Posted on 03/07/2025 9:06:21 AM PST by Red Badger
The housing market is still utterly insane right now. So it's doubtlessly a relief when a prospective homeowner finds and buys their dream home.
Unless, of course, they're told that they, uhh, can't live in it:
The nightmare started last fall when [Meghan] McIntyre and her boyfriend decided to move back to Plymouth and purchase their own home. Months later, instead of moving into the house they bought, they are forced to rent an apartment while also paying the mortgage on a home they aren't allowed to live in. Instead, someone else is living in the house.
Finding out someone else is living in the house you just bought:
"It's like a never-ending nightmare," McIntyre said of her attempt to move back home to Plymouth.
It turns out that Ms. McIntyre purchased a foreclosed property. She was under the impression that it was vacant and move-in ready. But shortly before moving in, they got a call from a former occupant of the house — someone who was "never an owner," "never a tenant" and "never paid rent," yet who had lived there to care for her mother and who wanted to move back in after her mother's death.
Rather understandably, Meghan said no. And that's where the nightmare really began:
'The next day we got a call from the housing court that we had a court date,' she said.
The judge ruled that McIntyre had to give the woman the keys and allow her to stay at the house.
Raw footage of a judge forcing a woman to surrender her house to some random lady who wants to live there:
Real estate attorney Jordana Greenman said the scenario is "horrifying," but she said state law explicitly allows for someone's home to essentially be seized and used in this way:
'It is another one of those things that in Massachusetts with all of the consumer protection rules, nobody can be unhoused per se, without a court order,' Greenman explained. 'It might boil down to how much are they willing to pay to get this person out. And then they'll go, which is really very upsetting. It should not be so difficult.'
But folks, it goes beyond "difficult." The state is being outright capricious and spiteful in dealing with this situation.
A court has ordered McIntyre to "pay for a whole list of expenses" prior to starting eviction:
McIntyre said they had to pay to restore the floors after they ripped up the carpet to replace them. McIntyre is paying the utility bills and even had to put the woman up in a hotel and pay for her meals when the heat stopped working in the home.
McIntyre said this is on top of her paying for the mortgage, HOA fees and rent. She estimated they are paying around $10,000 a month just in housing.
Thankfully, there's some end in sight. The rightful homeowner and her squatter tenant reached an agreement:
Under the deal, the woman gets to stay until the end of March and McIntyre has to pay her $7,500 to put towards a new apartment.
Please remind me to never, ever buy a home in Massachusetts.
Who’d they vote for?
The would be a fire or some sort of infestation.
I have 2nd and 3rd cousins in construction in North Jersey who would quickly take care of this problem.
I can’t comment....I’d be baned from FR for the suggestion I’d make.
How are these squatters not home invaders?
move in with them
It would seem to me that the seller should be responsible unless they disclosed the fact that the property was encumbered when they sold it.
Skunk Oil works great for getting rid of squatters.
You must remember:
Communists despise the very idea of PRIVATE PROPERTY.
“...’It is another one of those things that in Massachusetts...”
Massachusetts, the state with a hair border.
Have the squatter’s family move into the judge’s home during the next hearing.
Massachusetts is obviously enemy territory.
How would the seller know?
I am wondering about the home inspector—how they did not notice someone was living in the house.
There might be a cause of action there.
The other lesson here is (hindsight being twenty/twenty) that the buyer should have put a paragraph is the sale agreement that states the transaction is being made with the understanding that the property is vacant.
If that was not correct then the sale contract becomes void.
The Judge likely has better digs so give the squatters the Judges address and play it up. Offer to help them move.
“I am wondering about the home inspector—how they did not notice someone was living in the house.”
1. The house was vacant.
2. People are often living in the house while it is being inspected.
3. You did not read the article.
Don’t pay the tax and watch how quickly Massatwoshits kicks the squatters out.
EC
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