Evicting squatters and trespassers post Stuff Hits The Fan (SHTF) is a serious issue, and it’s one that 3BY regular Michael brought to my attention. He sent us a message a while back containing some interesting thoughts. I’m putting Michael’s words in italics so you can tell what are his thoughts and what are mine. I’ve edited them just a bit to fit our format, but not for content.
Evicting squatters & trespassers post SHTF
Michael wrote:
Salty and Spice (cool screen names BTW) have you ever thought through how to evict unwanted guests from your BOL? Even recently a friend of mine went to check out the BOL and was unhappy to see someone else was living there.
Today you call the Sheriff but going there during SHTF to find someone has taken over your BOL is an issue in my humble opinion. It would stink to roll up to your place at the end of your bug out and get shot at from inside.
Showing up and finding squatters on your BOL would really, REALLY harsh a prepper’s mellow, wouldn’t it?
In normal times, I would just call the sheriff and out they would go. Having said that, if the SHTF and you were in an area was Without Rule Of Law (WROL) at the time, then you would have choices to make.
At this point in time we come to a caveat in our discussion. Much of this article assumes that you have already chosen a bugout location of some kind. If you haven’t, well, then you don’t need to worry bout squatters. That is, of course, unless you were planning on becoming a squatter on somebody’s land. I HIGHLY recommend if that’s your plan that you come up with a different one. In a WROL situation, squatting will be a very short, very exciting way of life.
Of course, the best way to avoid the problem of squatters in the first place is to live at your BOL. For many, that’s an impossibility. Spice and I live at our-town retreat already. Our out of town one could get squatted on, we recognize that… but we’ve done some anti-squatter provisions already which I will share with you later.
You need a Post SHTF Plan B (at least)
If you show up to your BOL and find it occupied, and you were in a WROL situation, you need to have a Plan B location to go to for at least as long as it takes for you to scout out your situation and decide alternatives or solutions to get rid of your trespassers.
Here are Michael’s thoughts:
My plan B has a cache of supplies to set up a temporary camp well away from the BOL and then I can start my eviction process. I’m not sure what would be harder to do evict hostiles or a sad single mom and kids as trust issues would become priority given they chose to steal my BOL.
WROL
What about if there’s somebody in your house and no law enforcement is available? Again, Michael shares his thoughts:
Further research done ahead of time
Spice and I have a very good idea of where every nook, cranny and hole is around The Place. We know the approaches to our cabin, and we know where we can hide if we have to in a spot we would be virtually impossible to find, even with thermal imaging.
Here’s Michael’s thoughts:
People who train with paintball are used to concealment also providing cover. It doesn’t.
Sometimes you can’t win… because even if you win, you lose
If we show up at our BOL and find it occupied with a large group of heavily armed people, it’s on to Plan B for us… because even if we can “run them out” to use a polite way of saying it, we would take casualties most likely and tear The Place up beyond usability.
So what happens if people squat on The Place during “normal law” times?
I visited the “Legal Beagle” website and fount the following information. Since we live in Missouri, I’m giving you Missouri’s laws. Your state’s legal code will probably be different, so you should look up the info in the state your BOL is located at. This is taken directly from them, and all credit goes to Legal Beagle.
Adverse Possession (Squatter’s Rights)
Adverse possession, commonly known as squatters rights, is recognized under the revised statutes of the state of Missouri. A person may lose title to his land if a trespasser occupies or makes use of it, with or without the intent to claim ownership, for a period of 10 years. A trespasser must satisfy five legal elements in order to acquire land via squatters rights.
Open and Notorious Use
A squatter has generally satisfied the open and notorious use qualification under the law if his occupancy, use or improvements to a piece of property are viewable by the rightful owner.
Continuous Use
A squatter must occupy or use a piece of land for a period of at least 10 years, with no legal action having been brought against him, before he can attempt to claim title. In some cases, use need not be continuous or consistent. Two squatters could occupy a piece of land for five years each and legally combine their time.
Actual Use
The squatter must use the land in similar fashion to land located in the general vicinity. A squatter can use another person’s land for a home or for farming, as long as there are other homes or farms nearby.
Exclusive Use
A squatter can attempt to claim title via the “exclusive use” clause if the rightful owner of the land has not sought legal recourse and has not permitted any other person to use his property.
Hostile Use
In order to prove “hostile use” of the land, the rightful owner of the land must not have granted the squatter permission to use it. Granting permission will often void the “hostile use” requirement and prevent the squatter from gaining title.
Some of the above information in this article is provided by:
Hugo, Jack. “Squatters Rights in Missouri.” ,https://legalbeagle.com/6794026-squatters-rights-missouri.html. 27 December 2018.
Thank you Salty for honoring my humble ideas and the excellent editing 🙂
I am eager to see your “Anti-Squatter” provisions. My friend who had the squatter issue (thus generating this article) occupying his BOL after evicting them legally decided to remove the windows and doors of the BOL house and hid them behind a false wall in his basement. Thinking like a squatter a nasty cold shack is less attractive and he can easily fix it up after SHTF for a livable BOL. While I applaud his ideas I fear some fool will end up burning down his “Shack” trying to stay warm and he would lose the supplies hidden there.
I was not kidding about a south facing hillside semi-underground Log Tractor Shed. Under the sandy floor is a driven well, a box with well pump, spare leathers, materials to quickly close up the wide open non-wall as nasty snow storms are life threatening in NE. Additional buried materials include those 40 gallon barrels of plan B and dry food storage. A log and black plastic waterproofing earth sheltered Tractor Shed is nearly foolish burn proof. I know because I found the remains of a large bonfire at mine and no real damage to the log structure. That and the earth shelter effect makes frozen ground less a problem for digging supplies up. At least where I live they are not a “permanent structure” for tax reasons as no concrete, no electricity hook ups. Your rules may vary.
Oh yes I do have rude ways to evict someone from my tractor shed if needed. Even though I have other Plan B options I strongly prefer finishing my “Tractor Shed” into a pretty bullet proof shelter instead of living in a tent and starting over.
I’m going to be doing a whole article on the anti-squatter subject, I’m going to shoot some pictures to illustrate the piece.
This is definitely a Top 10 3BY article. Squatters in a BOL is often mentioned, but I don’t ever remember any viable solutions, until now. Shooting it out with the squatters is an option, just not a good one. Excellent collaboration!
I say we have a vote to see if Salty or Spice should be the one to crawl around in the ditches at The Place.
I could use the holes I’m digging for the spring’s tree plantings as foxholes!
What a great article. I’m thinking of going directly to the tractor shed thing. mostly because I don’t have much disposable income after necessities.
Hidden in plain sight. Awesome
The idea of a flying roach bomb made me smile… pest control at it’s finest.
Other ideas for dealing with squatters?
If it was the hard to evict single mum and kids… I hear you on the trust issues, and wonder whether it would be worth a few days of home guerilla interference to make it unpleasant enough that they move on. Disconnect the water supply and plug the pipes. Remove key elements from the pumps. Take the cabling from the solar panels. They will work out they are being sabotaged (at night!) and probably leave a few days later… not wanting to see what you’ll do next. The bogey man you imagine can be quite quite scary, particularly if they know you know the way around the property. Back up the toilet, stop the water flow (and have a back up tank that’s not connected to the main one, so if the squatters drain it somehow they don’t get the backup as well), and let loose a load of bunnies in there somehow… I’m not sure if I’d auto-distrust the single mother with kids, but I understand it would be hard. I’d want to watch and wait and see… if I could… before making decisions. There’s security in numbers, and there’s nothing quite like the parental instincts to really up the protection factor. In a SHTF scenario I’d rather have my own people around me than strangers, but I could well be relying on strangers trusting ME to get to my location too.
Another idea is to watch.. for a few days. Definitely do this, wait and see who is out and about… and doing what.. over several days. Someone might be off scouting and snaring and trapping during the day and return of an evening, there might be a raiding party that returns three days later, there might be… all manner of useful information you can get.
Taking the windows out seems like an interesting solution. I also like the idea of having a tractor shed/lean to that is upgradable swiftly.
When we are talking BOL I am thinking of rural farms in country Australia, and they are remote, there’s not a lot of people around to hear what’s going on, the next farmer over might not even hear gunfire on your property… but you’ve also got a lot of land and pockets of bush so you can hide, hang low, watch your sheds for a few days, see if anyone is getting grain from the silos and so on. You’ll see if your machinery has been moved around, or if the water tanks are lower than expected by the hanging rock. You want to know they are there before you go in… and you risk farm security issues and squatters now, before SHTF anyway… so you kind of have a mindset… are the gates locked or locks cut? Are the tracks on the road fresh or old? As you approach the sheds do they look the same as you always leave them, or is something amiss? In a SHTF scenario I’d approach from a different direction, circle around, really check them out.. they are in the wide open for us, with a large cleared area all around them, so no sneaking up possible during the day (and we have hidden terrain cameras on all the gates, so if possible snag those in and review footage)… but also full visibility from the road even (ok, so we are the only farm on the road…. but still…)
A lot to think about. Squatters are a real risk … and if they take over the sheds…. getting them out would suck. Sure guns would shoot through the tin, but that leaves us with a mess. Much better to make the place so unpleasant for them they go bother someone else. And you can do that without exposing yourself, or your ownership of it, or having to come face to face with them. Drop a couple of Roos at the front door of the shed to stink in the warm Aussie summer. Throw handfuls of baited meat all around the sheds to kill their dogs. Then throw more to encourage the meat eating ants to nest and settle in… don’t kill the ants nests that build up around your gates. Lock your gates, grow bushes at your fences so people can’t just cut their way in. Scope a place ahead of moving in on it, for at least 24hrs. Plan ahead to disable it from outside the buildings so it’s not livable for more than a few days (even better, leave things pulled apart). Don’t store helpful things like pot stoves or bedding anywhere near it, so it’s not an easy win for them from the outset.