Squatters took over a Baltimore County home. A proposed law in Maryland could make it easier to get them out.
David Bran's slice of the American dream is nestled in the woods near Owings Mills, Maryland. He and his wife bought the suburban home and fixed it up, hoping to sell and add to their retirement nest egg.
Until the squatters moved in.
"I was stunned. I was floored. I watched my life investment literally flashing before my eyes," Bran told WJZ Investigates. "Because I'm thinking the money we borrowed, the time we put into it, and these people basically just stealing possessions of our house, of our retirement, of our life savings."
It started with a call from his roofer the day before a scheduled home inspection.
"He said, 'Hey, I'm here at the property and there's a moving van and there's two people in the house,'" Bran recalled. "First thing I thought was, 'That's impossible.'"
So, he rushed there from Harford County.
"The back door was open. It was full of furniture. My for sale sign was down," Bran said. "I looked at the front door. The first thing I noticed was my key box - the lockbox that held the key - was gone."
Several people were at the door, Bran said.
"They asked me what I was doing there, and I said, 'Well this is my house. This is my house. What are you doing here?' And he immediately looked at me and said, 'Well, I've rented this house," Bran said.
The person told him he had the key, a lease, "and I have possession," he said.
The fake lease
Bran said the fake lease was eight pages long and looked like the real thing.
"It was the best lease I've ever seen. It had my name, my wife's name, our home address. All the terms and conditions, the monthly rental, the terms of the lease at the back of the lease. It had their photo identification stapled to the back of it with everyone's signature," Bran told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "And of course, the signature didn't look anything like mine, but it was all fully executed."
The information is all publicly available.
"You can Google someone's name and find out their address, all that information online," Bran said.
Police came, but told Bran there was nothing they could do.
"The ultimate answer was it's a civil matter because he's provided a lease document," Bran said. "And he has a key to the property, and he had some furniture in there, which does give him possession of the house."
Police told him there was no criminal violation.
"The only option I had was to go to court and file for an eviction," Bran said. "I was furious. I was so angry, Someone just coming in and taking your life's work, your life savings away from you. It was terrifying."
Bran does not believe Maryland has the proper laws to deal with it.
Proposed anti-squatting law
That's where Ryan Nawrocki comes in.
The Baltimore County delegate introduced House Bill 202, which makes squatting a felony with penalties, including time behind bars, and gives the local sheriff the immediate ability to throw the squatter out.
"It would put much more serious penalties in place," Nawrocki said. "I think we need those because clearly whatever penalties we have in place right now are wholly inadequate. The first problem is the timeline that it takes to get someone out of a property. When someone is squatting in a property, currently, we treat them almost as if they are a tenant. And a tenant has all kinds of legal rights – as they should – to eviction proceedings and other things that can be quite extensive, and there's good reason why we have those measures in place to protect tenants."
Nawrocki told WJZ, "Currently, the fine is only $1,000 for this type of forgery. Mine would up that fine to $5,000. It would also provide up to ten years in jail for some of these folks. Because we're talking about some folks who are operating some very serious, in my opinion, criminal networks here. They're producing documents at an alarming rate that frankly look better than some of the leases that I've signed."
Opposition to anti-squatting bill
Opponents argue it is wrong to turn the local sheriff into a judge on the spot to determine the validity of documents.
"This is a dangerous bill, and that's why we're in opposition of it," Joseph Lovelace with Maryland Legal Aid said during a recent hearing on Nawrocki's bill.
Scammers are also taking advantage of legitimate renters, targeting properties, gaining access and creating fake leases for them. Then, they advertise on platforms like Craigslist and take the money from people who think they are legally renting them.
"It would effectively give them no notice, have no type of hearing in front of a judge or a court and effectively kick them out," said Albert Turner with the Public Justice Center.
One mother told lawmakers she was the victim of someone who scammed her with a fake lease, and the current system kept her from being immediately evicted.
"It was scary and confusing. I realized the person who rented me the house had never owned it and had scammed me out of a few thousand dollars," said Jessica Leggett.
She told lawmakers the small window of time that afforded her was crucial.
"If HB202 would have passed, a sheriff would have kicked me out into the streets at that time, and I wouldn't have been able to get my belongings," Leggett said. "That's terrifying for me and my family."
The Office of the Public Defender (OPD) believes "...the bill may result in approximately 450 new cases statewide for OPD each year, requiring the equivalent of three attorneys and one administrative assistant at an estimated cost of $325,948 in fiscal 2026, increasing to $443,012 by fiscal 2030. Although the Department of Legislative Services (DLS) is unable to validate OPD's precise caseload/staffing estimate without experience under the bill, it acknowledges that general fund expenditures may increase minimally to accommodate an increased workload. To the extent OPD's case volume increases meaningfully as a direct result of the bill, OPD can request additional resources through the annual budget process."
Cash for keys scam
Delegate Nawrocki believes scammers are continually taking advantage of Maryland's weak laws.
"It's easier to give people money and be extorted essentially than to kind of work through the legal process and take up to sometimes a year to get these people out," Nawrocki said. "We shouldn't be encouraging people to extort in our society."
He believes these scammers know exactly what they're doing in the "cash for keys" scam.
"They want your money, and they recognize that it is often cheaper and easier for a property owner to hand someone cash than to work through the legal proceeding," Del. Nawrocki said.
Paying up
David Bran found out firsthand why the scam is called "cash for keys" after police left, and he says, the squatters threatened to damage the property.
"I had a lot to lose, and I realized he has nothing to lose," Bran said.
So, he cut a deal and paid them $7,500 in cash to turn over the keys and leave his home.
"He agreed to it. He acknowledged it. I made him sign it on the back of the lease agreement," Bran said. "$7,500 cash to get him out on the spot."
He never saw the people again.
Bran also learned the alleged squatters had a long record of doing the same thing to other property owners over and over again.
When asked his reaction, Bran told WJZ Investigates, "I really can't say on camera."
Bran now has cameras monitoring his home, and he lives with the nagging fear that it could all happen again.
"You think you're doing the right thing, right? You know it's your property. You own the house. You've shown the police officer, you own the house," Bran said. "They're in there illegally. The police should remove them. It should be that simple."
