Homeowners Battle To Kick Out Squatters Living In Squalor
WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Homeowners in West Sacramento are caught in the middle of a legal fight over a long-standing law that gives squatters the right to stay put.
"They thought that they were living in a dead woman's house like that house belonged to no one," the homeowner's nephew said.
After his aunt's passing, he said transients and squatters moved right in.
"They split every room into three rooms," he said.
The squatters even began renting the space and accumulating piles upon piles of garbage inside and out of the home.
"Trash, needles, it's like they opened up the back door and that's where they threw trash out. You can't even walk through the house, you have to walk through sideways," he said.
The owner's family, who do not want to be identified, inherited the home and was told they have no rights to kick out the six adult squatters living inside.
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"The only way you can get a squatter out is if they voluntarily walk out and leave," he said.
Or through a legal loophole. Thanks to West Sacramento Police, and a squatter who filed the address with their probation officer, police were able to go in, serve a warrant and move out the rest.
It has been a year since the family began fighting to get squatters off their property and once they were out, there were another 9,000 pounds of garbage to take out too. It has been a revolving nightmare that's cost them thousands.
"You can get mad all you want, you'll fall over and have a heart attack, it's crazy," he said.
They hope the second set of boards hold long enough to keep the neighborhood nuisance out.
