Oregon House passes bill allowing landlords to evict squatters 713 Likes1 Inquiry

SALEM, Ore. (KATU) — The Oregon House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would allow property owners and landlords to evict a squatter after giving a 24-hour notice.

A squatter is an individual who occupies a property without a valid rental agreement or tenant authorization. The bill amends current law to incorporate this new eviction process. The bill allows a landlord or property owner to issue a 24-hour written notice to vacate the property to evict a squatter. The notice must state the date and time the squatter must leave and clearly indicate that the reason for eviction is the person’s squatter status.

The bill explicitly adds squatters to the list of situations considered “unlawful holding by force” under eviction law. This would give property owners and landlords a clearer and faster legal mechanism to reclaim their property from unauthorized occupants.

Jennifer and John Chamberlain, former Salem residents, dealt with their own squatter situation. The couple planned to sell their home to move to eastern Oregon so John could lead his own church. Their adopted son, helping manage the property, asked to house a woman in their shed for a short period of time.

“My son was trying to do a nice thing for a woman that we thought was homeless,” said Jennifer Chamberlain.

After being asked several times, the woman refused to leave, so Chamberlain called the police. She said she is and has always been a supporter of the police, but added they did not help her at all.

“They said there’s nothing we can do because the property is the property. She’s already been living on the property. She lives on the property. I have since been told by an attorney that that’s not true, but we didn’t know anything,” said Chamberlain.

The woman eventually moved from the shed to the home when city officials deemed it uninhabitable. Chamberlain learned this was not the first time the woman had done this.

“She knew every law. She knew every code. She knew every step of the way. When I said you can’t stay here forever, the court’s going to tell you to move out, she said, ‘But will they?'” said Chamberlain.

The Chamberlains spoke with several attorneys and most told them they would not win a case to remove the woman due to squatters’ rights laws in Oregon. Being hundreds of miles away from Salem, the Chamberlains eventually paid the woman $2,500 to leave the property.

“He looked at our paperwork and what we had done, and he said, you’re going to lose. And I cried,” said Chamberlain. “And it was because the state laws do not favor the homeowner.”

When asked about advice for others in a similar situation, Jennifer said to hire an attorney right away.

“We had all kinds of suggestions about us moving back in or, you know, making her life miserable or whatever. But we couldn’t do all of that, and it doesn’t really work anyway,” said Chamberlain. “You just have to go through the process, but Oregon really needs to change the process because it’s not right.”

Currently, Oregon law permits a person to acquire ownership of a property through adverse possession. Adverse possession allows a person to gain ownership if they occupy the property openly, continuously, and exclusively for a period of 10 years without the owner’s permission. The claim of adverse possession can lead to lengthy legal battles.

The original bill specified that only the property owner could issue a notice of eviction. The amended bill allows landlords to also issue 24-hour eviction notices to squatters.

Holdover tenants, those who remain in a space after a lease expires, are not included as squatters under this bill.

Oregon Democratic Rep. Annessa Hartman, a chief sponsor of this bill, said she was inspired to tackle this issue after hearing a frightening story about squatters in her district. Hartman said that a house was sold at auction, and when the new homeowner arrived, several individuals were living on the property. After confronting the individuals and asking them to leave, the individuals refused and raised hateful imagery outside the home.

“Even after they were trying to offer services on relocation and telling them that the house had been purchased by another landlord or a new homeowner, the individuals there refused to leave and then began hanging Nazi flags,” said Hartman. “They began sort of terrorizing the folks in the area, and it was very difficult for that individual to get them to leave.”

The bill had bipartisan support. Several Oregon House Republicans supported the bill on the House floor Thursday.

“This bill matters because it restores something that should never have been in question,” said Republican Rep. Cyrus Javadi. “The right of a homeowner or landlord to say no, you can’t live in or under my house or business if you were never invited in.”

“This is the kind of thing where if you can identify a problem and come up with a solution, and then you bring a lot of people together, amazing things can happen. This bill is an amazing, beautiful piece,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Mannix.