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.
Idaho is a big state,lots of places to hide the body.
“Actually, I think this wouldn’t happen in the third world. They would just handle business, and shut up about it.”
Actually, yes it does. in Mecksicko, for example, if your property does not have a sufficient well built and maintained wall or fence surrounding it, squatters will legally be allowed to occupy it
One of my top 10 favorite movies. “It was just an investment.”
Preferably with her inside it.
Many years ago there was a crack house in a seedy part of the town where I lived. The neighbors complained for more than a year about it, but to no avail. Finally, the house burned down one night in a fire that would have been deemed "suspicious" under any other circumstances. But the police never investigated it. They just reported that the occupants must have started the "accidental" fire.
The occupants of the house moved into a similar run-down house right next door. Within a month or two, that house burned to the ground as well.
Years later, there are still two vacant lots there covered in grass. The neighbors park their cars there.
True story.
“Pacific Heights” was a required lesson in homeschool for me. Followed by some real-life horror stories.
I own several properties. Nice homes. No tenants.
Ever.
It truly is an excellent movie.
I have seen it many times and enjoyed it each time.
The politicians who made this laws are the criminals!
Concur. Move her out whiles she’s gone. Change the locks. Move someone else with a lease in.
Then deny everything.
Get a gun. Do a trigger finger removal.
Shoot the damn judge, too.
The situation has been resolved now. The woman has been arrested on an outstanding warrant. But yes, crazy nonetheless.
He's a fool. Squatters don't play by the rules. Thwart them and you're likely to get broken windows, broken furnace, irreparably damaged carpeting, missing copper plumbing, and a code officer on your back.
And the judge will still favor the squatter, who can't be sued for what he doesn't have and never will.
The story you read does not factor in the landlord's responsibility in the thinking of code official, but if a dwelling's uninhabitable the owner is usually told to bring it up to code pronto, or face fines which may be hundreds of dollars per day. Code officials, like judges, know all the landlord shenanigans and have no patience with them.
Landlording is an extreme sport.
In most of the third world you don’t leave a property unoccupied. You have servants or a guard or family members stay there. Even empty lots.
That is my experience.
It would be better that these legislative criminals be tried and convicted on malfeasance or misfeasance and be disgraced with ridicule.
60 years ago I went my dad who was taking care of my grand moms small rental. Two fag squatters moved in and were destroying the place. My dad zoomed in during the late night and I recall one guy flying through the window and the other being kicked down the front steps and as he hit the bottom he had a 45 screwed in his ear. They were never back. Took us better part of a week to repair the damage
I don’t recommend that today as I am sure my dad would be doing five to ten today! I never forgot seeing how things were done in the old days.
The word “law” means very little these days.
Surprising this happened in Idaho, though; I thought those people were sane.
Yes, the Hell’s Angels do have a legitimate function.
“The person who rented her the house needs to go to jail.
He should be easy to find if she is actually paying rent”
The ‘lease’ is most probably fake.
These trespassers have to leave the home at some point (even if just to buy drugs or food); if you kill them when they return, is there any state where you wouldn’t be in the clear for defending yourself and your property?
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