Stranger moves into foreclosed home, citing little-known Texas law

[JustDezIt]

Genius!

neighbors are hating, mad cause he's gonna get it for free.

Stranger moves into foreclosed home, citing little-knownTexas law

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.

"What paperwork is it and how is it legally binding if he doesn't legally own the house?" said Leigh Lowrie, a neighboring resident. "He just squats there."

Lowrie and her husband 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."

"This is not a normal process, but it is not a process that is not known," he said. "It's just not known to everybody."

read the rest: http://www.khou.com/news/125627758.html

 

[casmith07]

Good old adverse possession! Nailed that one on my property exam.

Wonder what TX's statute of limitations is for AP. Standard is generally 20 years for the original owner to bring a cause of action.

 

[MonsterD]

Good for him. I can't see why the neighbors think this will effect them, maybe property value, who knows.

 

[Muhast]

Good for him. I can't see why the neighbors think this will effect them, maybe property value, who knows.

I don't see how it hurts any worse than having a house that was foreclosed on, with nobody managing the property would.

 

[peplaw06]

Good old adverse possession! Nailed that one on my property exam.

Wonder what TX's statute of limitations is for AP. Standard is generally 20 years for the original owner to bring a cause of action.

E
C
H
O

There are various statutes of limitation, depending on the facts. Generally speaking though, the longest SOL in Texas is 10 years IIRC. The guy's been in there a month. I doubt he'll get to stay there long.

 

[JustDezIt]

Good old adverse possession! Nailed that one on my property exam.

Wonder what TX's statute of limitations is for AP. Standard is generally 20 years for the original owner to bring a cause of action.

i dont know if this is the statute of limitations but they said he could ask the courts for the title after three years.

 

[Reality]

The guy used the law to his advantage .. nothing wrong with that. They should have changed the law if they did not want it applied.

I do have some questions though ..

If the home was foreclosed and the mortgage company that foreclosed on it went out of business. Would the owners of the mortgage company's assets such as creditors not legally own the house? It would be likely that the company filed for bankruptcy given it was a mortgage company when it went under which means their assets were auctioned or acquired by creditors. I wouldn't think the original owners would have a claim to ownership at all.

Next question .. Let's say he gets ownership of the house in 3 years like he plans .. would he then owe three years of property taxes plus penalties? What about tax on the value of the house/land? Would he not need to pay tax on the $300,000 value of the house/property once he obtains the title in three years?

This is just my personal curiosity ..

-Reality

 

[theogt]

E
C
H
O

There are various statutes of limitation, depending on the facts. Generally speaking though, the longest SOL in Texas is 10 years IIRC. The guy's been in there a month. I doubt he'll get to stay there long.

For the elements of adverse possession:

1. Hostile - Being on the property with no rights to be there.
2. Exclusive - Must be excluding others from possessing the property.
3. Lasting - The possession must last for the statutory period.
4. Uninterrupted - Must be continuous use an ordinary owner
5. Visible - Out in the open ("open and notorious").
6. Actual - Must actually possess the land to get title.

Taken straight from my bar outline, which I still have for some untold reason.

 

[Hostile]

Anyone can gain a property by adverse possession IF you follow all of the rules and they are not easy. He's got a good start, but he's got a long way to go.

 

[casmith07]

For the elements of adverse possession:

1. Hostile - Being on the property with no rights to be there.
2. Exclusive - Must be excluding others from possessing the property.
3. Lasting - The possession must last for the statutory period.
4. Uninterrupted - Must be continuous use an ordinary owner
5. Visible - Out in the open ("open and notorious").
6. Actual - Must actually possess the land to get title.

Taken straight from my bar outline, which I still have for some untold reason.

Yeah he's definitely satisfying all of the elements. But now that he's been outed they might file a complaint.

But the thing is -- the home is foreclosed...if the original owner files a complaint to compel him to return the property, they take on the massive debt that they foreclosed on. He'll keep the home no matter what, unless the original owner can all of a sudden afford the house.

 

[casmith07]

E
C
H
O

There are various statutes of limitation, depending on the facts. Generally speaking though, the longest SOL in Texas is 10 years IIRC. The guy's been in there a month. I doubt he'll get to stay there long.

Yeah they have 3, 5, and 10 years with different criteria. With this one being a foreclosure on the original owner, though, I think he'll get the title/deed after 3 years, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Unless, of course, someone decides to purchase the foreclosure, I would imagine...but how does squatting/adverse possession vs. a foreclosure buyer work?

 

[SaltwaterServr]

The law was never designed to work like this guy is bending it. We talked on it pretty heavily when I was working under a farm and ranch real estate broker/attorney briefly. The idea was to settle disputes between landowners who had misinterpreted old surveys and ended up with fence lines a quarter mile the wrong side of the adjoining property.

Some of those old surveys are hilarious to read. My favorite was establishing a boundary down in McMullen county: horse walked for the time it took to roll and smoke two cigarettes while stopping to relieve behind the biggest tree on the slope. Turn there, etc...

Supposedly back in the 80's a guy tried this same stuff on some ranch land during the S&L debacle. He had built a little shack on one and had fenced in a pretty big chunk of land before getting caught. The idea being that he was going to file for possession, get the land deeded to him, and then sell it back to the original owner.

Never made it that far, as the story was told to me. Ended up shot and killed for trespassing, so said the broker.

 

[vta]

Good for him. I can't see why the neighbors think this will effect them, maybe property value, who knows.

I don't see how it hurts any worse than having a house that was foreclosed on, with nobody managing the property would.

I imagine they don't like the idea of someone getting for free something they have to work so hard for.

 

[peplaw06]

For the elements of adverse possession:

1. Hostile - Being on the property with no rights to be there.
2. Exclusive - Must be excluding others from possessing the property.
3. Lasting - The possession must last for the statutory period.
4. Uninterrupted - Must be continuous use an ordinary owner
5. Visible - Out in the open ("open and notorious").
6. Actual - Must actually possess the land to get title.

Taken straight from my bar outline, which I still have for some untold reason.

I always used ECHO...

Exclusive
Continuous
Hostile
Open

I pulled that straight from memory. I loved adverse possession in law school for some odd reason. Probably the whole get something for nothing thing.