Sounds just like Pacific Heights.
Posted on 04/14/2016 6:32:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An Idaho couple is desperate to evict a squatter who made herself at home in their empty house while they tried to sell it — and she claims she signed a lease.
Brian and Renea Prindle are in a losing legal battle after a judge ruled they couldn't kick out a woman who they say moved into their Nampa, Idaho house after they moved out and put it on the market.
"We told the cops we don't know this woman," Renea Prindle told KIV-TV.
“She's trespassing," she added. "We're not landlords and she's not our tenant."
The Prindles had moved out of the single-story home in 2015 and moved in with family while they tried to sell the home. They finally found a buyer from California when they noticed the woman, named Debbra Smith, had moved in in March.
Smith, who has a drug record and has sullied the house with cigarettes and cat urine, told them she had signed a one-year lease and was given keys by a man to whom she paid $1,500 in rent and deposits, ABC News reported.
"Our home is not for rent. Our signatures are not on the lease agreement,” Renea Prindle claims.
"I believe she printed the lease off of the internet," the Prindles’ lawyer, Tiffany Hales, told the Daily News, who added that she had evicted Smith from another property down the road for failure to pay rent in February, just before the Prindles found her in their house.
In another twist to the squatting saga, Smith was arrested Monday for failure to finish probation for a drug charge, landing her in Canyon County jail for eight days.
The Prindles aren't allowed to take over the house while she is detained, however, because Smith "has to show some sort of intent to abandon the property," Hales, the family's lawyer told the News.
It's unclear whether the arrest will affect the eviction case.
Local police have told the Prindles that they have to let Smith stay.
“They told me, I have every right to stay there if I have nowhere else to go because I did have the lease,” Smith told KIVI-TV.
Worried that they might risk losing the sale of their home to the potential buyers from California, the Prindles sought an expedited eviction — a recourse available in cases where you can prove drugs are used or sold on the property — after they saw what they believe was a bag of marijuana and a pipe inside the home.
They lost the case because they weren’t able to get the drugs tested.
“I just didn’t realize the judge would ask for it to be tested,” Renea Prindle said.
“It’s kind of hard to test something when you’re not allowed to take anything from the home.”
The couple has now filed regular eviction paperwork and face mounting legal fees.
Smith has 20 days to respond to the eviction notice.
“I’m sick to my stomach,” Renea Prindle said.
The laws in Nampa, Idaho, appear to be insane.
Shoot, shovel, shutup.
Yup, she just up and left.
Stories like this amaze me. Honestly, I think I would hire a few “friends” and just have them remove her...let the chips fall where they may. It should be HER taking action to get back in - see how that works out.
America has gone insane.
This is third world country stuff.
The rule of law is supposed to protect people from this sort of predator.
This is how a system falls in to barbarism. Next thing you know, couples will be paying local thugs protection money to take care of problems such as this.
Just like a lot of America now.
They should rely on the long recognized common law remedy of “self help.” Go into your own house and physically through the squatters out on their behinds. Get ear plugs for the whining and ignore it.
30.06, 30.30
22LR, 5.56, 12ga
20ga.
Yup...get her out, one way or another.
That's been going on for a long time. You don't know too many landlords do you?
I would print a lease off the internet.
Then I would move into the judge’s house.
Actually, I think this wouldn't happen in the third world. They would just handle business, and shut up about it.
Needless to say - she would scare the daylights out of me if I went back to my house with her there - what choice would I have - lights out for her.
Too late here...you call the cops AFTER the event.
1. Notified the tenant that he was going to enter the property on a certain date and time to fix the boiler (which actually did need fixing). She was away when he entered so ...
2. He fixed the boiler, but before he left the house he removed the front door from its hinges -- leaving the interior of the home exposed to the elements.
3. Made an anonymous phone call to the town's health officer, reporting the open/exposed home as if he was a neighbor who just happened to see it.
4. The health officer came to the property, boarded up the door, posted an "uninhabitable dwelling" notice on the plywood board, and ran yellow tape all over the outside of the house.
5. A couple of months later, the owner (who never heard from the tenant in all this time) simply had the door fixed, tossed all the contents of the home out in the garbage, and paid a small fine to get the certificate of occupancy restored.
LMAO.
Helped a neighbor go through this. She was 87 and wanted to move into a nursing home but her son’s former girlfriend, who was not invited to live in the house, claimed residence. It took about 6 weeks to get her evicted. These laws are criminal.
Lol, this kind of stuff goes on all the time. It took me a year and one half to evict a “Dr.” back in 1972. He simply hired a lawyer and made all sorts of accusations and I got stuck in “the system”.
When we finally prevailed and got access the good Dr. had caused major damage to a brand new house. The item I will always remember though is cat s___ under all the beds!
You're going to see a lot of justice done the Old West way.
Sounds just like Pacific Heights.
Can’t they just wait for her to leave then board all of the doors and windows? Surely she can’t be there 24/7
At the very least the woman in the house owes the real owners of the house rent and back rent.
The person who rented her the house needs to go to jail.
He should be easy to find if she is actually paying rent
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