Deltona cracks down on squatters

Published: Tuesday, September 2, 2014 at 8:25 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, September 2, 2014 at 8:25 p.m.

A two-bedroom home on Candlewick Street sat empty for years after the owner died and then Burger arrived in July, neighbor Robert Hall said. I knew she didnt belong there, Hall said.

The Volusia County Sheriffs Office arrested Burger, 68, on charges including fraud and forgery on July 17.

Officials in Deltona, where thousands of homes have fallen into foreclosure, have found at least four instances where its water department started service for suspected squatters. The City Commission recently approved a rental verification ordinance designed, in part, to prevent that.

Some Volusia property managers say squatting has become an ongoing problem, and while they are generally loathe to see more regulations on landlords, they say a rental verification process, like the one in Deltona, is needed.

So far this year, Burger showed up in two separate sheriffs reports five months apart.

Investigators said two movers complained in February about Burger after they carried all of her belongings from a home on Yellowbird Avenue into a U-Haul, drove it to another home and then were asked to break into the home for her.

The movers refused, then asked to be paid.

Burger led them around town, paused at one intersection, then whipped a u-turn and drove at a high rate of speed before eventually telling the movers by phone she wouldnt be paying them, the report states.

Investigators discovered she had filed for adverse possession a legal maneuver whereby squatters can try to take possession of unclaimed property after seven years on the Yellowbird Avenue home. They told her she was under criminal investigation for staying in the home and removing items from it that likely did not belong to her, a sheriffs report states.

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Deltona cracks down on squatters