I'm pleased to welcome Kate Tessler to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Kate on the pages of the Accidental Detective Mystery series by Kris Bock. Something Prowling in Paradise Park is the seventh book in the series and was released earlier this month.
In
The Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, a witty journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning fifty.
Accidental Detective Kate Tessler on what she learned during a recent case.
I spent 30 years as a war correspondent before a bombing injury ended that career. Now I’m working on becoming a private detective. (Okay, my sister Jen and I have been amateur PIs for a while now, but the licensing takes time so we can’t technically charge for it.)
Like journalists, investigators get to explore all kinds of interesting topics. Recently, family friends (and troublemakers) Clarence and Arnold brought a case to our attention. A “snowbird” couple that usually didn’t return to Arizona came back early because their electric and water bills were unusually high. They thought maybe they had a water leak, but they found squatters living in their house. The squatters had a forged rental contract, so the police said it has to go through the courts. That could take months.
You can read all about how we dealt with that issue (and how things went dreadfully wrong) in
Something Prowling in Paradise Park. In the meantime, here’s a scene where I talked about the situation with my boyfriend, Todd, and his kids, Finn and Alec.
Over dinner, I mentioned Clarence and Arnold’s request for help with the squatters.
“Oof, that’s a tough situation,” Todd said. “Unfortunately, it’s too common in Phoenix, with so many people leaving their homes empty over the summer.”
I wound spaghetti around my fork, making sure I had plenty of the chickpea-rosemary sauce. “Is it really that hard to get rid of squatters?”
Todd paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. “It’s tricky. It’s easier to get rid of a trespasser.”
“What’s the difference?” Alec asked.
“I’d have to check the legal terms,” Todd said, “but as I recall, trespassing is illegal entry for a short period of time. So if someone is living in the house and another person comes in without permission, it’s trespassing. Squatters stay for a long time and can make a claim of ownership.”
Finn shook his head. “How can somebody claim ownership of a house that someone else already owns?”
“There’s a legal concept called adverse possession,” Todd explained. “The idea goes way back, centuries, I think. Now there are different laws for each state. But basically, if someone moves into a property and isn’t evicted quickly, they can claim they have a right to be there or even that they own the property now.”
Alec’s nose wrinkled. “Sounds wrong.”
“I don’t think many squatters today actually gain legal right to a property,” Todd said. “But they can claim they have a legal right to be there, and the police don’t know who’s telling the truth. So the homeowner has to take it to court to prove ownership.”
“I’m glad I thought to mention the problem,” I said. “How do you know all this?”
“I’ve had some local residents complain to me over the years.” Todd rubbed his forehead as if the mere mention gave him a headache. “I had to look into how the system works. I now have a standard email and letter to help people make the correct legal response.”
“Send me a copy?” When Todd nodded, I went on, “Clarence thought maybe they should move in and try to drive out the squatters, I guess with bad jokes. I advised against it, since people who illegally try to take over a stranger’s home could be dangerous.”
“Good call,” Todd said. “These situations usually don’t turn violent, but I wouldn’t want to get into a competition for worst roommate. They might trash the place before they leave, or trash the place and still refuse to leave.”
I pictured the damage someone could do if they didn’t care about where they were living. “Good point, I’ll make that clear.”
“Also, the squatters might claim the shared habitation is evidence that the homeowners allowed them to live there,” Todd said. “Legally, there are things you should and should not do. The experts don’t even advise changing the locks or shutting off utilities to make the property less appealing.”
That surprised me. “Doesn’t the owner have the right to shut off utilities or change locks? Although I guess I can see not wanting people living in your house without running water. They’d probably leave an even bigger mess.”
It would be bad enough to have clean strangers living in your house. Worse if they were filthy and stinky from days without washing and they let dishes pile up. Granted, squatters might not bathe or wash dishes anyway. But without running water, you’d get overflowing toilets, or people just pooping anywhere, in the yard or even on the floor.
Todd grimaced. “Why do we have these lovely conversations around dinner? Yeah, they could make a mess, and also you could get in legal trouble. It’s probably just better to go through the eviction process, even if it takes a month or two.”
“And meanwhile the actual homeowners have to pay to stay somewhere else.” I was getting good information but that didn’t mean I liked anything I’d heard.
I mulled over what he’d said so far. I didn’t know enough about the squatters in the current situation. “I’m going to text Jen and warn her to make sure Clarence and Arnold don’t do anything drastic before we have more information.”
“Oh, surely they wouldn’t do anything outrageous,” Todd said. We both laughed.
I sent my text. “Do you have any other suggestions on dealing with squatters?”
Todd shrugged. “Hope they’re engaged in another criminal activity? Then you might be able to get them arrested on different charges. Once they’re out of the house, remove their stuff, change the locks, upgrade security—and most importantly, be there physically.”
I hope you don’t ever have to use this information! But you never know when something you learn might turn out to be useful.
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Something Prowling in Paradise Park:
A Kate Tessler Amateur Sleuth Mystery
(The Accidental Detective Book)
by Kris Bock
About Something Prowling in Paradise Park
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