Squatters Refuse To Leave Soldier's Home

[jimmy olsen]

House sitters story sounds sketchy, but it ain't her house, if the owner wants them out they should be kicked to the curb.

http://www.wfla.com/story/25297909/soldier-says-strangers-broke-into-his-home-and-wont-leave

New Port Richey soldier says squatters won't leave his home
Posted: Apr 21, 2014 11:58 PM Updated: Apr 23, 2014 9:58 PM
By Shannon Behnken - bio | email

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL (WFLA) -

When soldier Michael Sharkey was deployed to Afghanistan two years ago, he asked a friend to watch over his New Port Richey house. Sharkey and his wife are now living in Hawaii where he is currently stationed. They plan to move back into their New Port Richey home someday. But, right now they are fighting to get their house back.

They say strangers broke in, changed the locks, moved in and they refuse to leave.

"I want the people out," said Sharkey. "They're criminals living in my house."

Sharkey was shocked to find out that the Pasco County Sheriff's Office says it can't do anything about the squatters.

Here's where it gets complicated.

When 8 On Your Side went to check out the situation, we found a man named Julio Ortiz and his girlfriend, Fatima Cardoso, living in the soldier's home. They offered no apologies. They say they know Sharkey doesn't want them there, but they're not leaving until they're ready.

"I don't want problems," Ortiz said. "We're not doing anything wrong."

Ortiz says he has permission to be in the house, just not from Sharkey, the home's owner. Ortiz says he doesn't need a lease because he has a "contract." He described this contract as a verbal agreement with a friend of the soldier to fix up the home, in exchange for living there rent free.

Ortiz said the plan was to fix up the house and then eventually work out a deal with Sharkey to rent the place.

But, Sharkey says this is all lies. He says he's never seen or talked to Ortiz.

Lisa Pettus, who is Sharkey's friend, told 8 On Your Side there was no agreement with Ortiz . She says she met Ortiz through a friend and he agreed to help her fix up Sharkey's home while he was away in the military. She says she supplied all of the supplies and Ortiz and his girlfriend were never left alone in the house.

About two months after the work was done, though, Pettus says she drove by to check on the house and found the pair living there.

"I couldn't believe it," Pettus said. "And now they're using my name to justify this. It's wrong."

Getting Ortiz and his girlfriend out of the house is proving to be difficult. Sharkey's wife flew home from Hawaii on News Year's Eve and went to the house with a sheriff's deputy. But when the deputy heard Ortiz' story about the verbal agreement, he said it was civil matter.

That means Sharkey will have to go through the court system and file for a formal eviction.

Pasco County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Ken Doll says Ortiz and Cardoso have established residency in the home, so it would take a court order to evict them now.

"I don't think I should have to pay hundreds of dollars and go through that aggravation," Sharkey said. "I work hard, long hours, and these people never had permission to live in my home. They should be thrown out."

Sharkey says he's also worried that when he files for eviction, his unwanted house guests will damage his home.

Adding to his concern is their criminal backgrounds.

Ortiz spent a combined twelve years in prison in New Jersey for robbery, car jacking and selling drugs on school property. He was released in 2011. Fatima Cardorso spent more than two years in prison on drug charges and was released in 2006.

Ortiz was arrested three times in Pasco County last year on minor charges. Cardoso has been arrested in Pasco County seven times on drug charges since 2011.

"They are criminals," Sharkey said. "I am serving my country, and they have more rights to my home than I do."

[grumbler]

I must admit that I am dubious about the idea that, if a person tells the sheriff that they are not trespassing, the sheriff has to let them stay until a court issues an eviction notice.

It would probably be cheaper to just hire a couple of people to haul all the shit that belongs to the squatters to the dump, and to live in the house until the squatters leave.  What are the squatters going to do: call the cops?

[Darth Wagtaros]

So some guy who broke in says that he has a verbal agreement with a "contact" and the cops shrug and refer it to the courts.  This has situation comedy hit of the season written all over it.

[Caliga]

It's Florida... why doesn't the soldier just home invade his own house and blow their heads off?  He was... standing his ground. 

[Ed Anger]

Burn the house down with the squatters inside.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The owners would be better off if they had.  Then at least insurance would cover rebuilding it instead of the damage the squatters will do.  Of course anything the owners did do would land them in legal trouble. They should have been more selective about who they gave the power of attorney to for managing the house.

[Razgovory]

Maybe the Squatter regard the property of federal employees federal land.

[Ed Anger]

I see what you did there.

[DontSayBanana]

So there's no term of lease, no recurring payment to establish term of lease, and no proof that there was a verbal contract in the first place, since one party says "nope, didn't happen."  This is the poster child for the case that leases shouldn't be exemptions to the statute of frauds, and non-written lease agreements shouldn't be enforceable.

[dps]

It's Florida... why doesn't the soldier just home invade his own house and blow their heads off?  He was... standing his ground. 

To be honest, I'm surprised that he didn't just throw them out in the first place without calling the cops.

[CountDeMoney]

I must admit that I am dubious about the idea that, if a person tells the sheriff that they are not trespassing, the sheriff has to let them stay until a court issues an eviction notice.

Yeah. I don't get that either.

"These aren't my drugs because they're not my pants."
"OK then, on your way."

It would probably be cheaper to just hire a couple of people to haul all the shit that belongs to the squatters to the dump, and to live in the house until the squatters leave.  What are the squatters going to do: call the cops?

I'd wait for my deployment to end, stop by the local Cabella's, pick up a Mossberg, and Stand  My Ground once I got home.

[OttoVonBismarck]

This is the kind of thing me and the wife read up on before we got into the land lord game, so nothing in it surprises me at all. County sheriffs typically respond this way at the slightest hint this is a form of land-lord tenant dispute so this is going exactly as I would expect. In most States when you plan to make the property your primary residence, the eviction order is extremely easy to get. Also, since there is no signed lease in most States unless the squatters could establish they had lived there long enough to be considered "long term" tenants you can usually just give them notice to vacate within 30 days or so and then the eviction after that for their failure to do so is mostly a matter of formality.

The fact that they aren't paying or anything is mostly irrelevant. I've heard stories where property owners for various reasons let persons inhabit a property rent free and then when they decide it's over they just expect to kick them out immediately since they view them as "guests" and not tenants, but under the law once you've allowed someone to establish residency you have to go through the eviction process.

Now in this case of course it seems unlikely they were ever legally permitted residency, but from the perspective of the sheriff they have no way to know if it's like that or if it's like the squatters say--classic situation where they leave it up to the civil courts. The big mistake made here by the home owner was letting his friend have a degree of authority over the house when said friend was in the business of contracting with criminals to do work on the house. Also apparently his friend was not regularly checking in on the house which is also part of what let this happen.

If the friend was checking in regularly he probably could have caught them before they had fully moved in and used some force majeure tactics to get them out. Namely, show up with 4-5 guys and throw all their shit out and then stick around the house for a few days to make sure they don't come back. These squatters most likely would not have called police, if they had then you just say they are drug users who had tried to break in and were carrying a bunch of junk with them for some reason. The sheriff's deputies might still look at it as a simple civil matter but with the burden on the squatters to prove they have a legal right to be there (which they would be unable to do) in order to get back into the home.

[11B4V]

Way to follow up Timay. Investigative Journalism: F

Military Bikers Help Soldier Reclaim Old House
(Newser) – A soldier stationed in Hawaii got quite the surprise when told he could move back home to Florida with his wife: Squatters had moved into his house, and refused to leave. What's more, they were ex-convicts with 14 years of prison time between them. "They are criminals," says the soldier, Michael Sharkey, who was deployed to Afghanistan two years ago and then stationed in Hawaii. But a Florida real estate law prevented him from reclaiming his house because the squatters had established residency. "I am serving my country, and they have more rights to my home than I do," he says.

The squatters, Julio Ortiz and Fatima Cardosa, say they made a verbal agreement with a friend of Sharkey's who was taking care of the property, Opposing Views reports. But Sharkey and his friend deny any agreement took place. So a pair of veterans groups enlisted an attorney to process their eviction for free, WFLA reports, and a group of military veteran bikers said they would visit Sharkey's house to "peacefully make the squatters uncomfortable." Now under pressure, the squatters are packing and moving out. The Daily Mail lists their criminal convictions—including robbery, carjacking, and selling drugs on school property. (Another story that may infuriate you: A driver who struck and killed a teen boy is now suing him for emotional distress.)


http://www.newser.com/story/185938/bike-gang-helps-veteran-reclaim-his-old-house.html

[Eddie Teach]

Way to follow up Timay. Investigative Journalism: F

Damn, you grade harder than PDH.

[11B4V]

Way to follow up Timay. Investigative Journalism: F

Damn, you grade harder than PDH.

I'm looking at 80 or so resumes today. I'm not in the mood to grade on a curve.