21-05-2025
Anti-squatter bill receives near-unanimous support in Illinois Legislature
Note: The video attached to this story is from a 2023 WGN Investigates report.
CHICAGO (WGN) — Few things receive near-unanimous support in the Illinois legislature, but a bill to crack down on squatters came close.
'We have people simply trespassing on people's property who don't belong there, squatting and taking residence up on their own,' said State Rep. Jawaharial Williams (D-Chicago).
His bill changes state law to differentiate squatters from tenants and forego the months-long eviction process. It passed unanimously in the Illinois House and received only a single 'no' vote in the state senate. The bill, SB1563, needs Gov. JB Pritzker's signature to become law.
WGN Investigates has documented cases in which squatters move into a home and its taken the owner more than a year to go through the court system to regain possession.
'It's stressful, it's a financial burden,' Karen Polk told WGN in 2023 after she said a real estate agent found squatters living in her late-mother's home in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood. 'I got a call from that agent stating the person that went to the house for a showing was greeted at the door by someone inside already.'
Real estate attorneys say criminals have been known to break into unoccupied homes and then pose as landlords offering prospective tenants a fake lease. They then take advantage of state law meant to protect true tenants from wrongful evictions.
'Criminals know they can do this. There's really no criminal repercussion and you have live rent free in a home for 12-to-18 months if you're lucky,' attorney Aaron Stanton told WGN Investigates in 2023.
The woman living in Karen Polk's mother's home told WGN Investigates she was a victim of a fake landlord scheme but admitted to not paying rent for several months.
'Somebody had like scammed us out of our money and gave us a fake lease and had us move into the house or whatever and stuff like that,' the woman said.
Polk said she was finally able to regain control of the house and sell it in November 2024, two years after the ordeal began.
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