Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Worried About Squatters on Your Block? Online Alerts Could Tip You Off

By Mark Konkol | November 19, 2014 5:26am
 Apple computer users can't sign up for the Cook County Recorder of Deed's online "fraud alert system" that helps neighbors rat out squatters.
Apple computer users can't sign up for the Cook County Recorder of Deed's online "fraud alert system" that helps neighbors rat out squatters.
View Full Caption
Cook County Recorder of Deeds

Did you hear about the dozen squatters who moved into a fancy Jefferson Park home, converted the place into apartments, trained fighting dogs, did drugs and had sex in plain view, punched a neighbor in the face and threatened to fire bomb the house next door?

If you, like me, own a house on a block with vacant houses, it’s the kind of story that'll give you nightmares.

For years, at least three row houses on my block have sat vacant.

And a few months back a neighbor told me that he shooed away a would-be squatter claiming to have permission to move into a place owned by the lady selling it.

If my neighbor wasn’t there to tell the guy to beat it, I might have wound up living among dogfighting exhibitionist druggies with a penchant for making bomb threats … or worse.

The practice of squatting — the unlawful occupation of an inhabited dwelling — has become a growing trend in post-Great Recession Chicago, particularly in poor parts of town suffering the effects of mortgage fraud and predatory lending, Cook County Deputy Recorder of Deeds John Mirkovic said.

“It seems that squatting is happening more often, and people are certainly talking about it more,” he said. “We’re getting a new case about every month, and during the height of the problem [in 2013] there were one or two cases a week.”

The FBI says property and mortgage fraud has become the fastest-growing white-collar crime.

And the squatting epidemic is happening more often across the country, too, particularly in Detroit.

In fact, intrepid Fox TV reporter Charlie LeDuff recently got to the heart of the matter in a fascinating bit of quirky TV storytelling he called “squatting on the squatters.”

It’s worth watching.

LeDuff, dressed in a bathrobe, confronted a woman who filed an allegedly fraudulent deed to claim ownership of a house and fend off police or anybody else questioning her squatters’ rights. At the end of LeDuff’s story, the squatter got taken away in a squad car.

It’s another cautionary tale for responsible homeowners concerned that modern-day claim jumpers — some armed with fake documents or citing property rights treaties from the 1700s — might take up residence in a nearby empty house when nobody’s watching.

With all the recent squatting-related news, I asked around to find out what regular folks do to make sure it doesn’t happen to them or one of their neighbors.

And the best answer people who know about these things could come up with is to stay informed.

One way to do that in Chicago is to use the county recorder of deeds office’s “fraud alert” system — which sends text message or email notifications when anyone files a document related to a property.

“Anyone can monitor any property. So if a house goes up for sale, or you see someone poking around a vacant house, you can put an alert on it and monitor whether documents are filed on that property,” said Mirkovic, the deputy recorder of deeds.

Certain documents, including “adverse possession” filings, notices of “nonabandonment,” citing intent to inhabit a house, and declarations citing out-of-date treaties related to property rights, are immediate red flags, Mirkovic said.

“If it was me, and there was a house on my block [that] was vacant, I’d want an alert on it,” Mirkovic said. “Even if you’re a neighborhood watch person and there were 20 houses out, why not set an alert and get a tip? It could be the thing that helps you beat [a squatter] to the punch” by notifying authorities.

The fraud alert system had been in place for years, but really didn’t work much until Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough got it up and running.

“There were only 500 people signed up, and now there are more than 30,000,” Mirkovic said. “And we’re sending out 500 to 800 alerts per month.”

After talking with Mirkovic, I fired up the MacBook, looked up the PIN for the vacant houses on my block and pulled up the fraud alert system online.

There was just one problem: You can’t sign up for fraud alerts if you happen to be using an Apple computer.

Yarbrough is aware of the “technical difficulty," and there’s a plan to get the bug fixed, Mirkovic said.

I sure hope that happens quickly.

These days, responsible homeowners hoping that their blocks will rebound before squatters move in can use all help they can get.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: