By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – A Hammond landlord raised property rights issues at the Ogdensburg Council meeting after squatters took over one of her rentals leaving behind buckets of feces and urine, and piles of trash in their wake.

Lisa Gallagher told city councilors she was dismayed regarding the limited rights landlords have to secure their property.

Gallagher said squatters took over her Washington Street rental property after she evicted one of her tenants following problems. She said when she arrived to follow up on the eviction she was greeted by a man and woman who said, “we have no place to go and there is nothing you can do about it.”

Gallagher said what followed was a nightmare. She attempted to seek help from Ogdensburg police, but was told it was civil issue and that there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

She also reached out to United Helpers as the original tenant was a client there, but they were also unable to provide help.

Gallagher said was eventually told by police to issue another notice to the squatters.

She said she that as a landlord she could not do anything to legally secure the apartment until the eviction notice was served.

Gallagher said she took matters into her own hands and searched the squatters out on Facebook and was eventually able to convince them to leave, rather than face legal action. But Gallagher said the apartment was left in disgusting condition with garbage littered about the apartment, buckets of human feces and even a dead uncleaned fish left in the fridge.

Gallagher did not ask the city for help, but said she spoke at the meeting in order to inform other landlords of their limited ability to deal with squatters.

“I believe the system is flawed and I know it will probably not change, but if one person can benefit from my experience then I have done something good,” she said.

Council took no action and had no discussion of the incident following Gallagher’s presentation.