UNO: Reverse Squatter Edition

In some of the pettiest news we have seen all year, a man pulled an UNO: Reverse and reclaimed his mother's home from squatters who had taken up residence in the home by squatting within the same property.

What is a squatter? A person who has occupied "vacant" land or a building who holds no legal rights to said land or building. We say "vacant" because it applies to a situation such that the rightful owner has left for a short (even as short as 5 minutes) amount of time instead of a long period (ie: a few weeks). As long as the land or building are unoccupied, they can be taken over by squatters.

So, now, we're sure you're curious about what happened in this weird case where the squatters got squatted by the property owner. The short version of this saga is a man's mother's home in a different state, California to be precise, had been taken over by squatters. The man felt the need to take matters into his own hands and help his mother since she could not get help from local officials. Flash Shelton, the prince of petty, found out that his mother could no longer live in his family home following his father's passing and put the home up for rent. Usually, the sequence of events for renting a home usually starts with a tour, if the tenant meets qualifications, a rent payment and a security deposit, and of course, some sort of signed agreement. A woman decided to skip all of that, showed up with a moving truck and moved all of her furniture into the home. When he reported it, the local sheriff's department said they couldn't do anything because of squatter's rights. So, Shelton had his mother make him the legal tenant of the property by signing a lease with his mother and headed from his home in Nevada to reclaim his family home in California. He then waited for the squatter to leave the home and proceed to squat. Upon the intruder's return he confronted her and demanded she vacate the home, to which she complied.

Is that legal? Somehow, it absolutely is. There is no law that states a squatter's "property" cannot be obtained via squatting, however, that doesn't mean reclaiming squatted property via squatting is easy. This particular case ended without violence, but that doesn't mean every case like this will- especially in the U.S. In case you were not aware, the U.S. has the highest volume of armed citizens, so it wouldn't be a far stretch to assume that a squatter could be armed. In other words, a housing conflict could very easily turn violent and depending on the state and the circumstances, the result may not be in favor of the true owner of the land or building that is being occupied.

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