Squatters who moved into a home in the Texas area and changed the locks on the property’s owners have been evicted after a local media and police investigation.
Linda Jiang reached out from Houston ABC 13 After the squatters who had lived in her house for about a month refused to leave and even forged a lease agreement for the accommodation.
One of the squatters, identified as Tamesha Holmes Bey, faced the port and said she had moved to Texas from California to start a new life.
‘No,’ said Holmes Bay, ‘I don’t trespass. “I have a lease and I paid $6,000.”
However, public records indicate that the woman has been in Texas for decades and has been evicted from her homes in the state three times since 2019.
The police originally told Jiang they couldn’t do anything but gave the group a deadline to move out after discovering they had forged a lease.
Linda Jiang of Houston reached out to ABC 13 after the squatters who lived in her home for about a month refused to leave and even forged a lease agreement for the residence.
One of the squatters, identified as Tamesha Holmes Bey, faced the port and said she had moved to Texas from California to start a new life.
Jiang officially contacted the news station on March 23 after she showed up at home to perform yard maintenance.
After entering the house with her private key, she finds the group living inside.
I had the keys and went in and discovered a family of five living there. Jiang says she has a lease and has already emailed me the lease.
She tells them to leave but returns to find that they changed the locks.
“They locked me out of my private property,” Jiang said. ‘This is madness!’
The alleged “deed” does not name Jiang or her husband as owners of the property but lists the names of the four people found inside the house, including Holmes Bay.
She called the police to report the incident but they told her they couldn’t help as it was a civil matter. No tickets or arrests were made.
They broke into my house. They are trespassing. That must be a criminal infringement. They are violating my privacy. Jiang said.
In Texas, residents of the hand can acquire property but must meet a A very specific set of guidelines Which includes having no prior knowledge of a pre-existing property owner and operating under “good faith”.
Surveillance footage shared with ABC showed the locksmith arriving at the home to change the locks of the owner and her husband.
I had the keys and went in and discovered a family of five living there. Jiang says she has a lease and has already emailed me the lease
“They locked me out of my private property,” Jiang said. ‘This is madness!’
The so-called “deed” does not list Jiang or her husband as owners of the property but does list all four people found inside the house, including Holmes Bay.
This is the house the group of squatters moved into and changed the locks on
In a live broadcast outside the home last week, Holmes Bay left the house and told the TV station that she didn’t know “what was going on.”
‘I don’t know what’s going on; All I know is that my kids and I moved here to start a new life from California,” the woman said at the time.
A local news reporter confronted the woman and said the “lease contract” had her name, her husband’s name, and her two children’s names written on it.
After Holmes Bay mentioned the document, the reporter came back and said “I think your husband has a warrant for his arrest now, isn’t that the case?”
The stunned woman was silent for several seconds before replying: “This is none of anyone’s business and I don’t know.”
She then said that she knew the reporter was “violating her rights” and that she would contact the United Nations “for violating her privacy”.
The two then argue back and forth discussing the legality of the lease with Holmes-Beck saying that she had filed a police report and that the police had sided with her.
However, this situation changed after the police allegedly presented evidence that the document had been forged.
Cops came and told the family they had until Monday to get out or they would all face trespassing charges, according to ABC 13.
Records obtained by the station show that the woman has been involved in numerous civil and criminal proceedings in Bell, Travis, and Fort Bend counties.
The police originally told Jiang they couldn’t do anything but gave the group a deadline to move out after discovering they had forged a lease.
Records obtained by the station show that Holmes Bay has been involved in numerous civil and criminal proceedings in Bell, Travis, and Fort Bend counties.
This was inside the house after the squatters left for the weekend
Jiang arrived Monday morning to find unlocked doors and an empty house.
I thought we had to go through the eviction process. The real homeowner said gently.
Eviction attorney Brian Quern said such situations have increased in recent years.
We’re seeing a rise in this kind of fake document, people breaking into nice homes, trying to sit there. “We’re seeing an uptick,” he said.
I’ve been doing this for 25 years. “I can’t say I’ve seen much from years past,” said Quern.
“It was very frustrating, having to deal with this, but now I’m glad she’s gone, and I hope legislators will do something and change the law and protect homeowners instead of squatters,” Jiang said.
The woman told the local outlet that she and her husband had taken the home off the rental market and put up “no trespassing” signs on the property.
Jiang said she is considering selling the house and won’t be an owner for a while.
“It was very frustrating, having to deal with this, but now I’m glad she’s gone, and I hope legislators do something and change the law and protect homeowners instead of squatters,” Jiang said.
We’re seeing a rise in this kind of fake document, people breaking into nice homes, trying to sit there. “We’re seeing an uptick,” said attorney Brian Coren.
Jiang said she is considering selling the house and won’t be an owner for a while
Just last week, DailyMail.com shared the story of a man who turned the tables on squatters inside his mother’s Northern California home.
Flash Shelton posted a video of how he successfully removed squatters from his mother’s house in less than a day.
“If they can take a house, I can take a house,” Shelton, a member of the United Manual Workers Association, said in the video.
They are the squatters and they have rights. Well, then, if I become a squatter, then I must have rights, right? He said.
Chilton watched and waited until the squatters had left the property and then moved himself and some of his belongings, telling the others to leave immediately.
