Oregon’s HB 3522 took effect January 1, 2026. Everyone wrote about removing squatters. Almost nobody wrote about what it did to the market for houses that have one.
On January 1, 2026, Oregon changed how a property owner deals with someone living in their house who has no right to be there. House Bill 3522 lets owners use the standard eviction process instead of filing a separate civil lawsuit.
Every landlord blog in Oregon has written about what that means for removing squatters. Almost nobody has written about the part that matters more if you’re trying to sell:
It made houses with squatters in them sellable again.
We had a house in Milwaukie under contract — just south of Portland in Clackamas County. One of the owners had passed away, the surviving owner held the property, a family member was living there, and the place needed real work.
There was also a man staying in the house who wouldn’t leave when he was asked to. He had nothing in his name — no lease, no rent receipts, no utility account, no phone bill. Nothing that said he lived there by any arrangement.
I had a buyer ready to take it sight unseen. He wanted the house. What he didn’t want was the person in it, because until this year that was an open-ended legal problem with no predictable end date.
I sent him the new law.
He read it, got comfortable, and we closed in 21 days.
And here’s the part I didn’t expect. We stopped by the house and talked to him. We never had a problem getting access — he let us in.
He wasn’t hostile and he wasn’t trying to game anybody. He just wanted it done legally. He wanted to know he was being told the truth about where he stood rather than being pushed out by whoever showed up.
So we told him. The property was being purchased, he had no agreement with anyone, and the law on this had changed on January 1. That was the conversation.
He went. No notice served, no court filing, nobody yelling in a driveway. Knowing where he actually stood was enough.
Think about what the buyer was actually pricing before I sent him the statute. Not the roof. Not the kitchen. An unknown number of months in a legal process nobody could put a timeline on.
That’s why houses with unauthorized occupants sat, and why they sat hardest in the Portland metro, where the older rental stock and the sheer number of transactions mean these situations turn up most often. Cash home buyers didn’t refuse them because they’re squeamish — they refused them because you can’t underwrite an unknown. So owners got told the house was unsellable, or got cash offers priced for the worst case.
HB 3522 didn’t just give owners a faster remedy. It gave buyers a number they can plan around — and buyers who can plan will make offers.
If you own a house with someone in it you can’t get out, and somebody told you it can’t be sold, there’s a decent chance they were right a year ago and haven’t read anything since.
Before 2026, removing an unauthorized occupant meant a separate civil ejectment action — slower and more expensive than an eviction, and on its own track.
HB 3522 passed the Oregon Legislature unanimously in 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026. It lets an owner serve a 24-hour written notice to vacate stating the occupancy is unauthorized, and if the person doesn’t leave, file a Forcible Entry and Detainer action — the same expedited process used for a normal eviction. (Tonkon Torp analysis of HB 3522)
It works off the definition in ORS 90.100: someone occupying a dwelling without a rental agreement, without permission from the owner or a legitimate tenant, and without any legal right to be there.
This is a narrow tool and it is easy to reach for the wrong one.
On our Milwaukie house, the thing that made the situation legible was that there was no paper trail at all. That absence is meaningful evidence — but it is not the legal test, and it is not a determination you get to make yourself. Whether a tenancy exists is decided on the whole picture, by a court. Talk to an attorney before you serve anybody anything.
Yes. You do not have to remove the occupant first, and you do not have to wait for a court. You can sell the house occupied, as-is, to a cash buyer who takes the situation on — which is exactly what happened on the Milwaukie house above.
We buy houses with people in them — occupied, as-is, in whatever condition the last year left it. We pay cash and we close on your date, across Portland, Gresham, Milwaukie and the rest of the metro. If the house came to you through an estate or you’re done being a landlord, that’s the normal version of this call, not the unusual one.
Oregon’s HB 4058 requires a registered residential property wholesaler to disclose in writing before you sign, and gives you three business days to cancel for any reason. I’m registered with the Oregon Real Estate Agency, #201264508, personally.
Have a house in Portland, Milwaukie, Gresham or anywhere in Clackamas or Multnomah County with someone in it you can’t get out? Call and ask for Gerren — (541) 250-3067. I’ll tell you what it’s worth occupied and what I think it’d bring empty, and you can decide from there.
General information about Oregon law, not legal advice. Whether someone is a tenant or an unauthorized occupant is a legal determination with real consequences for getting it wrong. Talk to an Oregon attorney about your situation before you act.
