Texas homeowner 'completely destroyed' financially after squatter nightmare
Despite regaining access to her squatted-in home, Terri Boyette remains displaced and financially stressed as she waits for insurance to assist with more than $150,000 in damages.
Months after squatters took over, ransacked and robbed her Dallas-area home, owner Terri Boyette is reportedly still living at her mom’s in Florida while her house, wallet and morale has been left "completely destroyed."
"I'm working with insurance for arrangements to be able to stay close to the home so that we can start repairs on it," Boyette gave an update on "Varney & Co." Monday.
"[It’s] completely destroyed," she continued. "There's well over $150,000 worth of damages and losses to the home."
Last year, Boyette started documenting her nightmare experience after a squatter allegedly trashed her home and sold her belongings while she was taking care of a family member in another state.
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"I hired him to come in and do some work for me. He did a fantastic job. I hired him back over several months," she began to explain. "While I was gone, he broke into the house and made himself at home, as well as multiple other friends, who then turned it into basically a drug den."
When she tried to report the break-in to law enforcement, she was told squatters' rights laws protected the "tenant" because he had been there over 10 days and she had to go through the eviction process.
"I attempted to do my own eviction, but the challenge in Texas is there's no place for squatter eviction," Boyette reflected.
After gaining access to her home again on March 20, she discovered most of her furniture and appliances had been stolen or damaged beyond repair.
"He sold all of my large appliances online and sold everything else in a yard sale that he had," Boyette detailed.
In a now-viral video shared with her social media followers, Boyette walked through her home, revealing how the squatter had wrecked the house and left piles of trash, clothes and rotting food.
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Red states around the country are moving to eliminate squatters' rights, which have proven to be a costly headache for property owners in cities around the country. These rights allow people to be considered tenants after occupying a property for a certain amount of time, tying the hands of legal property owners who try to remove the unwanted inhabitants.
But Boyette sounded off Monday on the lengthy civil court process she’s faced in Texas.
"They only allow you to submit a court case if you have a tenant or either oral or a written agreement. So I didn't know how to work around that, so I ended up having to hire an attorney to do the eviction, and that took about seven months," she said.
Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.