Posted on 01/05/2012 8:18:57 PM PST by SteelToe
Imagine coming back from an extended stay away from home only to find someone has set up shop in your house, claiming it now belongs to them. That’s just what’s happened in dozens of cases in Tarrant County, Texas, where the District Attorney says crooks are trying to use a decades old law to conduct a new scam.
“It's just people trying to get something for nothing,” says Tarrant County DA Joe Shannon.
The problem first came to Shannon’s attention this year, when police agencies started calling about strange but similar cases. One of them involved Joe Brunner, the head of a homeowners association in Arlington, Texas.
His neighbor had been in Houston for months getting chemotherapy when the HOA’s security detail called Brunner saying someone else was in the home. When Brunner contacted the man living inside, the man claimed he now owned the home. But that wasn’t all.
“There was a large dumpster in the driveway,” says Brunner. “He filled it up with items from the house.”
Brunner called the police. When they arrived, the squatter showed them a document claiming something called “adverse possession.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/05/squatters-in-texas-town-use-arcane-law-to-claim-vacant-homes/#ixzz1ieDlNg9m
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
We need to bring back public floggings and hangings in the town square.
Record gun sales and ammo sales, just saying. This would take care of it’s self at my home.
I think that the squatter would experience an adverse reaction had he tried that in my home....very adverse!!!
Squaty
ters have rights in Socialist Britain. Shocking but true. Obama will Socialize as much of the USA as he can before he’s booted. Are we up to the fight?
There’s a house in the neighborhood a few streets over from me that’s been empty for more than a year. The guy next door mows the front but the back yard is a jungle. Tax records show it’s owned by a woman who lives about 90 miles away. I can’t understand why it hasn’t been foreclosed on. I have a feeling the mortgage holder knows they don’t actually own it (robo signing) yet the mortgagee doesn’t know this so she’s letting it sit. Eventually I guess the tax man will get it.
The Netherlands has[had?] a similar law[UTube].
Should be ‘squatters’. Late at night.
Well, the jerks name is Kenneth Robinson and if you want to find out what kind of a POS runs this kind of a scam here’s the link
If I had the time, I’d check to see if he had any links to ACORN.
BTW, he is pretty much what one would suspect
It's not an arcane law... it's all spelled out.
Possess the property, make improvements, and pay the back taxes before the time runs out.
We're not hicks down here.
But idle property with back taxes owed... that's fair game.
But not until the clock runs out.
/johnny
In most jurisdictions “adverse possession” takes at least ten years if not more. It”s also never been interpreted to include squatters, but rather more pedestrian claims over property line location, easements, and such. After ten years, “use defines ownership”. But that’s never been interpreted to include a squatter.
Maybe there's no mortgage. Mine is free and clear, except for the regular taxes. I own the property, I just rent it from the State...
And if you are that curious, you can find out the tax status in many states.
/johnny
Yeah, like getting to stay in my home - permanently...under a new section of the basement floor. Never seen again.
Bookmark
In California we call it shoot, shovel and SHUT UP
Rule #9 of Dating a Drill Instructor’s Daughter:
Do not lie to me. On issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.
If you still own it and actually paid the taxes yourself, insure the hell out of it and burn it to the ground. Before doing so. be sure to throw a “bong” through a window someplace and then blame the squater. Then sue him for destroying your property. (Yes, it’s a dream)
A portion of our property lies across the road from our house/main acerage. Years ago, an incompetent attorney for the owner of the adjacent property simply continued a property line across that road, cutting off about an acre of our land and *giving* it to the neighbor. No one knew about this until the property went up for sale and the adjacent owner began *improving* our portion. Interestingly enough, the neighbor’s wife was the town clerk.
We simply went to the clerk, verified we had been paying taxes for 25 years on the land and that all the ag maps showed that property as part of our parcel back to the 1880s. It is listed on our title/deed.
The neighbor’s title company tried to *prove* the property was theirs, but all she had was the erroneous map from the incompetent attorney. We won. Soon after, the title company went out of business under a flood of lawsuits showing they had filed titles without adequate documentation for years. The owner of the title company disappeared from the area.
There are all sorts of thieves out there and you have to be vigilant.
If it’s free and clear I wonder why nobody lives in it and why the back yard is not mowed. I wonder why the HOA hasn’t been all over them for that. The taxes are current. Not sure if they will be after Jan 30th when the 2011 taxes come due.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.