Georgia police immediately enforce new squatter laws following local media investigations

Georgia’s new tougher penalties against squatters are now the law of the land.

The new law comes after a series of Channel 2 Action News investigations exposed the loophole squatters were taking advantage of.

Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has been reaching out to police departments, solicitor generals, and local magistrates to see if criminal citations are now being written to squatters.

Many of the departments tell us they are still figuring out how this is all going to work.

But the city of South Fulton has already created a special task force just to go after squatters armed with the authority of this new law.

The suspected squatters ran out the back door.

“I know everybody thinks you can go in the house and squat and sit there. That all changed the other day,” one of the responding officers said on body cam video.

“We’re basically putting these squatters on notice. The law changed,” said Lt. Jubal Rogers with the South Fulton Police Department.

It was a very different scene earlier this spring when police were called to Paul Callins DeKalb County home.

“They’ll break into your house and then use the law to stay there,” Callins said at the time.

Police body camera video was rolling as officers were handed what they suspected was a fake lease.