The thing is that there was a land transaction that happened while he was squatting—and I would be very interested to know what was or was not disclosed to the current owner.
It may be that the prior owner “pulled a fast one”.
> The thing is that there was a land transaction that happened while he was squatting
Yep, there is a thing called “due diligence”
And who knows if that story about a verbal agreement is even real. That is why you need stuff in writing; 27 years later and how can he expect that to hold water.
Maybe he could try and run an ad for the finding of the prior owner and this agreement; maybe that could help.