You go on vacation for a month and your house is left alone.

You just saved enough money to purchase a home to use as a rental but you cant move in just yet so it's vacant.

You inherited a home from a dearly departed loved one and you need to find a buyer so the house is sitting there, vacant.

You are remodeling your current home but are staying with friends while it is being worked on... this home is left without anyone currently living inside.

One day a random person sees this empty home. There's a lock on the door but they don't care.. they break the door down and replace it with their own lock. They begin bringing in all of their stuff and bring in their friends to live there too. They bring animals and don't even have plumbing or electricity but they use camping equipment to live inside your home. You catch them in the act and you start removing their items that they brought in. You tell these people to get out of your house because they've clearly broken into your home. They even admit to doing it. You call the police and they even admit to breaking in when the police arrive.

You've kicked them out and threw their belongings out on the curb. 

Which person is in the wrong?

According to the current law.. its not who you think.

The person who broke into your home and just started living without permission is now PROTECTED under a law called Squatter's Rights. Sounds like a nightmare right?

It gets worse.

Now the lawful homeowner has to spend thousands of THEIR dollars in court costs and lost wages and months of THEIR time waiting on the court system to grant them the lawful eviction of people who shouldn't live there in the first place.. people who should be jailed for breaking and entering are PROTECTED by this outdated law

They dont even go to jail after the eviction. They are free to do it AGAIN to another law abiding citizen unaware that this even exists.

If someone breaks into your home they go to jail because that was definitely not their property (trespassing) and they typically break door/ knobs to get in (property damage).

If someone breaks into your home and they begin sleeping there, eating there, and damaging the walls and messing up the floors... somehow now they have rights?

That never sat well with me even before I owned my own property. I couldn't believe it was a real thing. 

You work hard for what you have and to think some random person on the street with nothing to lose in life can just enter a house you own and just start living there and it takes YOU thousands of dollars to get rid of them lawfully is really upsetting.

IT GETS WORSE

To add insult to injury they can charge YOU with harassment if you don't leave them alone!

How can this still be a law? 

To make matters even worse. YOU can go to jail if you try to evict them yourself. Yes, thats right. You can find yourself in a jail cell if you decide to protect your property and just start walking into your own home and remove their junk. They can say that YOU are trespassing on your own property. This is completely upside down and NEEDS to be changed in EVERY state across the board.

Nobody should have the lawful right to break into your home and take up uninvited residence.  

Please sign this petition to get lawmakers to reform this outdated and unjust law.