Stranger who moved into vacant Chatham home, refuses to leave says she was scammed

Welcome to city of Chicago tenant right.

Squatters and rental scammers are EXTREMELY spohisticated right now. Fake paystubs, fake IDs, complete knowledge of laws so they can extend eviction proceedings. I manage 700 apartments in the city. We are constantly batting away scammers.

I’m convinced there is a squatter strategy message board in the city that’s invite only.

This was 100% intentional. Now that it’s in the news, EVERYONE is going to do this.

If you have a vacant home, check on it weekly. Have an ADT alarm system so if someone gets in, police are called immediately. This way if they try to show a lease, you can claim it’s not yours and have them arrested for tresspassing before they establish residency.

It would be preferably to have a friend live in a vacant home prior to selling than leaving empty. Eyes need to be on it all the time.

My last 2 evictions took 2 years and 2.5 years respectively. You don’t want it to go civil.

This whole thing is confusing. The owner put the house on the market and someone just moved in claiming they rented it ? How does this happen?

The squatter is the scammer.

1: Says she paid 3k in advance. They offer her 1k to bail after she’s been there awhile already. She refuses and wants 8k to leave.

2: When asked for info about the person she says scammed her, says she’s tried to contact them but is getting no response. Yet doesn’t think to give the name or info out. Because that person doesn’t exist.

She wasn't scammed at all, she is THE scammer in this situation. The audacity for the crook to expect the homeowner to "work something out" with her as they are losing money each month. They need to update those outdated laws around the whole country ASAP to avoid this foolishness.

The eviction courts don’t seem the be the right forum, since the so-called lease was made without the owner’s consent. The police should just go in and evict the squatter.

Reminds me of that one episode of “worst roommate ever” on Netflix

Probably wouldn’t work, but might be fun to try getting a few kegs and throwing a rager in the yard.

Just go in & pull her out, it’s called trespassing

There needs to be some regulation added. There is a hole in the process. Something needed to verify identity, like a service to validate an ID of the person making the lease. This should be for any contract. At the very least, you should be able to reliably identify who you are signing a "contract" with.

so she never leaves the house? the property owner should wait until she leaves and change the locks