Banks took her to court to try and reclaim the land, but Schrock claimed squatter’s rights.
Explaining her counter-claim, Schrock said: ‘It’s just always been my backyard since i was a kid.’
Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz ruled in February in Schrock’s favor, noting that Banks lived primarily in Atlanta and ‘only occasionally’ came to the Delaware site.
Karsnitz felt Schrock met the threshold in proving her 20-year occupation, Delaware Online reported.
If a resident can prove they’ve occupied a plot for 20 years, they can claim ownership, which Schrock did successfully.
Another neighbor’s plot also encroached on Banks’ property. That unnamed resident agreed to move animal enclosures they’d set up - but because Schrock refused, Banks was ultimately unable to regain control of his family’s property.
Because Banks and his husband live in Atlanta and visit Delaware only occasionally, it made it harder for them to prove that Schrock hadn’t been openly using their land for the last 20 years.
Unfortunately he learns that he did and does not really own his own land, the county or municipality owns it. All he had was a mere Color of Title.
Now, if he had an Allodial title, he would be sovereign over his land, and anybody thinking otherwise could be told to pound sand.
I would like to see a 20 year goat-squatter pull this off on any of Bill Gate’s farmland.
In AZ it’s called Adverse Possession, and the time period is ten years.
My neighboring property owner had an old survey which erroneously showed my driveway on his lot.
He had never noticed until he was selling the lot.
He checked my property records and found I bought my place 9 years and 10 months prior, so he thought he was in the clear in terms of AP.
What he didn’t know was I leased with an option to buy for several months before buying, so the AP clock started 8 months earlier than he thought.
He got mad and chased off his lawyer.
That was 20 years ago, I still have my driveway.
If the original landowner is paying the taxes, how does squatter’s rights even come into it, as it is not abandoned land? Sounds like some land reform needs to be done.
Weird you can just steal someone’s land like that.
Throw a few nannies over Brandon’s new security fence? Mine.
Don’t cry for Banks yet. Doesn’t sound as if he’s pulled his LGBT card.
Who paid the property taxes?
Who paid the personal injury, fire, and environmental insurance premiums?
Did the goats damage the property? Urine? Feces? Bacteria, viruses, goat medical waste? Did they eat little seedlings that will never grow up to be shade trees?
I would be thinking up new lawsuits 24-7 if that was property my Dad gave me.
I swear officer, I haven’t seen that squatter for years now. Why is there an acid spot?
Acid rain, officer.
British common law is criminal in and of itself.
Lost an inherited building lot because of squatters rights. Grandmother let the neighbors use half the lot for a driveway for 30 years. My grandmother passed and the lowlife neighbors claimed it was theirs.
Banks and his husband......see, now i don’t care, and those goats dodged a bullet.
( to be clear, I am for property owners rights! Not the squatters)
Don’t worry. It’s not communism, it’s squatter’s rights.
The wife and I purchased some land and my sister and brother-in-law bought the other half of the land, which was initially a six-acre plot, now split into 2.5 acres and 3.5 acres plots, for my sister and us, respectively.
One of the first things I noticed was the property line and the fence line was off by a little less than a quarter of an acre on each of our plots.
We wrote the neighbor to ask them about the discrepancy. Luckily, the gentleman asked us to come around and see the reasoning for the discrepancy.
About 25 years ago his neighbors upstream dammed up the creek that ran through the area. About two years later the dam busted and washed out a 27’ deep ravine that ran along the property lines of my neighbor and what is now our properties. There are about eight 30’ long, 36” diameter culverts sticking up and out of the sandy ravine bottom, strewn about 100’ feet along what used to be the property line.
Our neighbor and the owners of what is now our property decided it was easier to move the fence up onto the non-washed-out ridge and they strung a new fence. They also installed a single wire strand that runs along the actual property line to mark the property boundaries. As he stated, unless we want to bring in thousands of yards of dirt to backfill that ravine, there is nothing that can be built on the shifting sandy bottom of that ravine.
We wrote this letter to get this situation rectified within the first year we got the property, to ensure we did not get caught in a “squatters” rights scenario. Luckily for us, our neighbor and the old owners were friends. And we were luck our neighbor was friendly, honest, and he was very nice about the whole situation.
Can he at least go after her to reimburse him the property taxes on the land for the last 20 years?
This is evil.
He should have had it surveyed ...if it wasn't and posted....and sent a letter to the goat farmer if he was going to be out of town.
Adverse possession is well known and happens every day.
Adverse possession in NC means the “squatter” must be using the property openly for at least 20 years. If the actual owner tells them to get off the property, the clock on the 20 years starts all over.