How to Protect Commercial Real Estate from Squatters in Baltimore

Squatters can be a huge nuisance for commercial real estate owners.  Not only can squatters cause damage to your property and lower its quality or value, they can also jeopardize your ownership rights.  If squatters take up residence on your commercial property, you may be legally required to treat them as tenants and give them notice for eviction, even if they are trespassing.  If they live there long enough, they could even adversely possess your property.  Baltimore real estate lawyer William Heyman of the Heyman Law Firm explains some tips to protect your commercial real estate from squatters.

Ways to Keep Squatters Off Commercial Property

There are many steps you can take to protect your commercial properties from squatters.  Whether the property is currently in use or whether it is currently empty, it is important to take steps to keep your property safe from trespassers, squatters, and other uninvited guests.  The following methods can help exclude others and keep your property safe.  Talk to a commercial real estate attorney for help deciding the best precautions for your property.

Hire Security

Even if your building is not currently being rented, it is important to hire security contractors to check on your property.  If you cannot be there yourself every day to check on the state of the property, it is important to hire a private security company to make rounds.  The larger your building, the more necessary it is to hire security companies that can take a pass through the real estate and ensure that no one has camped out on the site.

Install Security Cameras

Using security cameras at points of entry on the property can help you find out if anyone entered the property illegally.  There are plenty of security camera options, many of which a private security firm could help you set up.  For smaller properties, you may be able to set up webcam-based security systems yourself, which can notify you if people enter the area and automatically send you the video feed.  This can give you time to call your security company, notify the police, or drive down to the property to check on things.

Invest in Locks and Shutters

If you ensure that every door on your property has strong locks and doors, squatters will not be able to get into the building without causing damage or picking the locks – both of which are crimes that can justify calling the police.  Windows are also a vulnerable point of entry, so putting metal shutters on those windows can help protect them from squatters who are determined to break the glass to get inside.

Install Alarms

Alarm systems can come in multiple forms that provide security in multiple ways.  Many standard alarm systems, like those used with homes, will set off the alarm if a door or window is opened.  Additional security systems can also alert you if glass is broken or if motion is detected inside the building.  These added security systems can be essential to protecting a large commercial building from trespassers and squatters.

Removing Squatters from Commercial Buildings

When dealing with squatters, you may be required to follow strict rules.  In many cases, squatters who take up residence on your property may be afforded the same rights as tenants.  That means you may need to file for eviction and have the court send them packing.  Squatters who live on your property long enough may even become residents and adversely possess the property.

When squatters initially enter your property, they are trespassers.  Acting quickly can allow you to call the police and get them arrested for trespassing or other offenses, especially if they destroyed property on their way in.

You may also be able to change the locks, board up the building, or put other obstacles in their way to keep them from re-entering the property.  If they are there when you arrive, however, you may not physically remove them from the premises.  Physically removing someone from your property becomes a difficult legal situation, and you should ask an attorney for advice on the proper channels and methods to follow eviction laws properly.

If the squatter lives on the property long enough, they could adversely possess the property from you.  This means that they would become the owner of the property and could then legally exclude you.  To do this, a squatter must live on the property in a way that is “actual, open, notorious and visible, exclusive, hostile and continuous.”  They must also do this for 20 years before they can legally take the property from you, leading to a title dispute.  Though this is a long period, acting quickly can help prevent squatting and adverse possession and show others that trespassing on your property will not be tolerated.

Call Our Baltimore Commercial Real Estate Lawyer Today

For help with squatters or trespassers on your commercial property, call the Heyman Law Firm today.  Baltimore commercial litigation lawyer William S. Heyman represents businesses and commercial landowners in legal issues dealing with property laws, real estate, and squatting.  For help fighting trespassers and squatters on your commercial real estate, contact our law offices today at (410) 305-9287.