Family Buys Roseland Home But Can't Get Squatter Out
(CBS) – A Chicago family purchased a home months ago, only to find a squatter living in it.
The new owners say they are paying bills in a house they can't live in.
CBS 2's Mike Parker has their story.
For three years, since the house was foreclosed upon, a squatter had lived his life there, refusing to leave.
Adrienne Miguest saw the two-story brick Roseland house on auction at a rock bottom price. She and her mother jumped at the opportunity. They bought it, sight unseen, then discovered there was a squatter inside.
Despite the 2012 foreclosure, the former owner had never left and was now fighting eviction. It's dragged on since February.
Adrienne's mother can't get into her new house.
"I'm stuck with a nightmare, and its really frustrating. It's horrible. It makes you feel like, how can people take advantage of a person like that?" Rosie Williams says.
Even though she could not enter her own house, she bought homeowner's insurance and spent more than $7,000 on upgrades and repairs to the exterior.
"It's not fair to my mother, who basically put her life savings up to purchase a home for her, and my sister, who's disabled," Miguest said.
The squatter, the former owner, has filed for extension after extension and is still living in the house.
Late Friday came word that the Cook County Sheriff's Office will evict the squatter within the next two weeks.