A Georgia man has been fighting tooth and nail for years to evict dozens of squatters from his Atlanta property. Property owners face significant hurdles when trying to take back their land from squatters, including spending thousands of dollars cleaning up the property and being sued for $190,000.
David Morris owns nine acres of land in southeast Atlanta. About 10 years ago, they started allowing four people to live in the property rent-free.
But when the coronavirus pandemic began, uninvited trespassers began living on his land.
“The people who lived on the land started populating the land with other people, their friends,” Morris said recently. my tv.
Mr. Morris asked the city of Atlanta for help removing squatters from his property. Unfortunately for property owners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has put a moratorium on residential evictions. boot Georgia’s eviction moratorium mandated by the pandemic was ineffective. end Until October 2021.
At one time, as many as 30 trespassers were living on his property. He said there are currently eight squatters on his land.
One of the squatters filed a counterclaim against him for $190,000. However, because they failed to appear in court, the case was dismissed.
About a year ago, Morris said “the entire medical staff” of the Stop Cop City activist movement was camping on his property.
Morris, who was living in California at the time, said Atlanta police detained more than 20 activists fighting against the construction of a $90 million police training center in DeKalb County’s South River Forest.
This year, he was contacted by law enforcement and asked to clean up the property. It cost Mr. Morris thousands of dollars to clean up the mess left by squatters on his property.
“It’s frustrating that we have to spend so much money. We spent $10,000 cleaning up trash from vagrants,” Morris said.
He said he went to five dumpsters to collect trash in the past month alone.
Morris said he obtained a warrant of possession on Friday.
“A writ of possession is a court order that a landlord must obtain if they wish to terminate a tenant’s right to possession if the tenant does not voluntarily vacate the premises.” explained Sharon Lewonski – Partner and principal of the real estate practice at Culhane Meadows LLP in Atlanta.
“So I would expect it to be another 30 days before I get a call from the sheriff to coordinate a time to get five guys here to move everything from there to the road,” Morris said. “There is,” he said.
He added: “We’re only going to build a big fence and gate here, and we’re going to put up a no trespassing sign.”
Despite all the problems with trespassers, Morris said he intends to build affordable housing on his property for people in need.
But Mr Morris said he would not begin the affordable housing project until all the squatters left the property.
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Squatter sues Atlanta property owner for $190,000 | FOX5 Newswww.youtube.com
