CARDSTON, Alta. – A southern Alberta landlord has won his battle to remove a squatter living in a small shack sitting on a trailer on the man’s rental property.

“I’m absolutely relieved,” Ivan Negrych said of his success in getting Bob Cox off his driveway in the town of Cardston, about 235 kilometres southeast of Calgary.

A judge in Lethbridge, Alta., ruled Tuesday that Cox, 54, was not to return to the property.

The judge also terminated Cox’s tenancy rights as of Monday, and ruled that any property left behind would be considered abandoned.

Negrych said the judge also gave him and his wife 60 days to file a civil lawsuit to recover about $3,000 in unpaid rent and damages.

He said Cox, who had removed his trailer-shack on Monday, showed up to the hearing late and wasn’t allowed to argue his case.

The landlord said he isn’t angry about what happened, but was frustrated with the circumstances.

“Nobody in authority wanted to deal with this, which forced us to have to take the matter to court.”

Negrych had asked the RCMP to help, but was told it was an issue between landlord and tenant.

He had been renting a five-bedroom home to Cox’s former common-law wife. The woman and two daughters allowed him to move in after he was injured in a car accident about 18 months ago.

She moved out Sept. 30 and Negrych rented out the property to another person within days, but Cox wouldn’t budge from the driveway.

— By Bill Graveland in Calgary