You can't just call the locksmith if a squatter moves into your empty house and changes the locks. FOX 5 real estate expert John Adams explains to Buck Lanford what homeowners can do if they're dealing with squatters. ATLANTA - Squatters are wreaking havoc on Atlanta-area communities, turning properties into dens for drugs and prostitution while inflicting thousands of dollars in damages. They sold the appliances from the property and received money for them.
Selling appliances, [there's] feces everywhere, [they're] sleeping in the beds because these properties are staged on the market. Jones traveled to the Peach State to speak to people on both sides of the crisis, including knocking on the door of one alleged squatter who claimed her family was the victim of a Craigslist scam.
He was paying these people every month. The police have already been out here. After buying a home in Tucker, the new owner found out that a convicted child sex trafficker was living in the home. His arrest was caught on camera in this bizarre squatter case. MORE: Georgia state lawmaker says laws unfairly favor home squatters. People that are doing that ultimately have no fear because they're taking possession of your property without your consentβ¦" she said. So that's another thing of them getting scammed.
Authorities are cracking down on squatters in the city of South Fulton. Officials say, since the pandemic, there's been an exponential increase in the number of people who unlawfully stay in a building they don't own or lease. Now the Fulton County Sherriff's Office has partnered with South Fulton Police, by deputizing them, so they can perform ejections, not evictions. And yes, there is a difference. Another Georgia property owner told Jones the squatters on her property refused to leave when asked.
There was prostitution. There was drug selling, drug usage, everything. This went on for months. They broke in through the walls, through the doors, through the windows," the victim told Jones. The squatters took the copper from the home's HVAC system and pulled the furnace out of the attic.
