Click to watch video

Sarah Montemayor and her husband Felipe can hardly bear to look at it.

Their house has been taken over by Seabe, Stacy and James Johnson.

The Johnsons are roofers.

But the Johnsons say the Montemayors made them a deal.

Stacy Johnson says the agreement was that her family would stay in the home in exchange for painting it.

But Sarah Montemayor says she’s the one who painted the house.

KHOU - TV

When the Johnsons showed up in June looking for a job, Montemayor says she told them no.

“We said we can’t afford to pay anything that’s why we had done all the work ourselves. They went away. At least we didn’t see them anymore. We didn’t know he had actually moved things inside the house,” Montemayor said.

Police have been called to the home nearly two dozen times in the last four months.

So why are the Johnsons still in the home?

The way Texas law deals with tenants, police can't make squatters leave -- even when landlords say they never wanted them in the first place.

“Something at some time led these people who are in possession to think they could stay. Right or wrong they have that position. Once that happens law enforcement rightly is going to say we’re not going to decide this dispute, that’s for judges to decide,” said 11 News legal expert Gerald Treece.

“We have a business. We have a roofing business. We didn’t just drive up here and start living in her house. That’s crazy. Why would we do that,” said James Johnson.

The Montemayors eventually asked a justice of the peace for a 30-day eviction notice.

Wednesday was day 33, and the Johnsons are finally moving on.

The law

The law says that if you let someone stay in your house, even for a night, then that person becomes a tenant.

If they refuse to leave, police can’t kick them out -- you need an eviction notice from a justice of the peace.

The law is there to protect tenants from unruly landlords. In this case, it’s left two families without a home.