North Charlotte Today

Some real estate agents are turning to no-contact key tours of houses on the market to mitigate the COVID-19 risk, but other risks lurk in the shadows: squatters or trespassers.

Legally, the two are different, according to WCNC. But, one thing is the same: they are people who use empty houses without permission. The difference is that squatters try to claim they own the property, whereas trespassers merely use it and move on.

Trespassing is a criminal act, and a person accused of it can be arrested. Squatting is another matter.

"A squatter, or adverse possession, is civil in nature," Charlotte lawyer Matt Fleishman told WCNC recently. "This is a claim of ownership on the property. So. if you have a squatter claiming ownership, the police don't do anything with that. So, if you have somebody, for example, who has overstayed their welcome and you want them out, you can call the police, but they'll say, 'It isn't a crime, there's nothing for us to do with it.'" 

If someone is suspected of squatting, the homeowner needs to get a judgment to evict them, Fleishman said. Then, a sheriff can enforce the eviction.

The finer points of the law come into play with regards to what happens next.

"A lot of it's going to be dependent on how long that squatter's been on the property," Fleishman said. "In North Carolina, you have to be on the property for 20 years. It has to be uninterrupted. It has to be open and obvious to the owner of the property that this person is there, and once they've done all these things and achieve those requirements, they have a right to that property."

The distinction between squatting and trespassing is not always clear-cut.

Chad Floyd, a Charlotte realtor for Keller Williams, told WCNC he has encountered cases where drugs were involved.

"I saw crack pipes, I saw needles," he said. "There were people just passed out in the house on the floor, trash everywhere."

Fending off trespassers or squatters is a challenge that requires a concerted effort, Floyd said.

"It became a cat and mouse game," he said about the battle real estate agents face. "We change the locks, they break in through the windows. We lock the windows, they break the windows."

Floyd blames COVID-19 for the surge in such problems.

"When the pandemic started, all of a sudden you have a situation where people might be priced out of their rentals," he said. "They might just lose access to affordable housing, and the option of squatting becomes a little more attractive to somebody."

Floyd recommended that the owners of the property ensure they have given police officers permission to enter the property if unwanted people are discovered in a home. 

"The issue is that CMPD [the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department] is not authorized to act unless they're given direct access by the homeowner," he said. "And in the case where the homeowner is some out-of-state investor, that's a hard person to get a hold of because it's some LLC in Delaware or whatever."

He said that neighbors should be recruited to watch for suspicious activity.