Santa Clarita, CA - March 04: Flash Shelton, a man who calls himself the Squatter Hunter, offers a service to homeowners where if they have a squatter living in their property, he finds a way to get them out, and here he stands for a portrait at Todd Longshore Park on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Santa Clarita, CA. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)

Out-squatted: Handyman Flash Shelton will squat with your squatters until they leave

For L.A. Times Subscribers

Jack Flemming

March 12, 2024

On a winter morning in Woodland Hills, the

slowly approaches a posh two-story home dressed in all black, armed with a Glock 26 pistol, stun gun, pepper spray and baton. His body camera is on. His two-man squad lurks behind him.

Theyve spent four days in surveillance, learning the habits of the man squatting inside. Theyve waited for him to leave, but he never does. So they knock on the front door, and when the occupant opens it, they barge inside.

Their plan: live with the squatter. Dirty the bathroom. Take the best spot on the couch. Commandeer the TV remote. Blast music. Drink his coffee. Eat his Cheetos.

Out-squat him. And film it all for YouTube.

As the body camera footage shows, the team starts installing Ring cameras throughout the home to document every interaction. The Squatter Hunter, Flash Shelton, hands the man a lease with Shelton's name on it.

Youre an intruder in my house now, he says.

Shelton explains that the man is there illegally, and the team is not going anywhere until he leaves. The squatter was out before they could even share breakfast together.

For homeowners in Southern California and beyond, run-ins with squatters can be a nightmare both emotionally and financially. For the Squatter Hunter, its just another day on the job.

What started as a viral YouTube video has grown into a one-of-a-kind vigilante-style service, helping homeowners boot trespassers from their property.

His motto: If they can take a house, I can take a house.

Shelton, a California native, understands what drives some people to squat. He said he grew up practically homeless, moving every time the rent was due.

At 16, he started a handyman business, and in 2009 he established the United Handyman Association., a trade organization that lobbies for handyman rights. Along the way, Shelton, 56, also worked as a bouncer, where he learned how to handle situations that could turn violent.

I took the same de-escalation courses law enforcement would take, he said.

Shelton carries a no-nonsense demeanor and sports a thick gray goatee, a San Fernando Valley version of Josh Brolin. On his website, he poses in a black baseball cap emblazoned with the words, GET OUT.

His first experience with a squatter was in 2019. Sheltons father died two years prior, and his mother moved in with him while they put her Northern California home on the market.

A woman reached out about renting it offering repairs for free rent, since she had no money but Shelton declined. But while the home was unoccupied, the woman broke in through the back door and moved in, furniture and all, Shelton said. He started receiving calls from real estate agents planning to show the house to prospective buyers saying they couldnt access it because people were living inside.

He called the local sheriffs department, but according to Shelton, they said they couldnt enter the house since it appeared to be occupied.

Hearing nightmares about the lengthy and arduous process of dragging out an eviction in court, Shelton got creative; he had his mom write up a lease making him the official tenant of the home. That way, he could legally enter the property.

If theyre the squatter, they have rights. So if I become the squatter on a squatter, I should have rights, he said.

He drove 10 hours from the San Fernando Valley and slept in his Jeep outside the home, waiting for her to leave in the morning. When she did, he went inside and installed Ring cameras throughout the property.

When she returned, he explained that he was the new tenant and that she needed to move all her stuff out. Since he was now in possession of the property, he said if she returned, he would call the police for trespassing.

She left by the end of the day.

Squatting isnt common; most housing disputes are between landlords and tenants, in which an entirely different set of rules are in play. But for homeowners whove dealt with an actual squatter, the process of removing them can be arduous and costly, taking weeks or months and costing tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

But Shelton made it look easy. He recorded the entire encounter and published a recap on YouTube titled, How I removed squatters in less than a day.

The video went viral, racking up millions of views and thousands of comments. Shelton saw an opportunity.

I just simplified it. Theres so many people asking me why we havent been doing this all along, he said. I was just fighting for my mom in the beginning, but now Ive reinvented myself.

And so, the Squatter Hunter was born.

Keith Moret, a commercial real estate agent with Lyon Stahl, first heard of Shelton when he appeared on a TV news segment shortly after his YouTube video went viral. Since then, hes been sharing the story in real estate circles.

Im not surprised hes getting attention, Moret said. So many people are frustrated with the legal system. Attorneys are expensive, and the deck feels stacked against housing providers.

He said squatting has become more of an issue as homelessness rises, and he takes precautions when listing buildings with vacant units. On a recent sale in East Hollywood, he hired someone to board up all the windows while the deal was in escrow.

Shelton has since started a website, squatterhunters.com, where he offers his services. Over the

year hes conducted hundreds of Zoom consultations, talking homeowners through their squatter problems and coaching them on potential strategies.

Business is booming. He consults for free, but requires clients to donate $150 to a Gofundme advocating for squatter law change. So far, hes raised nearly $9,000.

Just the hope itself helps people, he said. People are tired of hearing that theres nothing they can do about someone stealing their home from them.

For clients with bigger problems, he offers to remove the squatter personally, either by himself or with a team he assembles. Over the last few months, he said he has handled

10 jobs in California and Nevada. The minimum price for a job is around $5,000. There is no maximum.

Sometimes it takes

hours. Sometimes it takes weeks.

It can be costly, but Shelton said hes encountered homeowners whove already sunk $100,000 into their removing a squatter through the legal system and made no progress.

I dont tell them what Im doing or how Im doing it. I just tell them to make me a leaseholder, and I handle the rest, he said.

Squatters arent created in a vacuum. More often than not, theyre the product of a brutal California housing market

rents skyrocket and affordable housing disappears.

In L.A., the median rent is $2,750, well above the national median of $2,045, according to Zillow. Soaring home values, especially since the pandemic, have contributed to a widening wealth gap in Southern California, leaving many renters in desperate financial situations.

But theres a big difference between tenants even ones who stopped paying rent a long time ago and squatters.

A tenant is someone who was invited onto a property with consent,

Mark Martinez, a tenant rights attorney. That consent can be as formal as a written lease or as casual as a verbal agreement. Even if a tenant stops paying rent, they still have protections, and landlords have to go through an official eviction process, which can take weeks or months.

for 570 days rent-free

A squatter is essentially a trespasser, Martinez said: someone who goes into a property without permission and stays there.

Besides adverse possession, a rarely seen process in which a person can obtain a property after openly living there and paying property taxes for five years, there are no true squatters rights, Martinez said. Trespassing is illegal, and squatters cannot legally live in a home.

Still, they are innocent until proven guilty, and homeowners cant simply go in and drag them out of the home or else they expose themselves to a potential lawsuit for harassment or assault.

In some cases, police cannot immediately remove squatters for a variety of reasons, Martinez said. For example, a squatter could claim the landlord allowed them to live there or produce a fake lease, making the situation more ambiguous.

Moret, the real estate agent, said police officers once refused to remove a squatter living beneath the carport outside one of his buildings because he didn't have a "No Trespassing" sign posted. Another time, police said their hands were tied because residents had no proof that the squatter committed a crime, according to Moret.

Shelton said many of the homeowners he consults with claim that

police arent able to remove squatters because they have no proof of when exactly the squatter entered the home and how long theyve been there.

The L.A. County Sheriffs Department did not return multiple requests for comment.

Both Shelton and Martinez said the first thing you should do if you encounter a squatter in your home is go to the police. Martinez said if the police are unable to remove them, call an attorney.

He advised against using Shelton's services.

"It sets a stage for violence,"

said. "Even if there's not a legal risk, when you're invading somebody's living space, there's always potential for physical conflict."

Martinez

the eviction process can be lengthy since there are multiple obstacles in the way that hinder landlords from a speedy eviction, and some civil cases can take a year or longer. But he says thats the way it has to be especially in cities such as

and San Francisco, where rents have skyrocketed.

Tenants are consistently taken advantage of, and they need rights, he said. Landlords want real justice. They want squatters out immediately. But that has to be balanced with due process and being able to defend yourself in court.

Shelton said working with an attorney to push an eviction through the court system will take months and cost a small fortune in legal fees and lost rent.

If you find a squatter and have no clue why theyre in your home, and then you file legal documents declaring that theyre in your home, youre giving them rights as a tenant. But I can try to get them out before anyone knows theyre there, he said.

Before you call a lawyer, call me.

Shelton has to be selective with the cases he takes.

First, he only deals with squatters, never tenants, and only takes on cases where nothing has been filed in court so that theres no proof that the squatter is living in the home. If a judge has already given them tenant rights, his hands are tied on what hes legally allowed to do.

Then, he visits the local law enforcement office and explains what hes doing. That way, if theres a hostile situation, police officers know his specific plans and intentions.

After that, he works with the homeowner to write up a lease declaring him the tenant and records himself signing it. If he ever goes to court, hell have proof that the home belongs to him.

The fact that hes doing the work, and not the homeowner, is part of Shelton's legal calculus. According to Martinez, California law prohibits self-help evictions,

landlords try to remove a squatter themselves.

It's one of four things he lists on his website for landlords to avoid when trying to evict a tenant: no self-help evictions, no retaliation against the tenant, no discrimination and no harassment. He added that a homeowner

hires Shelton might have vicarious liability; they didn't kick the squatter out themselves, but someone they hired did.

So far, no squatter has taken Shelton to court to win back possession of the home, they'd have to prove that they entered it legally.

But the homeowner's potential "vicarious liability" is one of the reasons he doesn't identify them publicly or tell them about his plans; the less they know the better if a dispute ever goes to court.

Shelton sometimes works solo, and if he does need help, he has a strict screening process for those who want to join an operation.

Most guys I talk to have beer muscles and want to rip a squatter right out of the home.

I need someone who can stand there and keep their mouth shut, he said.

If he brings in someone who whips out a weapon and hurts someone, he could potentially be liable, he said.

every case is different, theres generally an easy way and a hard way to remove a squatter.

The easy way: wait for the squatter to leave the home and secure possession of the property while theyre gone. Change the locks and install security cameras.

Now, theyre fighting to get back in instead of the homeowner fighting to get them out, he said.

The hard way: squatting with the squatter.

If I cant get them off the property, Ill move in with them, he said. I walk in, sit on the couch, pour a bowl of cereal and say, Lucy, Im home!

He hands the squatter a copy of the lease and explains that hes not going anywhere that he's there to make their living situation miserable and "turn it into a reality show" with cameras everywhere.

Theyre typically out by the end of the day.

To help persuade squatters to leave, he offers them a deal: if they go peacefully, hell keep their identity a secret.

Most squatters accept. For those who dont, he uploads their picture onto his website and their interaction onto YouTube and Instagram. Hes currently building a database of confirmed squatters so landlords can avoid renting to them in the future.

One YouTube video details a confrontation with Adam Fleischman, the former

of the restaurant chain Umami Burger. In the video, Fleischman claims he had a verbal agreement to live in a Hollywood Hills home, giving him rights as a tenant, but that he didnt have to pay rent.

In another, Shelton sneaks up on a woman entering a Culver City home through a window.

What do you have to say for yourself? he asks.

She doesn't take the bait, instead responding with an onslaught of curses

.

Shelton, a single father with five kids, two living at home, doesnt want to hunt squatters forever

but demand has

been overwhelming.

The end game is policy change. His Gofundme advocates for legislation that would expand law enforcements ability to remove squatters and also make it easier for judges to order squatters to pay restitution.

The whole system needs to change, he said. I want my name on a bill.