Why is it so hard to evict a serial squatter? We asked an attorney who's done it.
ROWLETT (CBSNewsTexas.com) — The return of a woman nicknamed the "serial squatter" by eviction attorneys is raising questions about how difficult it can be to evict someone from a home.
Jes and Colin Davis say Heather Schwab leased their Rowlett home using the name and social security number of a man named "Rayes Ruybal" in order to pass background checks.
Two months later, Schwab is finally gone, never having paid a dime in rent.
"It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be," said Colin, inspecting the mess she left behind.
He knows the eviction process they'd begun could have stretched on for months.
Courts have been backlogged with eviction cases after they were halted during the pandemic.
"I'm aware of cases in Dallas County that have been sitting there for six months and nothing's happened," said Jeff Sprigg, a real estate attorney specializing in these cases.
He has dealt with Schwab before.
"In 2017, I actually handled three separate cases in a span of six weeks in the same neighborhood in Frisco," he said.
In all, Shwab has been evicted more than 20 times in North Texas alone.
Rowlett police are now investigating her, but law enforcement, Sprigg says, will often tell homeowners they need to settle these cases in court.
"The process for eviction is a civil process. It's easy for law enforcement to say, 'We don't want to get involved.' The unusual nature here is that Heather has apparently used a fake name," said Sprigg.
Sprigg says attorneys also discourage landlords from trying to force tenants out on their own by cutting utilities or using any other mean, which could get them in trouble with the law.
"The idea is we don't want self-help. We don't want the wild west. We don't want the landlords coming in with their guns and dogs. In some cases, because the landlord may actually be wrong," he said.
In other cases, though, he says the law does get exploited, hurting homeowners like the Davis family.