Cottage Owners Beware: The Abandoned Property Scam

So here's a cautionary tale for cottage owners in Ontario. I learned this yesterday when I was visiting a long time friend and client of mine. In her case, the family, her father had purchased a cottage back in the 1970s. It had been in the family well now for almost 50 years. Had always been perfectly fine. No problems with that property.

But in recent years, the family has visited that property less and less just because while everyone's getting older and there was some health issues and whatever. So imagine her shock when she went out to the family cottage a few weeks ago and found that what had happened? Yeah, it had been taken over by squatters. Not only had squatters taken over the property, but they had broken into the cottage. They had broken things inside of the cottage. They weren't living in the cottage. They'd brought like an RV, like a camper and were living in the camper. But still felt the need to break in and destroy stuff in the cottage itself. They dragged the sofa outside so that they could sit on the sofa as they watched the river go by, like just ridiculous stuff.

So here's where it gets more interesting. This is the cautionary tale part. So she calls the police. You know, she has to prove to the police that yes, in fact, this is her property and yes, it wasn't her name legally and all of that good stuff. They cleared away the squatters. But what did the squatters say? Well, they said they had rented the property from someone who claimed to be the owner of the property. Now, I have no idea if that's complete hogwash or not. They may have just been planning to say that in the event or when they eventually got caught.

But as it turns out, I've since learned that there is a database that people look to on the internet of abandoned properties or so-called abandoned properties. And it is true that scammers will actually sift through that database of supposedly abandoned properties and then rent it to unsuspecting victims. Now, my sense is in this case, these were not unsuspecting victims. But what I am saying is that if you own a cottage in Ontario, you better check on it regularly. If you can't be there in person, hire a company to watch it because obviously this type of scam is worse and worse. And you can guess, you can bet it's going to get worse in the days and years. I had crazy stuff with disrespect for someone's property. Just burns me up.