What can an HOA do about squatters?

Reviewed by the OurHOA team · Updated July 2026

Why the board can't just change the locks, who has the power to remove squatters, and how new laws in Florida, Georgia, and New York speed things up.

Why the board can't just change the locks

Say a house on your cul-de-sac went into foreclosure last winter, and one morning a neighbor notices a car in the driveway, a sheet taped over the front window, and lights on at night. The instinct is for the board to go over with a locksmith, and that is the one thing it should not do. The association does not own that house or have the right to possess it, so removing people, changing locks, shutting off utilities, or hauling out their belongings can expose the association and the volunteers who did it to real liability, even when the occupants have no right to be there. The removal belongs to whoever holds title, whether that is the owner, an estate, or a lender that has already taken the property back at a foreclosure sale.

Common areas are a different story

When the problem is on property the association owns, like someone sleeping in the pool house, camping in a wooded greenbelt, or moving into a clubhouse storage room, the board is the owner and can act directly. That usually starts with a call to the police, since someone who just showed up on association land is typically a trespasser, and trespass is a crime officers can handle on the spot. It gets harder once a person has been living somewhere openly for a while, because police often treat anyone claiming the place as their home as a civil dispute and tell the owner to go to court. That is why it pays to report common-area intrusions the day you find them, not after a month of hoping they leave.

Getting the right person to act

For a private home, the association's most useful job is making sure the person with legal standing knows what is happening and has what they need to move quickly. Pull the deed from the county recorder, check for a pending foreclosure so you know who the servicer is, and send written notice to every one of them with dates, photographs, vehicle descriptions, and what neighbors have seen. Don't be surprised if the occupants produce a lease. Sometimes it is fake, and sometimes they are genuine victims of a scam where someone listed a vacant house for rent online and collected a deposit, but either way sorting that out is the owner's case to bring, not the board's. A property manager or board member is not automatically anyone's authorized agent just because the house sits inside the community.

Some states have made removal much faster

A handful of states changed their laws in 2024 so owners don't have to run a months-long eviction against people who were never tenants. Florida's section 82.036, effective July 1, 2024, lets an owner or their authorized agent file a verified complaint with the county sheriff, who verifies the filer's right to the property and then serves the occupants with notice to leave immediately, though it only applies when the occupants are not tenants, former tenants, co-owners, or immediate family and there is no pending lawsuit between the parties. Georgia's Squatter Reform Act, House Bill 1017, lets officers give an alleged squatter a citation with three business days to produce documentation showing a right to be there, after which the person can be arrested for criminal trespass. New York's April 2024 budget amended section 711 of its Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law to say plainly that a squatter is not a tenant. Most other states still route this through an eviction or unlawful detainer case, so the owner's local attorney is the one who knows which path applies.

Squatting is rarely adverse possession

People hear 'squatters' rights' and picture a stranger ending up with the title to a house, but that is adverse possession, and it is a long, demanding road. Courts generally require open, continuous, exclusive occupation without the owner's permission for a statutory period that runs from roughly five to twenty or more years depending on the state, and some states also require the occupant to pay the property taxes. An owner who acts within weeks of finding someone in the house is not at meaningful risk of losing it. The real cost of waiting is practical: more damage, more stripped copper and appliances, and a harder conversation with the police.

Prevention and keeping a record

The communities that deal with this least are the ones that notice vacancies early. Keep a quiet list of homes that are empty, in foreclosure, or bank-owned, ask neighbors to report broken windows, open doors, or new faces moving in, and use your maintenance and self-help powers to keep those houses from looking abandoned; our guide on what an HOA can do about an abandoned or vacant home covers those tools in detail. Assessments keep accruing against the owner of record the whole time, occupied or not, so keep billing and keep every notice and photo in one place where the next board can find it. OurHOA gives self-managed communities a single place to log resident reports, notices, and documents like these so nothing lives in someone's inbox. Squatter laws are changing quickly and vary a great deal by state, so treat this as background and confirm the specifics with association counsel or local law enforcement before anyone acts.

OurHOA is the friendly, affordable way self-managed communities keep dues, records, and reminders in one place. See how it works.

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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