Squatters seize $4M San Francisco house in alleged conspiracy to gain title — now it’s going on auction over $340K in unpaid taxes

According to Realtor.com, the home is a 3,000-square-foot residence with four bedrooms that owners Wei Wang and Xiangdong Guo purchased for almost $2.5 million in 2013 and abandoned in 2019. They added that the home is worth about $4.4 million.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the owners left “a car moldering in the driveway and a Christmas tree propped in a window” when they bailed, along with a $340,000 tax bill that’s accumulated since they’ve been gone.

Recently, however, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors paved the way for the house to head to the auction block — which is a small relief for neighbors who claim that alleged squatters who moved into the abandoned home plunged the community into “a daily nightmare.”

They took over a single home but left an entire community living in fear

Last year, two people, Diana Peng and Brandon Aadee, claimed ownership of the abandoned Sea Cliff house and allegedly “transferred the property title back and forth between each other” multiple times, including many that were forgeries.

A San Francisco Standard investigation found that Aadee has a “long history of alleged forgery, fraud and theft” while Peng has been charged with multiple felonies, including forgery and identity theft and served jail time for the latter, as well as burglary.

The investigation found that Aadee moved in first in 2025 and, after the community began complaining to authorities and organizing a neighborhood watch, he disappeared and Peng took up residence, claiming the ownership was transferred to her.

All the while neighbors have complained about black mold around the front door “causing a health hazard to attached homes” and pitbulls barking, as well as people seen “entering the property with forced entry materials (hammers, crow bars).”

Some neighbors claim to have spent “tens of thousands of dollars on private security and investigators,” while others say they’ve had property stolen. The Chronicle reported that one next-door neighbor “sleeps on the floor of his young daughter’s room at night, fearful that someone from the house could step over an abutting balcony and break in.”

And while police have responded to calls about the home, they said there’s nothing they can do because Peng “has presented official documentation from the City showing them as the current owner” and can’t be removed “unless and until there is sufficient evidence establishing otherwise and a legal basis for enforcement action.”

In September, David Chiu, San Francisco’s City Attorney, sued Peng and Aadee for “effectively trying to steal a house and sell it to make millions in profit. That is fraud, and they are trying to profit off that crime,” he said. The auction, meanwhile, is expected to take place this year.

Neither Chiu’s office nor the San Francisco Board of Supervisors responded to Moneywise’s request for comment, but even the upcoming auction doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the neighborhood drama.

The San Francisco Standard noted that if someone manages to scrounge up $340,000 to pay off the outstanding taxes, the auction is cancelled.

What to do if squatters move in next door

State laws around squatters mean that it can take months, or even years, and thousands of dollars in legal fees, to evict them — especially if you have to fight their claim to the residence via documents like a disputed lease.

In Florida, for example, law enforcement heard the complaints from a Melbourne community about unruly squatters in one abandoned house for years but said their hands were tied because only the homeowner could order them gone — and the homeowner was dead.

And in Georgia, navigating local laws around squatting meant that it took a community 14 months to evict “party-throwing squatters.”

Squatting, meanwhile, poses a risk to those beyond the owner of the affected property. Aside from personal danger and property concerns like those outlined in the San Francisco story, homes with squatters can also negatively impact the property values of other homes in the area.

The City of Norton Shores in Michigan, for one, published an entire guide for dealing with squatters, advising that neighborhood groups try contacting the property owner or management company to alert them to the situation.

If that doesn’t work, they advise contacting police and government representatives, as well as municipal inspectors if there’s a concern about the structure of the home — which could lead to code violation tickets that force the owner to act.