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A DESPERATE homeowner has claimed he was forced out of his own house after greedy pals outstayed their welcome.
Daniel Toma let his friend Amy Davis and her boyfriend Tyler Sencuk stay in his garage when their car broke down this summer.
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He said he “didn’t want to throw them out on the street” and was “just trying to be kind.”
But as the weeks passed, the cheeky couple allegedly refused to leave – and were still there three months later.
“I asked them to go, my roommates asked them to go, they wouldn’t leave,” Toma told NBC affiliate WAVE.
“We tried to tell them to leave. He (Sencuk) started saying (they) had squatters rights.”
Toma said the couple put a mattress in his garage mid-July and the pair started to receive mail at his address.
He even claimed the couple changed the lock on his garage and had Spectrum install cable.
But while Davis and Sencuk behaved like tenants, Toma said they didn’t pay him a penny in rent.
“I feel like I have no power,” Toma said. “I feel like I have no rights.”
The frustrated homeowner went on to put up a 30-day eviction notice, but the matter got worse from there.
A bust-up between Sencuk – who has since moved out and insists Toma’s claims are baseless – and one of Toma’s roommate ensued, with Sencuk filing an emergency protective order against Toma.
A judge granted the order and Toma was forced to stay at least 500 feet away from Sencuk – and his house.
The bizarre outcome saw Toma left with no option but to sleep in his car, while his unwelcome guests continued to stay in his home.
Sencuk told WAVE he was doing maintenance around Toma’s house in exchange for rent – something Toma denies.
He also told the publication that Toma’s claims were baseless.
Sencuk has since left the property meaning Toma is once again free to live there.
The homeowner was due to appeal the emergency protective order against him in court last week. It is not yet clear what the outcome was.
Squatters’ rights differ per state.
In New York, for example, it can be difficult to get rid of someone living on your land.
It takes 10 years without interruption for a squatter to become a legal owner of a property.
If that person lives on a property for 10 years or more and pays taxes they can claim the land as their own.
Expert Advice: Actions to take if you have a squatter
The U.S. Sun’s Emma Crabtree spoke to real estate attorney Paul Golden about what property owners can do when dealing with squatters. Here is what he advised:
Police
- Call the police and hope they are successful in removing the unwanted individual(s), he said.
‘Self-Help Method’
- This is a risky method of evicting squatters but is accepted by at least one New York court “in certain circumstances,” Golden said.
- Using this method, property owners “physically remove the squatter(s).”
- However, if the person is deemed to have been ejected “forcefully or unlawfully,” then property owners may face paying damages and even be “subject to a civil penalty and be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Court Filing
- The third option is to go the legal route and file a summary proceeding after issuing a 10-day notice to those occupying the property.
- The downside to this option, Golden warned, is that “in New York City, it could take months before the court would finally issue a warrant.”
- It may take even longer for a date to be set for a city marshal to remove the squatter.
