What should our HOA board do when squatters move into a vacant home in the community?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised November 1, 2026

What an HOA board does when squatters take over a vacant home: first steps, finding the owner, police reports and the Texas, Florida and Colorado removal laws.

Part of the HOA board handbook: residents and communication.

The short answer

Do not confront the occupants and do not try to remove them yourselves. The association almost never owns the house, so it has no right to change the locks, and a director who tries can end up as the defendant. The board's job is narrower and still important: confirm what is going on, find the owner or whoever controls the property, report it to police, protect the common areas and the access system, and keep a clean record of dates and facts. Texas, Florida and Colorado now give owners a fast removal process that skips a standard eviction. Each one lets an owner's authorized agent use it too, which is where boards get pulled in. This guide covers Texas, Florida and Colorado. The rules vary by state and by your governing documents, and this is general education, not legal advice. Have the association's attorney look at anything the board signs.

The first 24 hours

Reports usually come from a neighbor: lights on in a house empty since the owner died, an unfamiliar car, a new padlock. Ask the neighbor to write down what they saw and when, with photos taken from their own property or the street. No one from the board should knock on the door. You do not know who is inside, and a polite question can turn into a claim that the HOA harassed a tenant. Then do three things the same day: - Call the police non-emergency line, say the home is believed vacant and that people appear to be living there without the owner's permission, and get the report number. - Pull the owner's file: mailing address, phone and email on record, any emergency contact, any lease the owner filed with the association, and the date of the last dues payment. - Check the county appraisal or property records for the current record owner. A recent deed, a probate filing or a foreclosure sale changes who you need to reach. If the occupants show a lease, stop treating it as a squatter case in your own notes. A lease, even a fake one, moves the matter toward the owner's ordinary eviction process, and that is the owner's call to make.

Find whoever controls the house

Only the owner or the owner's agent can use the removal laws, so most of the board's effort goes here. The reason the home is empty tells you who to call. - Owner moved away or works out of state: use every contact in the file, and send a letter to the mailing address on record and to the property address. - Owner died: ask neighbors and the last known emergency contact for the family or the executor, and check the county probate records. - Home in foreclosure: the lender's servicer usually hires a property preservation company to secure vacant homes. The notice of sale or the lis pendens in the county records names the lender, and the lender can tell you which company services the loan. - Association bought the home at its own foreclosure sale: then the association is the owner, and the board uses the removal law itself. Our guide on what to do when the HOA ends up owning a home after foreclosure covers that situation. Here is a letter the board can adapt and send by email and first class mail: "We are writing about your property at [address]. On [date], neighbors reported that people appear to be living in the home. The association has reported this to the [city] police department (report number [number]). We have not entered the home or spoken with the occupants. If these people are there with your permission, please let us know. If not, [state] law gives property owners a faster removal process through the sheriff or the county court, and you may want to talk to an attorney about it. Please contact [name] at [phone or email] so we can share what neighbors have reported."

The removal laws owners can use

Texas. Property Code chapter 24B, added by S.B. 1333 and in effect since September 1, 2025, lets the owner of residential property or the owner's agent submit a sworn complaint to the county sheriff or constable. It works only if the property was not open to the public when the person entered, there is no pending lawsuit between owner and occupant, the owner or agent has told the person to leave, and the person is not a current or former tenant or an immediate family member. The officer verifies that the complainant is the record owner or the owner's agent, serves a notice to immediately vacate and puts the owner in possession. A person wrongfully removed can sue for actual damages, exemplary damages equal to three times the dwelling's fair market rent, court costs and attorney's fees. Florida. Section 82.036, Florida Statutes, enacted in 2024, sets up a similar complaint to the county sheriff, with the same kinds of conditions: a residential dwelling, entry while the property was closed to the public, a demand to leave, no tenancy, no family tie and no pending litigation. The sheriff serves a notice to immediately vacate and can stand by, for an hourly fee, while the owner changes the locks. Wrongful removal carries damages equal to triple the fair market rent plus costs and fees. Colorado. Section 13-40.1-101, C.R.S., runs through the county court instead of the sheriff. The owner or authorized agent files a complaint and a verified motion for a temporary mandatory injunction, and the court must hold a hearing no later than the next court day unless the owner asks for a later date. Papers must be served at least 24 hours before the hearing. The process covers people occupying a vacant or uninhabited home with no current or prior agreement or consent, and it does not cover relatives of the owner or people the owner took money from. A false statement in the motion can be prosecuted as perjury. A 2025 bill that would have made squatting its own crime, H.B. 25-1104, was postponed indefinitely in committee and is not law.

Should the board act as the owner's agent

Sometimes an out-of-state owner or an executor asks the board to handle it. Be careful. Every one of these forms is signed under penalty of perjury, and the person who signs is the person who gets sued if the removal turns out to be wrong. In Texas and Florida that exposure includes triple the fair market rent. If the board decides to help, do it only with a written authorization signed by the owner that names the property, names who may sign for the association and states the owner has given no one permission to live there. The Texas and Florida complaints both require the agent to attach proof of authority. Have the association's attorney review it, and ask your insurance agent whether the directors and officers policy would cover a wrongful removal claim. Often the better help is to send the owner the form, the sheriff's contact information and the neighbor statements, and let the owner sign. A motion the board can adapt: "Move that the board authorize the president to provide the owner of [address] with copies of the neighbor statements, photos and police report number regarding the reported occupants, and that no director sign any complaint or affidavit regarding the property without prior review by the association's attorney."

Protect the rest of the community

While the owner works on removal, the board still runs the common areas. Look up every gate remote, fob and access code registered to the address. People the owner never authorized are not residents under your rules, so suspend those credentials and note the date. Keep a dated log of neighbor reports, police report numbers, letters and replies. Violation notices for the lot still go to the owner at the address on record, not to the occupants. Tell residents only what they need. A short email works: "The board is aware of reports about the vacant home on [street]. Police have been notified and the board is in contact with the owner's representatives. Please do not approach the home or the occupants. Report anything unusual to the police non-emergency line at [number]." Do not name the occupants, post photos of them or speculate in the community group.

A sample timeline

Day 0: neighbor report; statement and photos collected; police non-emergency report filed. Day 1: owner file and county records checked; letter emailed and mailed; access devices for the address suspended. Days 2 to 7: follow-up calls to the owner, family, executor or servicer; board decides by email vote or at a meeting whether to offer anything beyond information to the owner. Once the owner acts: in Texas and Florida the sheriff or constable serves the notice to vacate without delay once the complaint is verified; in Colorado the hearing is set for the next court day after filing. After removal: the owner secures the home and the board closes out the log.

Mistakes boards make

Sending a director to the door to tell the occupants to leave. Changing the locks or shutting off water, which the association has no right to do to a house it does not own. Signing a removal complaint as the owner's agent without written authority and a lawyer's review. Calling every unfamiliar occupant a squatter when the owner may have lent the house to a relative. Waiting weeks on one unanswered letter. Posting the occupants' photos online. Our page on what an HOA can do about an abandoned or vacant home covers the longer problem of keeping an empty house maintained, which is often how a squatter case starts.

Sources

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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