TEXAS, USA — It seems simple enough on the surface.
Someone illegally enters your property, refuses to leave and takes it over as their own. It’s easy to get rid of them, especially in a “stand-your-ground state” like Texas, right? Not at all.
In fact, squatting isn’t even a crime in Texas, as there’s not even a definition for squatters anywhere in the Texas code.
“This is a big, undiscussed problem. Because, once a squatter gets in, you could use neutron weapons and you won’t have much of the building left to get rid of them. I mean, it’s really horror stories,” state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, told us on Inside Texas Politics.
The Texas Senate’s Local Government Committee held a hearing recently to discuss ways to address legal loopholes and turn squatting into a crime, instead of a purely civil matter.
A Mesquite woman relayed one of those horror stories to lawmakers on the committee.
Terri Boyette says a repairman she hired began squatting inside her home while she was out of state taking care of her mother.
He even sold many of her possessions, including the washer and dryer and the refrigerator.
Boyette says police told her it was a civil matter.
A judge eventually granted an eviction but extended the squatter’s appeal 30 days so he wouldn’t be homeless over the holidays.
It’s been almost a year and Boyette testified she still can’t live in her home.
When we spoke to Bettencourt about the issue, he specifically mentioned Boyette’s case.
“If you own your property, you own it. Squatters have no right to it,” he said. “It’s a zoo. And we’re going to fix it.
Bettencourt says according to testimony, there are an estimated 475 active squatting cases in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But he also says there could be thousands of such cases in Houston and as many as 10,000 statewide.
Bettencourt tells us that first and foremost, lawmakers will work to substantially increase the criminal penalties for squatting in Texas, including making it a type of criminal trespass offense.
Other possible fixes include changing the law to require faster hearings involving squatter complaints and giving law enforcement more tools to evict squatters, including the ability to quickly check who actually owns the property in question.
Texas is also closing in on the March 28 runoff.
And the biggest statewide race folks are watching is District 21, where Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan is in a runoff against conservative activist David Covey.
But throughout the state, the GOP has witnessed – and survived – some bruising primaries.
Will Senate and House Republicans be able to work together during the next legislative session?
“We’re elected to go do real things for real people in Texas. And on the Republican side, you have to look for conservative solutions for Texas challenges. So, I think everybody’s going to come together at that point because that’s what the taxpayers and the citizens expect,” said Bettencourt.