Seniors receive 10% off. Military/Veterans receive 5% off. Seniors and Veterans receive 15% off.
Seniors receive 10% off. Military/Veterans receive 5% off. Seniors and Veterans receive 15% off.
$295 - The Notice of Occupancy is a unique and strategic defense to protect your property from squatters. Simply stated, the Notice of Occupancy prohibits any occupancy of a property without the express, recorded consent of the owner. A copyrighted legal document is placed in the public records to both proactively deter an attack and provide a valuable tool to use in an eviction proceeding if needed.
$195 - The Notice of Occupancy is clear, there will be no occupancy of the property without a Notice of Property Lease recorded in the public records. The Notice of Property Lease is a copyrighted legal document placed in the public records to identify legitimate tenants and notice the public of authorized occupancy’s of your property.
A startling new trend is developing across the United States involving parties unlawfully trespassing upon private property, including breaking into dwellings, taking up occupancy and claiming they are rightful tenants of the property. This action is referred to as “squatting” and poses a real risk and harm to the rightful and legitimate property owners. While squatters continue to perfect the act of trespassing and unauthorized occupancy, solutions to this growing problem have lagged behind leaving many property owners frustrated while they engage in costly legal actions to regain control of their property.
A party intending to be a squatter identifies a property to attack, either a dwelling or vacant land, and takes action to occupy the property as part of claiming to be a legitimate tenant. Their actions often include breaking and entering, installing new locks, changing the utility services into their name, even preparing a fraudulent lease between themselves and the owner, to, for all intents and purposes, assume control and occupancy of a property. This often happens in cases where a property is vacant for some period of time, perhaps a vacation or second home, a vacant property either listed or soon to be listed for sale, a rental property that is in between tenants, or simply vacant land that is not generally occupied by the owner.
If a property is attacked and undergoes a squatting action, the property owner remarkably and unfortunately faces an uphill battle to reclaim control of their property. Upon discovery of the unauthorized and unlawful occupancy of their property, a property owner will generally contact the police or sheriff and file a claim or charge against the squatter. This is an appropriate response but often does not restore the property to the owner by eviction of the squatter. In simple legal terms, the local authorities are charged with investigating crimes and upholding statutes and ordinances in their jurisdiction related to criminal activity. Yes, it is a crime to break-in to a property, but the squatter simply responds by saying they have permission to be in or on the property via a written or verbal lease with the owner. These investigations by the police or sheriff often result in the finding of a civil claim rather than a criminal claim by the property owner as a police officer or sheriffs deputy will be reluctant to determine if there is or is not a valid lease between the squatter and the property owner. The property owner is often told by the local authorities that this is a civil matter and a court order will be needed for an eviction to be conducted. The squatter knows this and highly leverages this criminal versus civil claim to maintain their fraudulent claim to the property.
The property owner needs to file an action in a court of law and essentially prove that they are the owner of the property and the squatting party has no right to be occupying the property. A judge will likely find that the evidence presented by the property owner is compelling and issue an eviction order though this may take months and cost thousands of dollars in legal expenses while the property is often being harmed and damaged by the squatter.
Moat has constructed and copyrighted legal documents that both deter a squatter from choosing to attack a Moat client’s property and also provide the property owner with powerful evidence to present to the local authorities and the courts for a positive judgment and order of eviction in the event of an attack.
There are two Moat documents used to deter and prevent this crime. The first document is called the Notice of Occupancy (NOO). This document is constructed by Moat specifically for an owner and their property, executed by the property owner and placed in the public records that essentially states that the owner owns a certain property and, regardless of whether they occupy the property, has no intention of any other party occupying the property. The Notice of Occupancy states that any party found to be occupying the property in the absence of an owner executed and recorded Notice of Property Lease (NOPL) is trespassing and unlawfully occupying the property. The Notice of Occupancy is the frontline defense to property trespassing and unauthorized occupancy by a squatter. The Notice of Occupancy is placed in the public records to deter the attack as a squatter will generally research the public records to determine the property owner identity to validate their claim that they have a lease. Upon seeing the Notice of Occupancy the squatter may very well move on to another target. The Notice of Occupancy also provides critical and powerful evidence for the property owner to present to the local authorities and the courts to accelerate an order for eviction as it is written with clear definitions and prohibitions of occupancy and instructions for findings intended for the authorities and courts to consider and weigh as evidence.
The Notice of Occupancy is step one to defend against a squatter as it describes the owner’s intent for a property with respect of occupancy and is placed in the public records where it sits with the owner’s deed to the property. If an owner has no intent to lease the property to another party for occupancy the process stops there. However, a property owner may have a Notice of Occupancy on their primary residence but also may have a vacation home or perhaps a handful of rental properties or even some vacant land they intend to build a retirement home on someday. The owner should consider placing a Notice of Occupancy on the vacation home to deter a squatter attack and use as evidence in a pleading to the local authorities and the courts for a timely order of eviction if the property is attacked. The vacation home is not a property that the owner intends to lease out to others so the Notice of Occupancy is the defense. For the rental properties, the owner would place a Notice of Occupancy on each property and, when a legitimate tenant is granted occupancy to a property through a legitimate property lease, the owner will record a Notice of Property Lease in the public records identifying the tenant and the legitimate property lease. The Notice of Property Lease is identified in the Notice of Occupancy as the only way for another party to be allowed occupancy of the property. By recording the Notice of Property Lease the owner is advising the public that a legitimate tenant is being allowed occupancy of the rental property pursuant to the terms of a legitimate property lease. What if the legitimate tenant vacates the property – is the property at risk for a squatter? No, the Notice of Occupancy is still in effect and the Notice of Property Lease only provides occupancy to the named legitimate tenant and no one else. What about the next tenant? The Owner will record a Notice of Occupancy describing each and every legitimate tenant pursuant to a described property lease with each new Notice of Property Lease superseding and vacating any prior Notice of Property Lease. The Notice of Occupancy and the Notice of Property Lease are like a one-way door controlled by the property owner with no “sneak-bys” available to a squatter. The public records will show the Notice of Occupancy and any corresponding Notice of Property Lease. A squatter targeting the property will most certainly veer off and seek a more vulnerable property to attack upon discovery of a Notice of Occupancy and, if applicable, a Notice of Property Lease. If they attack any way, the property owner will have valuable evidence to produce to the local authorities and the courts seeking an order to evict.
A property owner that is attacked by a squatter likely faces thousands of dollars in legal fees to obtain an eviction order and will likely discover thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of dollars of damage to their property upon evicting the squatter. There is little hope that the owner will recover any damages from a squatter as part of the eviction. The Notice of Occupancy costs $295 including preparation and recording. The Notice of Occupancy is the only known protection against this type of fraud that can be acquired and placed in the public records to protect your property from squatters . If a property owner has rental properties and needs to add a Notice of Property Lease behind the Notice of Occupancy the cost to prepare and record that legal document is $195.
Moat Title Security Co. is proud to announce these new documents that have been built for the purpose of protecting property owners from trespassing and unauthorized occupancy of their property, aka, squatting. The Notice of Occupancy and Notice of Property Lease protect property owners from squatters much like Moat’s flagship documents, the Notice of Title Freeze and Title Unfreeze and Release, protect property owners from title fraud. Title fraud and squatting are attacks on our property and rely on the public records to build and coordinate the attack. The Moat documents are purposefully built to be recorded to protect property owners from title fraud and squatting.
Purchase for $295
Purchase for $195
Moat Title Security is a new and innovative company that places a Notice of Title Freeze, a unique, copyrighted legal document in the public records to effectively freeze property titles from fraudulent recordings and protect property owners from title fraud. Our newest product, the Notice of Occupancy, protects property owners from unauthorized trespassing and occupancy of their property, aka squatting.
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