The Saga of the Squatter Who is Also a Landlord

I live next door to what we'll politely call a problem property. It's owned by an absentee landlord and managed by a fairly inept property manager who lives across the street. Both the owner and manager claim to want good tenants, but consistently rent to people who bring disorder and crime to the neighbourhood.

Several months ago, after having the place shut down by the sheriff's office for 90 days, the owner put the house on the market (though he didn't try very hard to sell it, using a combination of a kijiji ad and one of those bottom-of-the-barrel real estate companies that technically counts as a Realtor but essentially does nothing other than post a listing on the MLS). In the meantime, he continued trying to rent it out. As soon as he had tenants and a renewed income stream, he decided he wasn't interested in selling the place. In fact, he was probably not overly serious about selling to begin with, given his low effort attempts and the fact that he is asking far more than the property is worth (I've been told, by people who have actually been inside, that it is very much a slum-type property and would probably be deemed unfit for human habitation if the health inspectors ever looked at it).

Anyway, the landlord found new tenants and they seemed like good guys. I actually knew one of them, though not particularly well, and was glad to see someone I knew to be a good person living next door. Alas, it was not to be. His roommate, unbeknownst to him, responded to an ad on kijiji from someone looking for a place to stay. He sublet a room to this person, without consulting his roommate or the property manager (a condition of the lease agreement). Thus began The Saga of the Squatter Who is Also a Landlord.

The Three (Police) Stooges

One night, there was a lot of police activity on the street -- flashing lights, multiple cop cars, the whole bit. This isn't especially unusual, but it seemed to be lasting longer than usual, so I popped my head out the window to see what was happening.

Three cops headed from their car parked up the block, to the house next door. It was an icy night and all three of them ended up slipping and falling on their ass in the exact same spot, one right after the other. It was pretty funny, but also slightly scary given that one of them was carrying an assault rifle. Good thing he had proper trigger discipline, I guess.

There's more to this story, but most of the details are fuzzy and not really important. We found out the next day that the squatter (who was not yet a landlord) had been attacked by some guys who had broken in to beat him up (not sure why; the rumour is that he owed them money). He was taken away in an ambulance and the cops showed up ready to rumble, not knowing the attackers had long since taken off. Also, as far as I know, the attackers didn't have any guns on them, so the cops being armed to the teeth was as unnecessary as it was frightening.

Since the guy was now a danger to the other tenants -- and since the property manager now knew he was living there -- attempts were made to evict him. Numerous attempts, over multiple months, have been made at the time I'm writing this. None have been successful.

The authorized tenants have both moved out. The one who invited the squatter in was evicted for breaking his lease and the other guy moved out by choice, since they were on a month-to-month lease and he wanted nothing to do with what was going on.

Recently, we noticed new people in the backyard. We had a brief but friendly conversation, in which we introduced ourselves to one another. We soon found out that these people were not new tenants brought in by the property owner or his property manager, but rather people that the squatter had brought in on a "sublease" (I'm putting that word in quotes because, at this point, the squatter isn't paying rent to anyone and doesn't actually have a lease agreement).

Through a series of court orders, effectively manipulating the landlord-tenant act to his advantage, the squatter is now a landlord. He's had people move in. He's had people evicted (even receiving a court order that required the police to forcibly remove his tenants, while leaving him in control of the property). For some reason, the property manager has allowed the people who were recently evicted to live in his home, where they spent several hours burning leaves in the backyard last weekend.

Most recently, the squatter has done what the property manager has never been able to do (but always claimed to want): rent the house to a nice couple with a kid and a dog. I have no idea if these people realize their landlord is actually a squatter and that their living situation is pretty precarious. I haven't had a chance to ask and, frankly, I'm trying not to involve myself too much in the situation because I don't want to inadvertently put my family at risk. Whatever the case, they're the quietest, least disruptive people to live in that house in recent memory. I think the squatter/landlord is also still living there, but I haven't seen him around in a while, so I'm not sure.

Frankly, I'm kind of impressed by this guy's con. He's manipulated the courts and police to his advantage, effectively taking control of someone else's property. Given the ineptitude and ineffectiveness of the legal owner and his property manager, I feel very little sympathy for them. If it wasn't for the fact that there has been a higher incidence of petty crime and disorder right next to my home, where my young child lives, I might even laugh about the whole thing and cheer on the squatter/landlord as some kind of criminal underdog (especially if he was just living there, quietly, and not renting the place out as he appears to be doing).

And so that's it, for now. That's The Saga of the Squatter Who is Also a Landlord. I'm just glad I'll be putting in a new, six-foot privacy fence in a few weeks.

To be continued?

Posted at 6:09 PM on Wednesday, 16th of May, 2018 #isdark