Increase In Vacant Homes A Boon For Squatters, Scam Artists, Copper Thieves

In Southern California, the Whittier Daily News reports:

• With more than 80,000 foreclosures in California during the last quarter of 2007 setting a state record - up 115 percent over the previous year - property owners have struggled to keep squatters and thieves off their vacant properties. [Realtor Steve] Smallson said after several break-ins, his company, White House Properties, now checks more frequently on the more than 50 foreclosure properties on its to-sell list.

• Thousands of dollars worth of copper plumbing and air-conditioning units were stolen at a three-bedroom Van Nuys house just as a buyer was going through escrow, he said. "I guess these thieves case these places, see the signs, realize that the place is vacant and jump on the opportunity," he said. Last month, at the same three-bedroom house, Smallson found a man inside enjoying three Mickey's Big Mouth malt liquor beers. The 20-something man told Smallson he was "looking at the property." "I don't know how much this happens, but it's just terrible," Smallson said.

• Another problem that's picked up with the glut of foreclosed properties is real estate scams in which thieves "rent out" homes they don't own, often taking money from several people for the same property, said Detective Erin Camphouse, of the LAPD's Real Estate Fraud Unit. "They can take a whole lot of money really fast without having to get themselves noticed," she said of the thieves who often post on Craigslist.com or other Web sites and in community newspapers. Others will break locks at a foreclosed home and install new ones, then rent the properties to unsuspecting tenants. Sometimes those duped pay months of rent before they discover they've been ripped off.

For more, see Squatters, scams plague foreclosures.

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