Need to Get Rid of a Squatter? How to Contact Flash Shelton?

Squatters have been around for centuries. Just look back at English common law, which established some interesting rules to make sure land was put to productive use. Those laws aren’t helpful when you find someone claiming your property is not your own. So how do you get rid of a squatter?

Flash Shelton is your guy and the subject of A&E‘s new series Squatters, airing Tuesdays at 10/9c beginning May 12, which follows Flash and his team as they rid homes of unwanted people (some downright professional squatters). “I believe that I have been able to bring awareness to something that’s been happening for decades — even back to the 1800s when squatting actually first started,” he tells us.

After squatters took over his mother’s house in a remote part of Northern California, Flash has devoted his life to helping remove these unwanted freeloaders from homes and properties that don’t belong to them.

A squatter and his pets in 1975, sleeping in a room of a former New Zealand High Commissioner’s residence. Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images

“My dad had passed away and my mom was pretty distraught, as they had been together since high school. … She really couldn’t be alone, so I moved her in with me and attempted to sell the house,” Flash explains. “During the process, seven people moved in — two women and five men moved into the house.

“The neighbors told me that they saw a U-Haul truck in the driveway and asked if we had rented the house. Upon investigating, they said the back door was broken in, so I called the sheriff and said, ‘Hey, the back door’s broken in. Go arrest everybody.’ And the deputy called me and he said, ‘Yes, I see the back door was broken in, but there’s a house full of furniture and you told me the house is empty.’ So basically, he told me it’s a civil matter and said that since they had furniture in there, they were not considered squatters anymore, and we’d have to go through the eviction process.”

Infuriated, Flash set out to learn all about squatters and the system and is now a hero to all the people he’s helped to remove squatters. “I always say that I didn’t plan any of this,” Flash tells us. “I was just being a good son.”

Over the years, a lot of elderly people have reached out to Flash, and he couldn’t turn them away, so he’s made it his life’s mission to fight for a law change and bring awareness about squatters.

A&E

Who are these squatters?

“I’m not a psychiatrist and I’m not a doctor, but what I have found is that they all tend to have this entitlement aspect and a narcissistic tendency. They have the ability to be able to sleep at night knowing that they’re hurting somebody else, and they don’t seem to have a problem with it,” Flash tells us. “They are so convincing, they try to convince you that they are the victims and that they have a right. And the problem I find is the system, because the system’s flawed, it’s just a bunch of individuals that feel like if the system allows it, then they’re entitled to use it.

“Most of the squatters that I find are not homeless people,” he continues. “They are people who have nice cars, they have good jobs. I have dealt with CEOs of huge corporations. I have dealt with doctors, with real estate agents, with professionals who are taking over million-dollar homes because they can.”

How to contact Flash Shelton and remove a squatter

Flash is physically going across the United States helping homeowners. There is no state he won’t got to. You can learn a lot by watching his new A&E series, Squatters, on Tuesdays, about how to protect your own home from unwanted squatters. To contact Flash visit his website or email him at [email protected]

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