A handyman-turned-squatter-hunter is arguing that squatting should be re-classified as a ‘terrorist act’ amidst Atlanta’s crisis of unwanted tenants.
Homes in the Atlanta area are being turned into prostitution and drug dens as squatters take over vacant properties.
Over 1,200 homes have been overtaken by the squatters and landlords have to clear the unwanted residents themselves or wait months for police.
Flash Shelton, founder of the United Handyman Association and SquatterHunters.com, had his first experience with evicting squatters when they infiltrated his mother’s home last year.
Two women took over the home in Simi Valley after his mother had put it up for sale following his father’s death.
A handyman-turned-squatter-hunter is arguing that squatting should be re-classified as a ‘terrorist act’ amidst Atlanta’s home invasion crisis
Two women took over the home in Simi Valley after his mother had put it up for sale following his father’s death
Shelton had to wait for the women to step out of the home one day and then he swooped in and barred them from re-entering
Law enforcement couldn’t help Shelton because of the complex laws surrounding squatters’ rights – so he took matters into his own hands
Law enforcement couldn’t help Shelton because of the complex laws surrounding squatters’ rights – so he took matters into his own hands.
He spent days studying the laws and managed to get rid of the women by drafting a lease agreement with his mother that designated him as the legal resident of the home.
Shelton had to wait for the women to step out of the home one day and then he swooped in and barred them from re-entering.
The expert offers his squatter-removal services for others struggling with the unwanted inhabitants and has managed to successfully help multiple California landlords.
He’s now offering advice to homeowners in the Atlanta area who have been wrapped up in the squatter crisis.
‘Squatter rights were never intended to allow the take-over of residential maintained properties. Until we make it criminal it’s just going to keep happening.’
‘My advice to the Atlanta property owners would be the same as they would to any property owner,’ Shelton said. ‘First of all, know your laws, know your rights and think safely. This is your house, I understand that, but this is property, and it’s not worth your life.’
In October, an Atlanta home was taken over by squatters who ran an illegal strip club inside on weekends and kept horses on the property.
The FBI had to get involved and arrested four people who had taken up residence at 4951 Wewatta Street in South Fulton without permission.
The 4,000 square foot five bed home with three bathrooms was trashed by the squatters.
Exclusive photos show the property at 4951 Wewatta Street in South Fulton, Atlanta – where four squatters were said to have run an illegal strip club
A SWAT team arrested the four squatters after neighbors complained of the stench of marijuana, gunshots – and live horses on the premises
Photos from inside the home after the FBI cleared it out showed the halls eerily empty, except a cartoonish green lizard painted on one wall.
Trash littered the property with a half-finished water bottle, a crumpled plastic bag and a bottle of Pink Whitney – the popular lemonade-infused vodka – sitting atop a railing.
Neighbors said they were running a strip club on the weekend, noisy parties and car races in the street.
One neighbor said: ‘They would get live horses. One day they had live horses.’
Four young men – DeAnthony Maddox, Jeremy Wheat, Kelvin Hall, and Tarahsjay Forde – were arrested on the premises.
All four were booked into Fulton County Jail on multiple charges, including several counts of theft by receiving stolen property.
Shelton says that squatters who have turned properties into drug houses are bringing a whole new element into neighborhoods that don’t know how to adapt to the danger.
The hazards that come along with illicit activity, like drugs and prostitution, pose safety risks for children, the elderly and everybody, Shelton explains.
Law enforcement aren’t equipped to handle these situations, and there hands are tied because they legally can’t intervene in most cases.
‘As soon as law enforcement says there’s nothing we can do, then I would say reach out to me or someone like me because there are alternatives besides spending a year in civil court,’ Shelton said.
The one thing law enforcement is legally allowed to do when confronting squatters is stay on the property to maintain safety.
Shelton said that he would take advantage of that one right and make sure to stay in the house while the squatters are there.
The massive 4,300 square foot estate where Vincent Simon is hauled-up has five beds and five baths, Zillow states, and is valued around $495,000
Lt. Colonel Dahlia Daure said a man with a lengthy criminal history was squatting in her Atlanta-area home while she is away on active duty and that he refuses to move out
Last year, a deployed Lt Colonel Dahlia Daure said she felt ‘violated’ when she learned a man was squatting in her home while she was away on active service.
Daure told local media that Vincent Simon – a man who has been convicted on guns, drugs, and theft charges – was living in her $500,000 home.
The Army officer had been away from her Ellenwood residence for duty in Chicago – and only found out he had moved in as the house was in the process of being sold.
‘I felt violated. Had I not been serving my country, I would have been in my home,’ Daure told WSB-TV.