Squatter exploits California laws targeting Malibu homeowners for decades

A Malibu real estate agent warned California homeowners about the need to protect themselves after a serial squatter reportedly targeted the beachfront community for years, a problem she said could become worse after the Los Angeles wildfires.

“I don’t know how she got away with it for so long in Malibu with the amount of people that she did,” Liz Benichou, a Malibu real estate agent and lifelong resident of the area, explained to Fox News Digital about the accusations against Ellie Mae McNulty. “It’s a very small, tight-knit community. You see the same people. You get this familiarity. You think that everyone’s like you because we’re all doing the same thing, so you kind of gain that trust. You live in this bubble in Malibu.”

McNulty, an actor and screenwriter, according to her biography, allegedly swindled dozens of Malibu homeowners over the last decade, charming her way into their lives before becoming a nightmare roommate, Vanity Fair first reported. 

“First of all, how she’s been able to do this for so many years without getting caught, I think that just has to do with her overall charm. I think she’s a predator, and she finds people that are weak that she can prey on,” Benichou said.

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According to Vanity Fair, McNulty met 65-year-old Alden Marin in 2021 at a beach at Point Dume, where the two shared a pleasant exchange, before Marin opened his home to her, as she claimed she was “waiting for her new place to get ready.” 

But days quickly turned to weeks, then a month, then two, and Marin’s sister reported a change in McNulty happened, and she continued to make excuses about why she could not provide rent. 

“People really feel as though it’s a very tight-knit, secure community. Why would anyone want to take advantage of that? But again, people do. And it’s almost easy to get away with if you’re consistently showing your face, like this predator seemed to do,” Benichou said.

“People in L.A. want to see people who seem special. And she portrayed that special thing. She’s like, ‘OK, I’m an actor. I know these people. I have these connections.’ So you kind of get blinded by that. And this is coming from someone who went to Beverly Hills High School. I grew up in L.A. so I’ve seen this throughout my entire life.”

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Marin’s family claimed that McNulty “unleashed a campaign of psychological terror” on him that landed him in a medical facility. While he was in care, the family reported that McNulty changed all the locks on the home and uncovered that Marin was not her first victim, according to Vanity Fair’s report.

The family took the matter to court and a judge eventually ordered McNulty to leave the property, Vanity Fair reported. Fox News Digital reached out to McNulty for comment.

Benichou said that this is not the only example of someone who has pulled schemes like this in the Golden State. She said that there could be more scamming like this in response to the wildfires.

“I feel like it’s something that, unfortunately, we see a lot of, especially out here in California, because people do have really big hearts and they want to help, and they want to see the best in people,” Benichou said.

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“It’s such a mental illness that they really don’t see what they are doing. It’s so pathological,” Benichou said about people running these types of squatting schemes. “They don’t see what they’ve done is wrong at all. So, for her, it seems as though she feels entitled to it. And even though she’s getting bad press, she’s still getting attention.”

California, known for being one of the most tenant-favorable states in the country, protects tenants from certain rent increases, and they may also be protected from certain types of evictions.

“If you’re in a place for more than 14 days, I think within six months, you can claim it as your own,” Benichou explained, referring to California’s tenancy laws.

State law also mandates that guests who occupy a room in a house, even if they are not paying and have no contract, can be considered “tenants at will.” 

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The state’s laws were created to prevent landlords from unfairly evicting renters.

A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice told Vanity Fair that not paying rent, being a “nuisance” and “engaging in criminal activity on the premises” are all considered “just cause for eviction” under state law.

As Benichou pointed out, evictions can take months, even years, and police are not allowed to forcibly remove a resident, but can “persuade” the person to leave the home.

“California is a state that’s known to be very soft on crime and squatting is a crime. It doesn’t seem to me that much is going to change, especially after the fires, after all of these people have lost their homes. You can’t just throw people out on the streets,” Benichou said.

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Benichou added that since California is a sanctuary state, she believes it’s going to take a lot of work to get the tenancy laws to ever change. 

“It’ll take a lot of work to get these laws to change, to be more in the favor of the homeowner. This is just something I see time and time again. So unless homeowners really band together and try to actually make these changes happen, it’s going to be more in the favor in California of the tenant because it is a sanctuary state,” Benichou said.

“And that doesn’t just stop at immigration or anything. It kind of continues on into housing. And it’s why we have had a housing crisis, and it’s been made even worse now. So it’s just going to get a bit more difficult after the fires, unfortunately.” 

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The wildfires weren’t the first crisis to expose the housing crisis in California, as Benichou said she really saw corruption and schemes come to light during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think a lot of people took advantage during COVID of being able to stay in their places because of that moratorium. And I think now a lot of people are going to use this (the fires) as an excuse,” she explained.

“But on the flip side of that, there are also tenants that I represented that have landlords trying to get more money out of them than what they were previously paying before the fires. So there are two sides to this coin right now after the fire. And now, there are new laws that have been put into place where you can’t just evict someone. But I do see landlords who are now trying to kind of get the tenants to leave on their own volition,” Benichou said.

Benichou was referring to emergency orders by California Gov. Gavin Newsom put into place in response to the wildfires that will prevent price gouging and prohibit such price hikes of more than 10% in Los Angeles County through March 8. The restrictions apply to existing tenants and new leases during the emergency period, according to the order. 

“In the face of natural disaster, we should be coming together to help our neighbors, not attempting to profit off of their pain,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a previous press release. 

Cal Fire reported that more than 12,000 homes, businesses and schools have been lost to the fires and more than 100,000 people have had to leave their homes.

Bonta’s office said in order to protect Californians affected by the Southern California wildfires, the Department of Justice is investigating and prosecuting price gouging and has sent more than 650 warning letters, with more coming, to hotels and landlords who have been accused of price gouging.

“There are so many sides to this,” Benichou said. “And it’s hard because there are great tenants and there are great housing providers and then there are those who take advantage of every single situation. And unfortunately, because of the fact that we live in California, and certain cities within Los Angeles, like Santa Monica, for example, have rent control, so it’s harder to get a tenant out in Santa Monica than it is in, say, Burbank, which doesn’t have rent control.

“So there’s so much that goes into this whole tenant housing provider. And unless there are laws that change that are changed throughout California, you still have to deal with all the city laws.”