A Texas couple is demanding lawmakers take action to mitigate squatting after the homeowners say they were abused by a contractor who refuses to leave their fixer-upper property.
Yudith Matthews and Abram Mendez hired the contractor to complete tile work in their San Antonio home, but claim after they fired him, he refused to leave. He is now reportedly living in the house, but they said the police won't help.
They discussed the incident and recordings of confrontations with the squatter during "Fox & Friends" Thursday as the situation unravels into a legal nightmare.
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"We don't have any protection. There's legislators that are out there, such as Governor DeSantis, who are making headway, but we need more headway across America to protect us, the homeowners, because there's very little," Mendez told Ainsley Earhardt. "It's really a gimmick, I think, for the municipalities across America to make money."
The contractor, who the couple said has gout, asked them if he could stay on the property while he was completing the work. They agreed and drew up a contract that he willingly signed.
Mendez said he videoed him signing their agreement, but the squatter later stole his phone and got rid of that video evidence.
They had anticipated the entirety of the job only taking a few weeks, but when the contractor kept making excuses as to why he couldn't do the work, the pair fired him. He then refused to leave the property.
"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 have gone back and forth from the constable's office and the police department but to no avail. The police allegedly told them the squatter had the right to stay at the house and the issue was a civil matter as opposed to criminal.
"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."
Even though the constable's office said the man had to leave within 72 hours, he refused and reportedly brought more of his personal belongings over to the home. They sought legal counsel as a result.
But things between the squatter and the homeowners continued to escalate from there.
They said the squatter shoved Matthews while they were putting up the eviction notice. They claim the police asked the squatter if he wanted to press charges and blamed them for being in his way.
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Shocking video also showed the homeowners confronting the man, who told Matthews she was the one breaking the law, while he climbed through a window to enter her home.
"Squatters breaking into my house again through the window," Matthews said during the video. "Squatters breaking into my house. Interrupting my work and recording me."
"I can show you his rights," a woman with the squatter told Matthews in response.
"You are breaking the law," the squatter told her.
"I was recording him to have some proof of what was going on," Matthews said on Thursday. "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 couple said the squatter had done just under $2,000 worth of damage to their property throughout the entirety of the process.
"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 said he has spent hundreds of dollars just to initiate the eviction process, and argued the growing squatter issue nationwide is a ploy for cities to make more money.
"Trust no one," Mendez said. "There's not very much silver lining to this."
