Posted on 07/20/2011 2:37:43 PM PDT by Mountain Bike Vomit Carnage
If someone you knew claimed to have bought a new house for $16, you'd probably expect it to be a rundown hovel.
But for Kenneth Robinson, that princely sum could see him as the new owner of a $300,000 home in an well-manicured part of Flower Mound, Texas.
On June 17, Mr Robinson took advantage of a little known Texas law to move into the abandoned home.
The house had been in foreclosure for more than a year and its owner walked away. Then, the mortgage company went bust. Kenneth Robinson answers the front door at his $16 manse
Kenneth Robinson answers the front door at his $16 manse
After months of research, Mr Robinson used the obscure law 'adverse possession', filled out some paperwork costing just $16, and moved some of his belongings into the home.
Under the law, if someone moves into an abandoned home they have exclusive negotiating rights with the original owner.
If the owner wants them to leave, they have to pay off the mortgage debt on the home and the bank has to file a complicated lawsuit to get them evicted.
Mr Robinson believes that because of the cost required to move him out, he will be able to stay in the house. Under occupancy laws, if he remains there for three years he can ask the court for the title.
He told WFAA.com: 'I want to be owner of record. At this point, because I possess it, I am the owner.
'This is not a normal process, but it is not a process that is not known. It's just not known to everybody.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016745/Man-uses-obscure-law-claim-ownership-300k-home-upscale-Texas-town--just-16.html#ixzz1SgOZ5PTC
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Absolutely! How dare these “common people” have the brains to figure out this law.
TX state legislators are not in session - that means a few more people will be able to use this law to their advantage before the legislators can manage to change that law.
ROTFLOL!!!
In northern California in the 1970`s, many houses were sliding down hillsides after heavy rains.
My friend`s brother had a house-moving company. Under the law if the owner evacuated the in-danger-of-sliding house and took belongings out, it was considered abandoned property.
The brother simply jacked up the house and moved to a lot he had already bought and sold it. It`s still legal, I think.
Adverse possession is neither obscure nor is this post...
That is a very wrong law if true.
If I move out of my house, it is considered abandoned and anyone can take it? Even though I am up-to-date on mortgage, taxes, etc? Hard to believe.
A lot of people move out of their homes prior to selling them.
If he has legal possession he sould be able to get the utilities turned on.
What is the problem?
He figured out how to get “ahead” legally by grabbing a house that was owned previously by people who paid for it in blood and sweat most likely.Either he will turn it into a trash-heap or he won’t.Otherwise the guy has got some Chutzpah,if the Law doesn’t work out that way......he will get kicked out.
Which is fine.If the law is crap,change the law,you will never change those who take advantage of it.........
Bet he can’t keep up with the upkeep.
I think it had to be sliding a little and the sheriff posted it as uninhabitable— then it was up for grabs-
e.g.,
Homes in Slide Area Must Be Abandoned / Daly City residents have until April 17March 30, 2000|By Angelica Pence, Chronicle Staff Writer
2000-03-30 04:00:00 PST DALY CITY — Residents of a Daly City neighborhood plagued by landslides were given less than three weeks to abandon their homes last night.
The city informed 21 homeowners on Westline Drive that residents have until April 17 to pack up and move out of their houses. The homes will be “red-tagged” tomorrow, meaning that they are deemed permanently uninhabitable.
“The city has no choice at this point,” said City Manager John Martin. “These homes and these people are in imminent danger. We need to get this out.”
http://articles.sfgate.com/2000-03-30/news/17641870_1_line-breaks-landslides-homes-last-night
We are all likely paying for this house. When that bank went belly-up a good percentage of its depositors would have been able to collect on one federal deposit insurance plan or another. As we all know Bailout-1 poured hundreds of billions into those funds. These kinds of properties should be auctioned and the proceeds applied to the balance sheet of the defunct bank, either reducing or reimbursing covered deposit claims made to the Federal Government.
I don’t know a lot about real estate. That being said, if the owners left and it was in foreclosure AND the mortgage company went out of business then doesn’t the house belong to no one?! Will this man pay the taxes on the house? Seems odd and strange!
Why didn’t the original owners move back in?
Making easy money from someone else’s misery - your brother sounds like he’s an even bigger prick than my brother. I didn’t think that was possible.
He has no running water! Where the Sam Hill does he crap? Or take a shower?
Obviously, not a very good law. And he didn’t look all that smart so I bet he has “friends” like the aclu, black panthers and Al Queda looking up laws to pervert and take something for free that is NOT his. Welcome to the third world laws.
This is NOT a part of “Obamaworld” rather a very old English law in place called “adverse possession.”
If you have a field, for example, next to my farm, and, I let my cattle onto your field, WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION, but, you were in a position to know (ie. the cattle were there all the time, not secretly) AND you never objected, never showed up, and never walked across the field, never put up any sign or fence or repair or a change of any kind...then voila, over a set period of time set in law, the land legally can become mine. (I actually know of a field where this happened (not to me!), in pricey Loudoun County, Va.)
Most of the states (all except Louisiana?) have it, as it is very old law, inherited from English law, and a pretty good principle (not allowing functionally abandoned real-estate) for the public good. This is especially relevant to America, where most of the land ownership originally involved squatters of some kind...
This is also where we get the very old saying, “possession is 9/10s of the law...”
Just because the new owner/squatter is black, does NOT make this something of “Obamaworld.”
I used to have a Real Estate license, and I recall first learning of this surprising law...and reacting against it. However when you really think about it, it’s a good thing.
Yeah, wait until he gets his property tax bill....
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