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Peach State crawling with vacant housing; more squatting cases head to court in Georgia

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Peach State crawling with vacant housing; more squatting cases head to court in Georgia

Georgia is one state that has seen an uptick in squatter cases being taken to court in recent years, according to a report. 

A report by the Pacific Legal Foundation found an upward trend in squatter cases being brought to court beginning in 2019. The number of these cases in Georgia rose from three in 2017 to 50 in 2021. 

In 2023, there were 198 civil court cases involving squatting in the Peach State, according to the report. 

Additionally, a survey by the National Rental Home Council (NRHC) in 2023 found Atlanta had the largest number, with 1,200 homes being occupied by unlawful inhabitants. Dallas followed with 475, and Orlando had 125. 

A report showed a spike in squatter cases going to court in Georgia in recent years.  (iStock)

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ADVICE FROM PROFESSIONALS ON PROTECTING YOUR HOME AGAINST SQUATTERS

To collect the data reported by the Pacific Legal Foundation, Kyle Sweetland, a research manager for property rights for the public interest law firm, sought out states that had a “centralized record system” for squatting cases and found Georgia had the information available.

“In Georgia, there are certain legal codes that are related to squatting, where I was able to actually check and see that these cases are, in fact, dealing with squatters,” Sweetland told Fox News Digital. He explained that, for other cases, he was able to do a keyword search of the case description itself.    

“It’s a very rough estimate, I believe, but it’s an accurate estimate of what sort of cases are being filed that are talking about squatters in these states at a broader level.”

ALABAMA REALTOR SHOCKED WHEN SQUATTER GREETS HER AND POTENTIAL BUYERS AT HOME SHOWING

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This report only gathered data from 25 of Georgia’s 159 counties. 

Eviction notice on house

Removing squatters from homes is a long and expensive process in many states.  (iStock)

It’s unclear why squatter cases have spiked in the state, but there are theories.

“One thing that has been brought up [as] the reason for the backlog in the civil court system, which is what the squatters are taking advantage of, is the eviction moratorium in 2020,” Sweetland explained. The moratorium protected legal tenants, but squatters too, under Georgia’s old law, Sweetland explained. 

FLORIDA LANDLORD EVICTED SQUATTERS ONE YEAR AGO, HER STORY HELPED PASS A BILL TO PROTECT HOMEOWNERS

Another theory Sweetland offered for the uptick in squatting is the rise in both rent prices and home prices after the 2020 moratorium. 

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Many states, including Georgia, have passed laws putting rights back in the hands of homeowners and away from squatters. 

These laws, like the Georgia Squatter Reform Act put into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, greatly shortened the amount of time it takes to remove a squatter from a home, which was, (and still is in many states), a multi-month, sometimes yearslong process. 

A police in uniform

States like Georgia, which have passed laws against squatting, have made it easier for homeowners to evict unlawful inhabitants.  (iStock)

“This is insanity that people just think they can come in and take over somebody’s home. I mean, it’s just outrageous,” Kemp said on “Fox & Friends” prior to passing the law.

 

Since this law was passed, it’s likely more squatter cases will be brought to court in the state. 

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“More people may go that route to try and remove the squatter, because it’s so much faster now and so much easier now to do that,” Sweetland said. 

If you are a homeowner who has a squatter living on your property, you should call a real estate attorney. 

Jerron Kelley, partner at Kelley & Grant P.A. in Boca Raton, Florida, previously told Fox News Digital that even though a squatter is not part of a landlord-tenant relationship, a real estate attorney will have the most knowledge of the law and the expertise needed to handle your specific situation.

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Former NASCAR driver Kurt Busch 'very disappointed' by DWI arrest, vows to 'rectify the situation'

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Former NASCAR driver Kurt Busch 'very disappointed' by DWI arrest, vows to 'rectify the situation'

Retired NASCAR driver Kurt Busch was arrested this week in Mooresville, North Carolina, after police pulled him over for allegedly driving 63 mph in a 45 mph zone.

Busch was then taken into custody for DWI, reckless driving and speeding. 

Racer.com reported that officers said the 46-year-old displayed signs of intoxication with a “strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath” and “red glassy eyes.”

Busch admitted he was drunk, and his blood alcohol level was more than double the state’s legal limit.

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Kurt Busch, a retired NASCAR driver and adviser to 23XI Racing, walks the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway July 20, 2024, in Indianapolis.  (James Gilbert/Getty Images)

He was booked into the Iredell County Detention Center and later released. He is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 19.

NASCAR REVOKES AUSTIN DILLON’S AUTOMATIC PLAYOFF BERTH OVER RICHMOND FINISH

Kurt Busch

Kurt Busch, a retired NASCAR driver and adviser to 23XI Racing, walks the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway July 20, 2024, in Indianapolis.  (James Gilbert/Getty Images)

“I’m very disappointed in myself, and I apologize to my family, my racing family and to my fans,” the NASCAR champion said in a statement. “I will work with the authorities to rectify the situation and work with the county to make it a safer place in the future.”

Kurt Busch makes an annoucement

NASCAR Cup Series driver Kurt Busch announces his retirement from racing prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway Aug. 26, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Busch won the Cup Series title in 2004 and the Daytona 500 in 2017. 

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In 2022, he suffered a serious concussion during qualifying at Pocono Raceway. The same year, he announced he would stop racing on a full-time basis in 2023. Busch formally announced his retirement in August 2023.

Kurt’s younger brother, Kyle Busch, is an active NASCAR driver and is a two-time series champion.

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UNC braces as anti-Israel group dubbed 'voice for Hamas' condones 'armed rebellion': 'By any means necessary'

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UNC braces as anti-Israel group dubbed 'voice for Hamas' condones 'armed rebellion': 'By any means necessary'

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Anti-Israel agitators at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are vowing resistance “by any means necessary” as the 2024-2025 school year officially begins on Aug. 18.

An unofficial anti-Israel student group called UNC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), representing Chapel Hill, posted a commitment to “resist by any means necessary” and said it condones “all forms of principled action” in a July 31 Instagram post.

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The group, which has received funding from Hamas-linked groups, according to research from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, is responding to the arrest of some 40 agitators on campus in May, when they set up an encampment on the school’s quad to protest the Israel-Gaza war.

“We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated,” SJP wrote in an Instagram post on their account with more than 14,000 followers. “A group of the defendants has released these points of unity to express their commitment to collective defense, fighting as a unified bloc for ALL their charges to be dropped while not losing sight of the ultimate goal of Palestinian liberation.”

UNC CHAPEL HILL BOARD VOTES TO DISMANTLE DEI PROGRAMS, USE FUNDS ON CAMPUS POLICE AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS

Red paint stains the steps of the chancellor’s building at UNC Chapel Hill on May 11, 2024. Earlier in the day, students vandalized the building in protest of the Hamas-Israel war. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

The points outlined in the Instagram post include support for “the right to resistance, not only in Palestine, but here in the imperial core.”

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“We condone all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion, necessary to stop Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and to dismantle imperialism and capitalism more broadly.”

— NCSJP Instagram post

The post further says that the “goals” of the United States and Israel “are the same: to colonize, kill, and steal in service of capitalist greed.”

Anti-Israel protesters replace the American flag with the Palestinian flag during a demonstration at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus

Anti-Israel protesters replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag during a demonstration at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus on April 30, 2024. (Heather Diehl/The Daily Tar Heel)

Irina Tsukerman, fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Arabian Peninsula Institute and also president of Scarab Rising, Inc., a security and geopolitical risk strategic advisory firm, told Fox News Digital that SJP is a national organization with local chapters, and while some of the group’s followers may be on college campuses, they also have supporters who are not college students and some who are not even U.S. citizens.

ANTI-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS GATHER AT UNC-CHAPEL HILL CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE, SMEAR RED PAINT ON BUILDING

Police at UNC Chapel Hill anti-Israel protest

Anti-Israel demonstrators clash with police at UNC Chapel Hill on April 30, 2024. (Travis Long/News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“They do an outstanding job of portraying themselves as voices for Palestinians, whereas they are actually voices for Hamas,” Tsukerman said. “I think many people follow without really knowing them or their agenda. … Also, the people who follow SJP get sucked into believing it’s an actual human-rights effort … it’s people who are born activists, and not all of these people are even U.S. citizens.”

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Steve McGuire of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, told Fox News Digital that schools should take rhetoric posted by SJP on social media “seriously” because they have a duty to “protect their campus communities.”

UNC STUDENT WHO DEFENDED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB ‘HONORED TO GIVE BACK TO THE NATION’

UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest

UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators had replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)

He similarly described the group as “anti-Western, anti-civilizational revolutionaries.”

“Their goals are political or ideological. They obviously have to do with Gaza. … They have been one of the organizations that’s been behind helping students to organize and stage the various protests and encampments that we’ve seen on campuses around the country. Now … they say we condone all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion. Well, another word for armed rebellion in this context is terrorism,” McGuire said.

UNC FRATERNITY BROTHERS DEFEND REINSTATED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB WHO REPLACED WITH PALESTINIAN FLAG

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Students work on assignments and listen to organizers as they sit inside the encampment protest in Polk Place on University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C., on Monday, April 29, 2024.

Steve McGuire of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni said UNC administrators should be prepared for protesters to set up encampments and demonstrations in the fall as they did in the spring. (Makiya Seminera/File)

He added that administrators should be prepared for protesters to set up encampments and demonstrations in the fall as they did in the spring. ACTA is issuing a guide for colleges to respond to campus encampments on Tuesday to help colleges prepare for a response.

“They see the universities as one instrument that they can use to try and advance their revolutionary cause.”

— Steve McGuire

“That’s one of the reasons, I think, that college and university leaders need to recognize that … while free expression is something that needs to be protected in America, on the other hand, they have every right and responsibility to protect the rights of others, to ensure the safety of members of their campus communities, and also to protect the integrity of their institutions,” McGuire explained.

Tsukerman noted that social media misrepresents how many students are actually following the group’s support and activity among students. 

Vandalized Chancellor's building

Protesters stamp red handprint stains on the chancellor’s building at UNC Chapel Hill on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

She said members of the group gather those who align themselves with “generic anti-Capitalist, radical leftist movements that are not about any specific agenda other than opposing Western systems,” Tsukerman said. They use “21st-century means of amplifying their voices” and shared goals, which are “anti-Israel, anti-capitalist and anti-democracy,” she added.

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Chapel Hill made headlines in the spring when anti-Israel protesters replaced an American flag on Chapel Hill’s quad with a Palestine flag and interim UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts stepped in with law enforcement officers to return the American flag.

POLICE AT UNC CHAPEL HILL DETAIN AT LEAST 30 ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS, CROWDS TRYING TO FORCE INTO BUILDINGS

Protesters, Palestinian flag

About 1,000 anti-Israel demonstrators rally at the South Building after a “Gaza solidarity encampment” was removed by police early on April 30, 2024, at UNC Chapel Hill. (Travis Long/News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

When activists, some who were not affiliated with Chapel Hill, tried to take the flag down a second time, a group of students, including fraternity brothers, stepped in to stop Old Glory from hitting the ground. A photo of the moment went viral on social media.

UNC’s University Board of Trustees last week approved Roberts as Chapel Hill’s 13th chancellor despite the criticism he drew for calling in campus police to respond to protests and the encampment in May.

EMORY UNIVERSITY POLICE ARREST CONVICTED FELON WHO CROSSED STATE LINES TO JOIN ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS

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UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest

UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on April 30, 2024. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)

“There is no higher calling than supporting our mission every single day,” Roberts said after being named chancellor, according to a press release. “To me, this University stands — above all else — for the ideal of public service, for helping the people of this state and all those who are touched by this place to achieve their greatest potential. As chancellor, I promise to be guided by that principle as we work together to carry North Carolina into the future.”

SJP’s Chapel Hill arm and the Southern Student Action Coalition, along with other progressive student groups, called Lee an “authoritarian” and a “general” after he was named chancellor.

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Virginia train crash with passenger van leaves 3 people dead, 1 other injured

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Virginia train crash with passenger van leaves 3 people dead, 1 other injured

Three people were killed and one other was injured in a crash in Augusta County, Virginia, Monday night involving a train and a passenger van, according to officials.

Virginia State Police said a 15-passenger van carrying four passengers was traveling from a solar panel work site in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, when it was struck on the driver’s side of the vehicle shortly after 8 p.m. by a Norfolk Southern train traveling toward the city of Waynesboro, WHSV reported.

Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene at 8:13 p.m. by the Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad, according to the outlet. Another woman passenger was transported to Augusta Health to treat her injuries.

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS INJURED DURING TURBULENCE ON FLORIDA FLIGHT

Three people were killed and one other was injured in a crash in Augusta County, Virginia, Monday night involving a train and a passenger van. (Getty Images)

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The crash happened at the intersection between the train tracks and a private road on the 100 block of Wayne Ave., police said. The initial call came at 8:08 p.m.

“Witnesses, they just heard the train toot their horn,” police Sgt. C.J. Aikens told WVIR. “They looked up, they just saw the impact.”

Police spoke with the train’s conductor and engineer and concluded that it does not appear the train was exceeding normal speed.

WOULD-BE VOEPASS PASSENGERS SAY THEY MISSED DOOMED BRAZILIAN FLIGHT OVER BOOKING MIX-UP

Virginia State Police cruiser

Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene while another woman passenger was transported to Augusta Health for her injuries. (Virginia State Police)

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The victims’ identities have not yet been released as police work to notify their families.

The incident remains under investigation.

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