Do you have real estate squatters? Call the sheriff

Do you have real estate squatters? Call the sheriff

Christina Holt/News-Sun

As a property owner, imagine one day discovering squatters occupying your land or your house. What would you do?

Lea County Attorney John Caldwell recommends that property owners who have squatters on their land call the Lea County Sheriff's Office and report criminal trespass.

Lea County Sheriff Corey Helton also recommends calling LCSO as soon as possible.

“My recommendation would be if a landowner finds (squatters), you literally have a few days to contact us and get them evicted,” Helton said.

The issue of individuals squatting on private land has been brought to the attention of Lea County District 5 Commissioner Pat Sims.

“Friends and neighbors have called me about some squatters in Monument,” Sims said.

The issue was discussed at the commission's regular meetings on May 9 and 23 to gain a better legal understanding of the issue.

The definition of a squatter is a person who occupies abandoned or vacant property without the permission of the property owner, according to Caldwell.

And criminal trespass is defined in New Mexico Statute 1978 30-14-1 as knowingly entering or remaining on posted private property without possessing the written permission of the owner or person in charge.

“Violating the law is a misdemeanor and removing or tampering with the no trespassing sign is a misdemeanor,” Caldwell said. “The word knowingly is very important because it is a subjective standard. You may believe someone is trespassing on the property, (but) they may be on the property thinking they have a right to be there.

Large property owners face the challenge of not being able to continuously monitor their entire property at all times.

“As a rancher, it's hard to see all your properties and (squatters) can be there before you know it,” said Lea County District 1 Commissioner Dean Jackson.

One method to deter unauthorized persons from entering private property is to post no trespassing signs. However, there are certain legal requirements for property owners when posting no trespassing signs on their property.

Property owners must not post trespassing signs at each vehicle entrance to indicate that the individual is knowingly on the property or failing to exit the property when told to do so. found illegally. If there are no trespassing signs, the property owner must tell the trespasser that he or she is on the property without permission and ask him or her to leave, according to Caldwell.

“Once that happens, you can then call the sheriff's department and a deputy can come and arrest the person,” Caldwell said.

Squatters' problems often revolve around the length of time they occupy the property and establish residence.

Helton gave the example of a situation where squatters had occupied a property for six weeks and had taken up residence there.

“How do you get residency on someone’s private property?” This is not common sense. Helton said. “This is one of those areas where we believe today criminals have more rights than law-abiding citizens.”

At this point, the situation moves from criminal trespass to the Landlord-Tenant Act.

“The problem is once they're there for a certain number of days, they're protected by the Landlord-Tenant Act,” Caldwell said. “If the person occupying the property says I have a lease with the owner of the property… then it will probably be a civil matter. Unfortunately, in New Mexico you can have an oral lease.

Once it becomes a civil matter, officers cannot arrest individuals for criminal trespass and the landlord will have to go through the eviction process.

However, according to Caldwell, squatters cannot obtain property rights under the Landlord Tenant Act.

“Here in Lea County, the only way someone can gain ownership of property they didn’t purchase is to hunker down and take possession,” Caldwell said.

Some of the elements of adverse possession include that the individual must occupy the land continuously for 10 years, the occupation must be open and obvious, and property taxes must be paid by the occupier for those years, according to Caldwell.

“I think in the state of New Mexico it's going to be very difficult to take title to land there because you have to satisfy adverse possession,” Caldwell said.

Although it can happen, as experienced by the Johnston family who lived in Oklahoma and inherited a house in Carlsbad, KRQE News reported in November 2018.

“Complete strangers turned the Johnstons' house into their home, acting as if they owned it, even without a deed,” KRQE reported.

“It’s not new… we’ve been dealing with it for a few years. I’m really frustrated with these perceived rights of squatters,” Helton said.

“The problem is growing in our country. It’s becoming a problem,” Sims told the News-Sun. He recommends calling LCSO immediately when a homeowner discovers squatters.

Christina Holt's email is [email protected].