident and she was getting rid of it.”
But she didn’t get rid of it. She started living in the house, and the police were unhelpful. “They basically said, ‘You know, I’m sorry, but we can’t enter the house and it looks like they’re living there. So you need to go through the courts.'”
He wasn’t going to wait and see what the court said, saying, “Even though you’re at your house and you’re paying the mortgage … at some point squatters feel like they have more rights than you, so they don’t have incentive to leave until a judge tells them to. And that could take months, six months, it could take years. I don’t know. I didn’t want to take that chance.”
He gave more details when he appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” to speak about the ordeal, saying:
“[I] got it notarized. I had current utility bills with me in my name. I had keys to the house, and at that point, I would have entered the house, and if the squatter can take a home, I can take a home.”
“If I enter the house, they can’t kick me out just as much. But with having a lease and keys and utility bills at that point, you know, if they call the police, the police would tell them the same thing. If I call the police, I can say, ‘Hey, I have an intruder in my house, and they broke in the back door.'”
So he outsmarted them and showed up armed in case they didn’t take the hint and find somewhere else to live.
After describing how he overcame their predations when speaking with Watters, Mr. Shelton went on to call for updates to be made to squatter rights laws, which seem to penalize law-abiding owners at the expense of loafers and non-paying tenants. Watch the episode here (Mr. Shelton’s appearance begins around the 30 minute mark):
Featured image credit: screengrab from embedded video
"*" indicates required fields