An outraged Texas couple is pleading with lawmakers as their contractor turned squatter refuses to leave their property.
Yudith Matthews and Abram Mendez said they hired a contractor to complete tile work for their fixer-upper San Antonio property.
But after they fired him for not completing the work, the contractor refused to leave and is now reportedly living in the house.
The couple even filmed the unwanted guest climbing through their window despite being asked to leave.
‘We don’t have any protection. There’s legislators that are out there, who are making headway, but we need more headway across America to protect us, the homeowners, because there’s very little,’ Mendez told FOX News.
The couple tried calling law enforcement to remove him from the property, but they said police refuse to get involved.
Yudith Matthews and Abram Mendez are pleading with lawmakers as their contractor turned squatter refuses to leave their property
The contractor originally asked the couple if he could stay on the property while he was completing the work on their house because he had gout
‘It’s really a gimmick, I think, for the municipalities across America to make money.’
The contractor originally asked the couple if he could stay on the property while he was completing the work because he had gout.
They agreed, drew up a contract, and Mendez filmed the squatter signing the paperwork.
But the squatter allegedly stole the phone with the footage and deleted the video evidence.
The job was only supposed to take a few weeks to complete, but the contractor kept delaying the job or making excuses as to why he couldn’t work.
After the couple fired him, he still refused to leave.
‘He must be homeless. He never, never even worked in the restroom,’ Mendez said.
‘The first few days, he was complaining of his gout. Then after I was trying to get a work schedule from him, he would just give me runarounds.’
‘Little by little showing that… it was a room. It was the house that he wanted all along,’ he continued. ‘With our trust he abused us.’
Mendez and Matthews visited the police department and the constable’s office several times, but have come up empty handed.
Police told them that because of squatter’s rights in Texas, a squatter can legally obtain property through adverse means. Technically, the issue between the couple and the squatter was civil, rather than criminal, and they would have to get lawyers involved for a proper judicial eviction process.
‘They [constable’s office] explained to us the rights to tell to the police, that is a trespassing matter,’ Mendez said. ‘We explained the law, the letter and how to enforce it, and yet the police did not want to do anything.’
The constable’s office said the man had 72 hours to leave, but the squatter hunkered down and brought more of his belongings to the property.
The conflict escalated when the squatter allegedly shoved Matthews while they were putting the eviction notice on the property.
To their surprise, they said the police asked the squatter if he wanted to press charges, and that it was the couple’s fault for being in his way.
Video footage showed the squatter climbing through the property’s window.
‘Squatters breaking into my house again through the window,’ Matthews can be heard saying during the video. ‘Squatters. Interrupting my work and recording me.’
‘I can show you his rights,’ a woman with the squatter retorted at Matthews. ‘You are breaking the law.’
Matthews told FOX she recorded the incident in hopes of providing proof that he was damaging their home and trespassing.
Video footage showed the squatter climbing through the property’s window accompanied by another person
The couple has had to take legal action and formally start an eviction process
‘I was recording him to have some proof of what was going on,’ Matthews said.
‘We called the police, and we didn’t get any help from them. Instead, the police told him that he… has the right to stay [on] the property.’
The squatter has done $2,000 worth of damage to the house, according to the couple.
‘He kicked in a door to get access to a bathroom… broke windows,’ Mendez said. ‘He illegally tapped into electricity. We called code compliance to try to get him to get out.’
Mendez claimed he has spent hundreds of dollars just to start the eviction process.
He said he is convinced that the nation’s growing squatter problem is a ruse by local governments to increase revenue.
‘Trust no one,’ Mendez said. ‘There’s not very much silver lining to this.’