Posted on 08/17/2011 11:50:25 AM PDT by Niuhuru
Fixed that for you. If this was most anyone else, the squatters would still be there.
Thank you!
That is a truly warped set of laws. I wonder how they evolved? At the very least, if the owner wins the case and proves ownership, the squatters should be liable for all damages and losses. Good thing the gypsies were too lazy to get the door fixed or they would still be there.
I see lots of abandoned properties where I live, and all I can say is “Awwwwww...” and wish someone would move in and fix ‘em up and maintain ‘em. Heck, if I were a home builder type...
This is because of a wrinkle in Oregon and I believe Washington law (and probably in any number of other states too), which provides that if an unoccupied home is advertised for sale and you agree to pay the seller an amount of money or credit within the price range and they accept the offer, you have the right to move in.
Typically it is a bogus offer made in the form of an IOU sent to the office of the seller as a piece of return-receipt requested mail.
By the owner signing the receipt, the "buyer" claims in court that the offer was accepted, they post 'no trespassing' signs and have any representative of the seller arrsted if they try to reclaim the property, and it can take months to prove that the IOU was worthless and not real consideration for the property.
Certain lawyers specialize in keeping these claims going for over a year in exchange for a nominal fee.
However, there will be civil lawsuits and sometimes criminal prosecution for fraud, unlike the UK.
these are not the gypsies of TV or movies.
these are thieves and sleazes. Parasites.
The pictures from yesterday’s thread showed and absolute arrogance of these thieves.
UK law has to change to end this squatting epidemic.
The irony of it all is hilarious really.
Just... damn.
What has the world come to?
Some say it began to be enshrined in law after the Black Death and when thousands and thousands of homes and even entire towns and villages were empty and the chain of title was lost or forgotten.
A situation where someone moved into a home that had lain abandoned for decades, lived there for years (I think the law says 12) restoring it and improving the land only to be evicted because the ninth cousin of the baron who had owned the property forty years before had finally figured out that he owned it and decided to come from a hundred miles away to sell it - well that was considered unfair.
This is speculation, but it is also the time when adverse possession became part of common law.
Gypsies (and Tinkers and number of other such parasitic groups) are scum and, for the most part, deserve all the opprobrium heaped upon them.
I think it takes years to establish “squatters rights” or adverse possession in the US.
Kicking the door and laying claim to titled property should be a major crime, anywhere, as should be that fraudulent trick you mentioned in that previous post.
They publish the Squatter's Handbook, which is a guide to the law for squatters who want to evade eviction. They represent squatters in court free of charge and enable them to stretch out their squatting for months or years.
The Handbook is distributed for free by town council administrations throughout the UK and both ASS and the town councils are funded by property owners' taxes.
There are Handbook users in the UK who use the legal services and have not paid a cent in rent or legal fees for decades - even in the nicest neighborhoods in the UK there are squatters who opportunely moved into a deceased person's fancy address while the legitimate heirs waited for probate.
It's 10 years in the UK as well. There is no question of the title owner getting their property back - it is an issue of the nonexistent penalties for violators that serve to encourage squatting. The legal burden of proof is on the titleholder, not the possessor.
Kicking the door and laying claim to titled property should be a major crime, anywhere
I agree.
as should be that fraudulent trick you mentioned in that previous post.
It should be, but it is hard to prove in court, that a person's IOU was fraudulent - you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the thief had no intention to pay.
I’d block them in and burn it down around their ears, before I’d let them stay.
That is just so wrong.
They should just start giving out rental agreements to their liberal left.
Sounds like a business opportunity for someone in the UK.
I can see it now, a “Key Registration Service” - if the squatter does not have the registered key, he must have changed the locks without the owners permission.
Someone needs to get around the stupid law, but on the homeowners side.
Amazing,
The ASS group
http://www.squatter.org.uk/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
From a community activist site
http://libcom.org/organise/squatting-guide
and the Daily Mail about council help -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1023513/Councils-squatters-break-in.html
Squatting is illegal in Scotland and NI, and in Scotland at least is a very serious offence and a jailable offence.
It is not illegal (ie a criminal matter) in England and Wales, it is civil. There are changes afoot to make it illegal in Eng/Wales though.
Please see my recent reply in this thread re UK laws on squatting.
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