A professional ‘Squatter Hunter’ has revealed the most outrageous cases he’s encountered when trying to remove illegal residents from properties.
Flash Shelton goes by the moniker ‘Squatter Hunter’ and is hired by embattled homeowners to help them get rid of squatters. In an interview with the New York Post Shelton revealed the crafty lengths many squatters go to in order to hijack homes across the United States, which include renting out captive houses on Airbnb.
“I’m seeing squatters taking over [homes on Airbnb] a lot,’ he told the publication. “Matter of fact, I even see people get into the property and then try to make money by Airbnb-ing it out.”
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(Image: Youtube)
Shelton, who works by day as a handyman in California, explained many squatters look to create profiles with short-term rental services such as Airbnb and renting out a home for a certain period of time on a daily fee.
Once they’ve secured a rented residency at these properties, Shelton claimed many squatters then insinuate themselves as if the legitimate owners and relist it.
“There was one [squatter] recently in Seattle that was doing that,” Shelton added. “And there’s one in Woodland Hills [California].”
He said wily squatters look to beg the real owners of the property for more time to stay there, offering excuses like: “I don’t have a place to go. I need a couple more days. Or we were leaving but my car broke down, and we can’t leave yet. I just need a couple more days to get my car fixed.”
(Image: ABC 7)
Once a sympathetic homeowner agrees to let the squatter remain in their house outside of the app, Shelton said the Airbnb is no longer on the hook and is released from its contract with the two parties.
“So Airbnb walks away, wipes their hands clean [and decides it is] no longer their problem,” Shelton said.
Following the interview, Airbnb issued a statement defending its reputation, claiming the instances of squatters exploiting its platform as “very rare”.
“We strongly encourage our users to only book and pay on Airbnb where we have measures in place to support our community, including identity verification of booking guests and 24/7 customer support,” the company told the New York Post.
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