LETTER: Squatter story could have been avoided

Beth Ellyn Rosenthal Las Vegas July 25, 2026 - 9:02 pm After squatters took over homes during what I call the “Las Vegas Real Estate Apocalypse,” the Legislature passed major anti-squatting legislation in May 2015. One of the measures in Assembly Bill 386 required landlords to notarize their leases. Your July 19 story on one homeowner’s experience with squatters in Las Vegas exemplifies why. Anyone can print a lease. But the only valid Nevada leases are ones notarized with the landlord’s signature. Sheriff Kevin McMahill should educate Metro officers about this. If the lease the squatters in the story presented wasn’t notarized, it was clearly fake. End of story. I believe the landlord still has to legally evict them.