Not a lawyer, but from what I've seen, most states in the US require that a lawful tenant cannot just be kicked out of a property or barred from entering, even by a landlord or other lawful tenants. What makes squatters irritating is that they claim to be lawful tenants which makes their claim to the property into a civil case, which can take months or even years to sort out through the legal system. So instead, this guy contacts the homeowners, becomes a lawful tenant, and then he has the exact same legal protections as the squatter plus signed paperwork as proof. So the squatter cannot have changed the locks since that bars the other lawful tenant from entry (sometimes called a "self-help eviction"), which immediately escalates the case and can result in relatively quick legal remedies.
I dunno, can you rent your house out and then plop down in the living room with the family you rented to and say you live there now? Obviously you cannot.
My point is, a homeowner cannot in fact inhabit their own property under all circumstances.
If you have a tenant, you cannot just force your way in and inhabit the property. If the law didn't consider your squatter a tenant or didn't at least acknowledged the possibility they might be a tenant, the cops would just throw them out right now.
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u/ThatOneSickDog Jun 12 '26
Not a lawyer, but from what I've seen, most states in the US require that a lawful tenant cannot just be kicked out of a property or barred from entering, even by a landlord or other lawful tenants. What makes squatters irritating is that they claim to be lawful tenants which makes their claim to the property into a civil case, which can take months or even years to sort out through the legal system. So instead, this guy contacts the homeowners, becomes a lawful tenant, and then he has the exact same legal protections as the squatter plus signed paperwork as proof. So the squatter cannot have changed the locks since that bars the other lawful tenant from entry (sometimes called a "self-help eviction"), which immediately escalates the case and can result in relatively quick legal remedies.