Metro Apartment Manager, December 2005

Q: We are site managers and I’m asking about a tenant I’ll call Lisa. When I knocked to serve a 72-hour notice the eighth of last month, some fellow I didn’t recognize opened the door. I asked if Lisa was there. He said, “Who are you?” I said I was the manager. He said, “Lisa’s mostly moved out. I’m Jason. She said if I paid the rent, I could stay. How much is the rent?” I told him how much and gave him the notice to give to Lisa. But I said he’d have to move too; if he didn’t, I’d call the police. But I probably can’t do that, can I?

A: The police deal with crimes. Call them when someone has broken the law or is about to. That’s not the case here. Jason has been invited in, so hasn’t broken any law that we know of. So don’t call the cops.

Landlord tenant law distinguishes between a squatter and a holdover tenant. A squatter is defined as “a person occupying a dwelling unit who is not so entitled under a rental agreement or who is not authorized by the tenant to occupy that dwelling unit.” Jason sounds like he was invited in by Lisa, your tenant, so he is not a squatter. Neither authorized nor invited means to me breaking in. If Jason had moved into your empty apartment, then he would be a squatter. A squatter is not protected by landlord tenant law. A squatter is committing the crime of trespass, so if you find a squatter in possession, you can call the police. You can also change the locks and lock a squatter out.

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