Frustrated Georgia homeowner finds squatters broke into his home and changed the locks as he cared for his sick wife – as court-ordered eviction could take up to three months
A Georgia man says squatters broke into his home and changed the locks after he found a rental ad for the property online while he was away caring for his sick wife.
Paul Callins of DeKalb County near Atlanta recently spent thousands of dollars fixing up the house after his father left it to him in his will after he died of cancer in 2021.
After completing a lengthy renovation, Callins placed an advertisement online in hopes of finding a tenant for the property.
But squatters appear to have taken advantage and broke into the rental property, which was empty, and changed the locks, locking him out of his own home.
Two men and a woman are now living in the house illegally.
Paul Callins of Georgia discovered that squatters had unlawfully entered and changed the locks of his newly renovated house, which was listed for rent online, while he was away
The house had spent thousands of dollars on renovations but was left vacant, allowing squatters to break in and change the locks. The three refuse to leave
“Actually, these people came over on Friday, broke into my house and had a U-Haul take all their stuff inside. It’s frustrating. It’s very frustrating. I can’t even sleep,” Callins said WSB.
‘I think they’ve done this before because when I called the police they said they couldn’t do anything because they had a fake lease. That it’s a civil matter,” Callins explained.
It seems to be a long and arduous process to throw out the cheaters. In Georgia, the police cannot remove squatters.
Callins must first file an “Affidavit of Intruder” notice with the court and have it signed by a judge.
He can then appeal to the county sheriff’s office to have the squatters evicted.
“I have to go through the legal system and I understand this could take 60 to 90 days,” he said.
When the squatters entered the house, they were confronted by a local television news reporter and refused to answer questions.
About 1,200 homes in DeKalb County are currently occupied by squatters, according to the trade group National Rental Home Council.
A new law that would allow police to arrest squatters for trespassing and criminalize false leases is about to be passed in Georgia’s General Assembly.
Republican lawmakers in Georgia, like Devan Seabaugh, support a new law
According to the trade group National Rental Home Council, 1,200 homes in the city have been taken over by squatters
The proposed bill, called the Georgia Squatter Reform Act, would expand criminal trespass to include individuals who enter property without the owner’s permission for a specified period of time.
‘We are dealing with criminals. These are people who know exactly what they are doing, and they are stealing other people’s most valuable asset, which is their home,” Rep. told IPS. Devan Seabaugh, a Republican who co-sponsored the bill, Fox news.
‘I’ve heard from a lot of people. This led to them going bankrupt. It damages them mentally. It’s a difficult situation and we have to do something. I don’t know how it took so long to get here…but no more free rides,” Seabaugh said.
“What we have done is inserted a new code into Georgian law that says: if you squat in a house and you do not have the permission or legal authority to stay there, you will be arrested and charged with a crime of a very aggravated nature .
‘You will be fined and you can spend up to a year behind bars.’
Seabaugh added that the new law would also speed up court proceedings, with hearings being held in a magistrate court without a jury to reduce the time it takes to remove squatters from a property.
A building at 4951 Wewatta Street in South Fulton, Atlanta – where four squatters allegedly operated an illegal strip club
A SWAT team arrested the four squatters after neighbors complained about the stench of marijuana, gunshots and live horses on the property
The situation in the city has become so dire that homeowners have offered to pay squatters to get them out of their homes rather than risk losing months of rent.
One squat in the city of Georgia was even run as an illegal secret strip club and had to be cleared out by an entire FBI SWAT team.
The FBI had to intervene and arrested four people who had moved into 4951 Wewatta Street in South Fulton without permission.
The 4,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms and three bathrooms was destroyed by the squatters.
Photos from inside the house after the FBI cleared it out showed the hallways eerily empty, except for a cartoonish green lizard painted on a wall.
The trash was strewn with a half-full water bottle, a crumpled plastic bag and a bottle of Pink Whitney – the popular lemonade-infused vodka – on top of a railing.
Neighbors said they ran a strip club on weekends, loud parties and car races in the streets.
DeAnthony Maddox (left) and Jeremy Wheat (right) were arrested at the scene
Kelvin Hall, left, and Tarahsjay Forde, right, were also arrested
Four young men – DeAnthony Maddox, Jeremy Wheat, Kelvin Hall and Tarahsjay Forde – were arrested at the scene.
All four were booked into the Fulton County Jail on multiple charges, including several counts of theft by receiving stolen property.
Last year, deployed Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure said she felt “violated” when she heard a man squatting in her home while she was on active duty.
Daure told local media that Vincent Simon – a man convicted of weapons, drugs and theft – was living in her $500,000 home.
Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure said a man with a long criminal history squatted in her Atlanta-area home while she was on active duty — he was later removed
The Army officer had been away from her Ellenwood residence on duty in Chicago – and only found out he had moved in when the house was about to be sold.
‘I felt violated. If I had not served my country, I would have been in my house,” Daure told WSB-TV.
Simon was later kicked out and arrested following his unwelcome stay, after telling Daure she had to go to court.
National Rental Home Council CEO David Howard previously explained to DailyMail.com, “Incidents of illegal trespassing in the Atlanta metro area are disproportionately higher than comparable markets across the country.
“The sheer scale and consistency of the practice in terms of how these incidents occur are clearly indicative of some sort of organized criminal effort.”
The massive 4,300-square-foot estate where Simon holed up has five beds and five bathrooms, Zillow states, and is valued at about $495,000.
Simon was later kicked out and arrested after his unwelcome stay, after telling Daure she had to go to court
He added: ‘This is of course primarily a property rights issue, but the impact of this type of activity extends far beyond the concerns of the individual property owner.
“There are serious public safety issues here: Who’s in the house? What happens in the building? What is the risk to others nearby? There is also significant concern about the availability of affordable housing.
“Every incident of illegal occupancy means one less home is available for a family in need of high-quality single-family homes.”
“Like individual homeowners, the squatting crisis is making business difficult for some of the nation’s largest single-family rental companies.”
Online classifieds and virtual real estate agents can allow squatters to find empty addresses and gain access by setting up fake appointments.
Some people may not even know they are squatters, as scammers can create false advertisements for vacant properties and bogus lease agreements.
Once a squatter gets in, it’s hard to get them out. It can take three months for an eviction court hearing to take place, and another three months for a deputy or marshal to vacate the home.