Stranger moves into foreclosed home citing Texas law

[man4allcats]

This story is from KHOU.com:

FLOWER MOUND, Texas - A little-known Texas law and a foreclosure could have a man in Flower Mound living on easy street.

Flower Mound's Waterford Drive is lined with well-manicured $300,000 homes. So, when a new neighbor moved in without the usual sale, mortgage-paying homeowners had a few questions.

- skip -

{Neighbors} said the house down the street was in foreclosure for more than a year and the owner walked away. Then, the mortgage company went out of business.

Apparently, that opened the door for someone to take advantage of the situation. But, Kenneth Robinson said he's no squatter. He said he moved in on June 17 after months of research about a Texas law called "adverse possession."

More at link...

[MineralMan]

1. If there truly is no owner of record, and this person faithfully

keeps the taxes paid up, he may end up owning that house. With the mortgage company out of business, there's really nobody to press the case of ownership.

There will be attempts, however, to get him out of there. Count on it. Other lenders will force the issue, for fear of more widespread use of adverse possession.

[PoliticAverse]

2. There was an episode of the Simpsons that covered this. n/t

[barbtries]

3. i hope it starts a trend.

wonder if NC has that law???

[Maine-ah]

4. yep - check your state here :)

http://www.lawchek.com/resources/forms/que/advposs.htm


In North Carolina, the duration of such possession is seven (7) years under color of title and twenty (20) years elsewhere. North Carolina Code §1-35 through 43.

[barbtries]

11. cool lol

i wonder though who he had to know to find the right property to make that move...

[ladjf]

5. I think that the home belongs to the estate of the company that

went out of business. In that case, the home will be included in payoff settlements to the creditors of the company that went out of business. The man living in the home is a "squatter".

[FirstLight]

6. cool!

In CA, it's only 5 years and payment of taxes!

I'm gonna find me an abandoned house! :bounce:

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. If he's a good neighbor and takes care of the home, what's the loss?

[Horse with no Name]

8. Nothing wrong when a citizen can apply the rules that benefit them

unfortunately in our society...NOBODY wants anyone to get something they can't.

Like crabs in a bucket....

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Corporations use lawyers to benefit from every possible rule. Let the individual do so also

[Horse with no Name]

10. I totally agree.

But in cases like these, it isn't going to be the corporations that take these folks down, it is going to be the neighbors who aren't going to let someone get something that they didn't get.
Just watch as this case goes viral.
Oh, and our Congress who can't get a debt ceiling done would expedite legislation to stop this practice.

[SoCalDem]

12. He should have just told the neighbors that his sister/uncle/father/etc bought the house

from "the bank", & he's living there. The fact that he made it so public will be his undoing..

Had he been stealthy, and announced AFTER he had it legally and it could not be taken from him, he would have been better off:)

[man4allcats]

14. I am not a lawyer. You may be right, but

if I read the information correctly, he had to let people know what he was up to. Otherwise, his claim could not be considered valid. The link I'm seeing reads like this:

"The law of adverse possession is based on notice. The legitimacy of an adverse possession claim is established when circumstances are such that it is visible to others – i.e., others are or should be on notice - that the possessor is asserting a claim of right to the property which is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, continuous, and uninterrupted for the applicable statutory period – referred to in the CPRC as statutes of limitation. Note that the burden here is on the owner. Once an owner discovers the presence of a potential adverse possessor or is otherwise put on notice of an adverse possession claim, he must act to defeat the adverse possessor’s claim within the period prescribed..."

Anyway, that's my layman's interpretation. I leave it to the legal eagles to clarify.

[SoCalDem]

15. a classified ad might be enough to establish that fact

and probably none of his neighbors would ever even read it..

NONE of my neighbors has EVER known the details of our occupancy of our house..not should they:)

[man4allcats]

16. I sure could use one of those

1960 TWA dinners right now. ;-)

[SoCalDem]

17. one of the best meals I ever had was a filet mignon on a delta midnight flight

from Miami to Chicago... and the flight attendant cut one up for my poodle :)

[tammywammy]

13. Here's another thread about this article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1498143