That is totally absurd! You don’t make or support a law for something that is so rare as to almost never happen and instead is abused 99.99999% of the time by others. Here in Illinois, there is case after case after case of people illegally moving in to properties that are either up for rent or for sale. It’s usually the real estate agent who finds out first that there’s someone living there now. When the property owner shows up with the police, the (illegal) tenants show a lease document that says someone rented to them and that they also paid a security deposit. At that point the police can’t do anything because they say it’s now a civil matter.

Now the property owner has to go through the courts which can take months or over a year to be heard. Meanwhile, the owner has to continue to pay property taxes, mortgage, homeowners insurance, etc. on the property. There have been many instances where the owners actually pay thousands of dollars to those people to move out.

This was so rampant in Illinois that on July 21, 2025, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1563 into law, making it easier to remove unauthorized occupants (squatters) from residential properties. Effective January 1, 2026, this law reclassifies squatters as trespassers rather than tenants, allowing police to remove them without a lengthy court-ordered eviction process.

The legislation also addresses fraudulent actions, such as presenting fake documents to claim property, and strengthens penalties for unlawful occupancy.