Chris Harte Philadelphia homeowner forced to pay squatters $1200 to reclaim his property after cops refused to arrest alleged squatters and to avoid timely court eviction process.
Define oxymoron? A Pennsylvania man has told of having to pay a squatter $1,200 to leave his house after police told him they couldn’t intervene and court staff said a formal eviction could take more than six months.
‘It’s just unbelievable,’ Chris Harte Philadelphia homeowner told FOX News. ‘The city is rewarding criminals, basically.’
Matters first came to the fore in early December when Harte was in the process of selling an investment property he’d renovated in northwest Philadelphia.
‘They said it didn’t matter’
But on Dec. 8, Harte’s real estate agent got a call from someone who lived near the house. She said she heard a commotion the night before, then saw people moving into the house and taking down the ‘for sale’ sign.
Cops were called to the home, who then reached out to Harte to say there were people out front attempting to put new locks on the door.
Harte said the officer told him the people at the house claimed to be renting it, so there was nothing they could do.
The next morning, Harte, his real estate agent and a locksmith met police at the house with similarly frustrating results.
‘I had all my paperwork, purchase and sale agreement, homeowner’s insurance, the deed to the home, everything on me. They said it didn’t matter,’ Harte said.
The suspects had squatters’ rights as soon as they moved into the house, and police suggested he file a landlord-tenant complaint, Harte said. Court staff told him he’d have to pay more than $300 to file for an eviction to remove the alleged squatters, which could then take up to a year.
Squatters’ rights – are they ridiculous?
‘Squatters’ rights … it’s like an oxymoron,’ Harte said. ‘If I walk into a store and steal a bottle of water, they have me on camera, they’re going to take me to jail. But somebody can break into my house, change the locks and now they have rights.’
‘The police told us that they get three to four calls a day similar to this,’ real estate agent Bob Cervone told Fox News. ‘I certainly had heard of this happening from other agents, from landlords. But it was my first experience with it.’
A few days later, Harte said, the squatters reached out to Cervone to arrange a meeting. They said they had found somewhere else to live and would leave Harte’s house if he gave them $2,000. He said that was too much but ultimately paid them $1,200 after walking through the house.
‘The house was super dirty, trash everywhere,’ he said. ‘Luckily, there was no damage.’
The squatters left. He immediately changed the locks and hired a cleaner. All told, he estimates the episode cost him $2,000 and endless stress over the holidays until the sale finally closed last week.
‘I had no peace of mind after that,’ Harte said. ‘I had to keep driving there like every other day just to make sure that nobody’s breaking in.’
