'I’ve never felt so powerless': Windsor landlord seeks help evicting 'nightmare' squatter

A Windsor landlord is beyond frustrated and unsure where to turn after a squatter took up residence in his rental unit on Chilver Road in Walkerville.

Kristian Neill has owned the home at 459 Chilver Rd. for 19 years and lived in it for 16 years.

A few years back, he moved out and moved his mom from out of town into the lower unit.

He’s renting out the upper unit, but in January, his tenant stopped paying rent.

“I've never had an issue with tenants upstairs. I've never had an eviction over 19 years. This is my first,” said Neill, noting when he initiated paperwork through the landlord tenant board his legal tenant skipped town.

“If she would have handed me the keys, this wouldn't be an issue and it would be over,” Neill said. “But because she handed the keys to this gentleman, now he's a squatter.”

That squatter is Jacob Reaume who recently testified in a trial where three men were put away for life for murder.

“The gentleman upstairs is a known and admitted — on public record — drug dealer in the past and that threatens the safety of the neighborhood,” Neill said.

Over the past few months, Neill said Reaume has never paid rent, he’s not on the tenant agreement and lives in squalor.

A quick trip through the upper unit Thursday — with proper notice and permission — shows the state of the unit. It’s full of debris and refuse, alterations and makeshift doors where they shouldn’t be, paraphernalia, graffiti and extensive damage.

Graffiti and debris within the upper unit of 459 Chilver Rd. in Windsor, Ont. on Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Rich Garton/CTV News Windsor)

“I work every day to maintain it and to keep it that way to pay the bills to maintain the property,” said Neill. “And now someone's simply destroying it because they can and there's simply nothing that I can do.”

Neill’s mother lives in the downstairs unit and says she hears construction fights and noise at all hours of the night.

“Oh my blood pressure is through the roof. I've been in tears the last three days,” she said, preferring not to be named for the story. “Oh yeah, no sleep. If I can see a light at the end of the tunnel where I knew, okay, by then they'll be gone. I'm okay. But that's not what's going on.”

Neill has called 3-1-1 to get a fire inspection. He’s called police. He’s filed eviction for non-payment paperwork with the landlord tenant board.

And now he waits.

“When you file your paperwork, the website says right on it. It will take seven to eight months to process and that's just the first step the process,” he said.

The Landlord Tenant Board website indicates the waiting period for hearings has dropped to five months in some cases, down from 8-10 months from a year prior.

Neill’s paralegal estimates the case won’t be heard until the fall.

CTV reached out to the Landlord Tenant Board for comment and did not receive a response.

Jacob Reaume was not home when we knocked on the door.

“My hands are tied and it's very frustrating and a great financial strain and bear,” he said. “We have to simply grit our teeth every day and continue to pay for them to live there. While our own lives and mental health suffer.”

“I've never felt so powerless in my entire life.”