Philadelphia homeowner Chris Harte said he was forced to pay a squatter $1,200 to vacate his home after he was notified by the police they could not intervene and court personnel informed him that a formal eviction could take over six months, writes Hannah Ray Lambert for Fox News.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Harte said. “The city is rewarding criminals, basically.”

In December, Harte was attempting to sell an investment property in Northwest Philadelphia he had previously renovated when a neighbor informed him she saw people taking down the “for sale” sign and moving into the house.

Harte called the police, but as the squatters told officers they were renting the home, they could not do anything about it.

“I had all my paperwork, purchase and sale agreement, homeowner’s insurance, the deed to the home, everything on me,” said Harte. “They said it didn’t matter.”

The suspects had squatters’ rights as soon as they moved into the house, which Harte feels is an oxymoron.

Harte went to court, where he was told he would have to pay over $300 to file for an eviction, a process that could take up to a year. He ended up paying $1,200 to the squatters to leave.

Read more about Philadelphia homeowner Chris Harte at Fox News.

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Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on DELCO Today in January 2023.