Gina Douet, 44, let an old college friend and her three children move into her Tampa home temporarily a year ago. But when she asked the family to leave, they refused, forcing Douet to go through a time-consuming -- and costly -- legal process.
TAMPA - A year ago, Gina Douet agreed to take in an old college friend and her three children temporarily while they searched for a place of their own. The temporary stay turned into seven months, and Douet told them it was time to go.
The friend refused to leave and even laughed when Douet called the Sheriff's Office, she said. Douet expected deputies to throw out her friend-turned-squatter but was shocked by what they told her.
The deputies could not force the friend to leave, they explained. Douet also could not change the locks at her home. She could not throw out the woman's belongings. Nor could she shut off the utilities in hopes of spurring the quartet to leave her Tampa home.
"I had no rights," Douet, 44, said recently, shaking her head. "I couldn't do anything. They had all the rights. I tried to help her, and they took advantage of me."
Thinking about doing friends or relatives a favor by giving them a temporary place to lay their head? You'd better think long and hard first, police and legal experts say.
Douet, like a small but growing number of others unable to pull the welcome mat from under siblings, adult children or friends, followed deputies' instructions and went to the Hillsborough County Courthouse. There, she began a legal process that can cost hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars and take weeks or months to get guests or borders to leave. Friendships have been ruined, familial relations strained.
"People should take a real good look at who they're helping out," said John McMillan, a Tampa lawyer who represents apartment communities and real estate brokers. McMillan said he regularly gets calls from residents trying to kick out squatters, particularly parents desperate for their adult children to leave the nest - again.
They should know that things may not go as planned. It could blow up."
Sherri White's New Year's resolution for 2004 is to get her 35-year-old brother out of the living room of the two-bedroom Tampa townhouse she shares with her 13-year-old daughter.
In December, White filed an "unlawful detainer," a civil action set out in Florida Statute Chapter 82 to remove someone who originally had permission to be in a home. In Hillsborough County, such filings increased from 14 in 1999 to 67 in 2003, according to court records. In Pinellas County, a total of 60 unlawful detainers and ejectments - another civil action to give possession of a home back to the person entitled to it - have been filed since 1999, said Myriam Irizarry, chief deputy in the Pinellas County Clerk's Office.
White, 38, who has a court hearing scheduled this week, said she could take no more. The seeds of turmoil in her home were planted three years ago. White has diabetes and after a bout of insulin shock, her mother suggested her brother leave her home and move in with White to keep an eye on her.
"Those couple of days turned into weeks, and those weeks turned into months," said White, who lives on Social Security disability. "He never asked to live here, and I never asked him to move in."
White, who said her brother pays no more than $100 a month "when he chooses" while eating at least three meals a day, said she can't relax in her own home. She hates having to call home to tell her brother to clear the living room so she can entertain friends. She wants to buy new furniture for the room, but why bother when someone's sleeping on it?
She has called police at least three times to get her younger brother out.
"They tell me I can't just put him out," she said. "I have no say-so about who's in my house. It's like I'm not the head of household in my own house. He is the ruler."
Police say it's far easier to allow someone to move in, even temporarily, than it is to get them out.
"As soon as he moves into your house, that's his primary residence," said Pinellas sheriff's Detective Tim Goodman. "Is he getting mail? Is he helping pay the bills? Is his car registered at your house? He has no place else to go? If any of those is the case, that's his primary residence and if that's his primary residence, you have to go through a civil process.
"It's a tough situation," the detective continued. "You want to help somebody back on their feet, but you also don't want to have to go through the process to get them off your property. Know who you're dealing with."
Hillsborough County Lt. Rod Reder said such a call is "an absolute nightmare. When it comes on your screen in the car you just cringe. You just absolutely hate getting these calls." He said residents often assume authorities can simply toss out unwanted guests. But these situations raise too many issues for police to settle on the doorstep.
Goodman, Reder and legal advocates recommend against changing locks or throwing out belongings. In either case, the homeowner could be held liable for missing or damaged property.
Douet, the woman who opened her Tampa home to a friend with whom she attended a Louisiana college, came close to putting the woman's things on the curb. But Douet decided to try another strategy.
Douet said she asked a friend who is a secretary to write a warning letter saying Douet was violating her lease by having the woman and children in her Cumberland Manor & Estates rental home. Douet thought the ominous letter would persuade the woman to leave.
It didn't. So the secretary friend wrote another letter, this one saying her lease was terminated for having "unauthorized" guests. Douet even packed a few boxes, but her squatter remained unfazed.
"It didn't scare her at all," Douet said.
Fed up, Douet filed an unlawful detainer in October in Hillsborough County civil court.
"I cannot wait any longer (for them to leave)," Douet wrote to the court in November. "They have no consideration for my things. They leave the TV and lights on and the door to (the) garage open all night ... I need her out. Twice she has told me she was leaving but she's still here."
The woman, Sonia Taylor-Austin, wrote the court, denying Douet's allegations.
"There was never an agreement of ($200 a month for) rent," she wrote. "(Douet) told me I could move in until I found another place because she really needed the company. ... "
Taylor-Austin wrote that she had told Douet she was moving at the end of October.
In November, the court ordered Taylor-Austin and her children to leave. The process typically takes about a month. Douet paid $300 total, including a court filing fee, and fees for deputies to serve notice to her tenant and to enforce the court order.
Taylor-Austin, in an interview, said things were going well until Douet's mood eventually changed.
"She lied about everything," Taylor-Austin said. "She didn't ask me to pay her; I offered to pay her. I was trying to get out of there, but you can't find a place overnight. And I had paid my rent where I was."
Douet, once a registered nurse who now lives on disability payments because of chronic neck pain, said she is now content with the company of her two Pomeranians, miniature schnauzer and African gray bird.
"It's a horrible experience," she said. "I would be leery of having family or friends come for visits even. I will not let anybody move in, not even a niece or nephew. Nobody. Suppose they don't want to leave and I want them to leave?"
Experts recommend caution if a friend or relative living in your home has overstayed their welcome.
Because of liability concerns, you should not:
* Change the locks
* Put their belongings outside
* Shut off the utilities and leave
What you can do:
* File an "unlawful detainer" action at your local courthouse.
* Put all details, including length of stay and rent, in writing before letting someone live with you. It won't prevent you from having to go to court, but it might make things easier.
