Good morning and welcome to Twitter Law School, the law is an ass...
alexandriabrown@alexthechick
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Mar 01, 2024
~5 min read
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Good morning and welcome to Twitter Law School, the law is an ass and people are, rightfully, beginning to lose all trust in the legal system and I don't mean because of politics edition. Grad yourself a nice bagel, schmear of whatever you wish, some caffeine, and let's get it.
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Recently, a family friend was renting out a house while the heirs of the house were working out what they wanted to do. The heirs were amicable, it was a situation where due to other matters selling the house right away wasn't the best option. No big deal, this happens a lot.
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I received a call from family friend all indignant because a potential tenant asked to see proof of ownership of the property. So that's when I got to explain the fake lease scam and that, yes, people were, in fact, more or less stealing entire houses.
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Here's how the fake lease scam works: scammer finds an empty house, gains access somehow, changes the locks, then lists the house for rent on Craig's list or something similar. People who are outside the normal rental process for whatever reason see the ad and "rent" the house.
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The "renters" believe this is the real landlord. After all, they've put up first and last months rent, in some cases people are putting up 3 and 6 months in advance, they signed a lease, see, it says lease at the top and it looks all official, so they believe it's legitimate.
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Actual property owner discovers this, shows up and says this is my house, I never signed a lease, get out. People in the house say hey I have this lease, I paid my money, I'm not leaving. Scammers are, of course, long gone. And this is where the law is an ass starts.
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Usually, the first thing the property owner does is call the cops to say these people are trespassing, remove them. Which is when the property owner discovers that such disputes are civil, not criminal, and absent a court order telling the cops to remove them, the cops won't.
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It is not up to the cops to decide who is right. It doesn't matter that the property owner is standing there with the deed and the mortgage and every proof of ownership. The cops may issue a trespassing citation but they will not remove the people. You have to evict them.
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Most, if not all, states prevent self-help measures. That means that property owner can't simply show up, change the locks, and dump all the people's stuff in the yard. They have a colorable claim to being a tenant. If the property owner does that, the property owner gets sued.
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So the property owner, who did not do a single thing wrong, now has to spend the money and the time to get an eviction. These hoops are not particularly easy through which to jump and, best case scenario, it's going to take 2-3 months to get the order of eviction to get them out.
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Meanwhile, the people being scammed are out money and now they have nowhere to live and if they want their money back, they have to file a small claims action against people who are long gone. It's a mess. There are warnings now to tenants to demand to see proof of ownership.
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Why is the law an ass? Because the property owners do not comprehend why the cops will not remove trespassers from their property. Because the property owners do not comprehend why they have to spend the time and money to go to court to get rid of trespassers. They're trespassers
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The property owner is the one being done wrong and everyone seems to be on the side of the person who is doing the wrong, even if not intentionally. Meanwhile, the people who were scammed are out money and now a place to live and they thought they had an enforceable lease.
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Everyone involved thinks the law is on the other person's side. Meanwhile, the actual bad guys got away with it. And that's just for the fake lease scam. Now let's move on to squatters. Squatting is becoming an issue and squatters seem to have all the rights.
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In cases of squatting, where the squatters don't even pretend to have a lease, property owners think that, yes, the cops will show up and throw the people out because the squatters don't even pretend to have a right to be there. The cops aren't going to do that absent court order
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There's an actual crime being committed, not to mention that usually the squatters aren't exactly taking care of the property, and the cops won't do anything. Back to court to get an eviction and welcome to the Kafka world of trying to evict someone who isn't a tenant.
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Depending on where you live, it can be nigh to impenetrable to lawyers, let alone normal people, how to get an eviction order when there's never been any landlord tenant relationship at all. It's an absolute mess and, yes, I've dealt with this professionally. It's a nightmare.
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All the property owner sees is that people are stealing an entire damn house and if he shows up to throw them out, he's the one who is going to get arrested for assault and battery and theft of belongings because he's trying to claim his own property!
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How do you think people view the law after that? They own a house. They are trying to do the right thing. They pay the property taxes and the insurance and mow the lawn and keep the property maintained and then someone steals the house and the law is on the side of the thieves?
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People think, rightly, that they are suckers. That the law is there for anyone but the people who follow it. Why are they playing by the rules when breaking them is rewarded? Why are they bothering to respect institutions that won't help them when they are in the right?
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And you know what the answer to that is? They shouldn't. The weaponization of the judicial process against those who follow it is contemptible and thus contempt is the proper response. And once that domino falls? Well. The end is never good. Here. Have a red panda. /fin
