A Chicago woman who listed her home on the market has revealed she found a stranger living in it who refuses to leave, claiming she already signed a lease and paid $8,000 in rent upfront.
Danielle Cruz said she was shocked when she found the alleged squatter in her Chatham neighborhood home, and she suffered another horrid surprise when police told her they couldn’t do anything about it, ABC reported.
‘They said unfortunately they couldn’t prove she was trespassing,’ Cruz said. ‘We have to go to court and follow the eviction process.’
According to Cook County and Illinois State law, landlords must go through the courts to evict illegal squatters found living in their homes as police cannot determine whether a lease is fraudulent or not.
Upon learning the law, Cruz said she was devastated because she must now go through lengthy court proceedings to get rid of the alleged squatter to sale her $175,000, three-bedroom home.
Danielle Cruz said police could not remove an alleged squatter living in her family’s $175,000 Chicago home that was going up for sale
The Chatham neighborhood home had been renovated as Cruz and her family prepared to list the home for sale, but a repair man found a woman living inside with the locks changed
Cruz said the woman suddenly appeared in the vacant home claiming to have signed a lease and paid $8,000 upfront to a man who said he was the landlord
She told ABC that her family had renovated the house before moving out and deciding to sell it, but the excitement turned to confusion when a contractor they hired to make some final repairs on the home alerted them that someone was living there.
‘We honestly thought he was joking because we knew the house was vacant,’ Cruz said. ‘My husband just repaired the house completely with his own money.’
‘So, we show up with the cops, and there’s a young woman in there with all of her belongings.’
Cruz said the woman claimed to have seen the home up for sale online and signed a month-to-month lease with the landlord, paying $8,000 up front to move in.
Although Cruz said she never met the woman nor listed the home for rent, police said the woman had a lease document, making the case a civil matter that needed to be settled in eviction court.
‘I definitely do feel violated,’ Cruz told ABC. ‘I own this house, and it feels like if anyone can just break into your house and kind of take over, that’s a scary feeling.’
In a statement, the Chicago Police Department said the woman living in Cruz’s home had met with an unidentified man claiming to be the landlord of the residence and signed the lease, getting the keys to the home.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office, which carries out evictions, said in a statement that removing squatters requires a civil process and order from a judge.
Chicago Police explained that they could not determine whether the lease was fake, so Cruz must go through eviction court. Pictured, the kitchen inside the three-bedroom home
A local real estate attorney said such cases are becoming more and more common in Cook County and urged property owners to check their vacant homes regularly
Chicago real estate attorney Mo Dadkhah told the news outlet that such cases are becoming more and more common in Cook County and can occur through one of two scenarios.
Dadkhah said someone can break into a vacant home and create a bogus lease to present for police, or, just as likely, an intruder can changed the locks and pretend to be a landlord to rent out the home.
‘So, generally speaking, squatters have to figure out a way to show some sort of residency,’ he told ABC. ‘
‘If somebody gets into the property in the middle of the night, nobody sees them get in the property, they have a lease in hand. Well, a police officer can’t determine – they’re not a judge.’
The incident has not only left Cruz shaken, but also her neighbors.
‘It’s disgusting,’ neighbor Chiron Baux told ABC. ‘It’s stealing and it’s not right.’
‘It’s frightening,’ added neighbor Quintara Smith. ‘I mean, that can happen to anybody.’