BiggerPockets

Cut the water off, call the police, bust the door down and make the reapir, put the door up and file a police report for vandalism if you can, since she intentionally caused the damage due to your suit against her. I'd ask the officer to arrest her. You have a right to protect your property and a tenant can not lock you out. Change the locks and tell her to pay a key deposit! You probably won't get any money out of that tenant. While you are there, if there is any sign of drugs, you can set them out under suspected drug usage statutes of your state, usually like immediately. Let her hire an attorney, she probably can't. IMO I'd be in their face real quick! Good Luck, Bill

What an unfortunate situation. I hope that gets resolved soon. Is Georgia a tenant-friendly state?

Did she move in at the same time she was living in there, or after he'd left? If it's the latter, I guess the remedy to prevent this from ever happening again would be to change the locks immediately after the old tenant moves out.

What does your lawyer say about the situation?

Tim, The OP has this statement in it:

"The eviction process has been started. However, we are now having water damage in the apartment below. She will not allow us in to fix the problem."

Does not sound like a SFR to me.

Thank you to everyone for the quick feedback. I have spoken to several police officers including a supervisor at the property.. All stated they they cannot force their way in our allow me to. Squater is there all of the time so I cannot go at a when she is not there. I scheduled a time with her with several officers there for the next day. Once we got there, she would not let us in and then called the police. The squater told the police she had been there for months. Of course this is a lie. However, the police are not willing to take the chance that she has established residency. My attorney, a judge, police, and several deputy sheriffs all believe she is a squater, but can only advise me to file for eviction. With the exception of the judge, they did believe I should shut off the water and document the damage with picture.

You are right on with this. If we shut off the water, it will be to the whole building. Not just to that apartment. The Sheriifs department said she will be served to today. I was told by a neighbor that she plans to answer the eviction to ride it out. If she answers, we are in for another 3 weeks.

If she is claiming tenancy then the lease in place with her son is still in effect. What does that lease say about landlord entry into the building?

If it allows entry... usually with some pre-notification... send her a letter, certified and first class... tell her you are coming in at a specific date and time... hire a lock smith, bring the police and then exercise your rights as a landlord.

If your lease don't contain an entry clause... make sure that the next one does.

Best of luck!

The lease does give me entry into the property with notification. I even had 4 police officers there when I gave notice and witness a scheduled time to enter. At the scheduled time, she would not allow entry. The police were called and they would not allow me to enforce my lease. I still cannot get access with the police present.

This is a long shot, but it sounds like she could be mentally unstable. Perhaps there's some way of having her declared a risk of harm to herself and others and removed from the property for her own safety. Florida has something called the Baker Act to this effect.

Maybe forget the police for a moment and contact a social worker or whatever social welfare agency handles your area. They may have some ideas on how to handle this. Maybe they can do something to empower the police to be able to act, too.