Texas man buys $300,000 for $16

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Amazing!

Do you think he'll get to keep it?

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 1,954 • Replies: 18

[+4] - Rockhead - 07/21/2011but, but, but... he didn't [i]earn[/i] his way into their club.
[+3] - chai2 - 07/21/2011Ha! I just found this related link... [url]http://www.khou.com/news/Man-who-took-possession-of-330K-home-for-16-wants-to-share-his-secret-125958813.html[/url] I love this comment, cut and...
[+3] - engineer - 07/21/2011I was amazed at how obnoxious the neighbors were. If the guy mows the lawn and keeps the place up, that is a big plus for them. Apparently they are foaming at the mouth even though they are in no...

@boomerang,

Speaking only in regard to New York,
prescription of realty title by adverse possession
is, in effect, a statute of limitations qua eviction litigation.

In NY, it is a ten year period, as I remember.
I know nothing of Texas.

David

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Is he not permited to turn the electricity on under adverse possession?

I'm wondering what the neighbors have against this. Is he being a bad neighbor?

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@chai2,

Ha!

I just found this related link...

http://www.khou.com/news/Man-who-took-possession-of-330K-home-for-16-wants-to-share-his-secret-125958813.html

I love this comment, cut and pasted here, of someone who visited this site...

thoroco said on July 21, 2011 at 11:43 AM
No one cared when the white guys were doing it to black families here in the poor areas but now that a black guy did it to a rich white guy its big news..

I can't say I don't agree.

1 Reply

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

Is he not permited to turn the electricity on under adverse possession?

He probably can 't convince the electric company
that he has standing to request service from it.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

yeah, that makes sense.

0 Replies

@chai2,

I can see the power company denying service.

he can't produce a title or a signed lease agreement.

he's got big balls...

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

he's got big balls...

Probably from heat rash.

0 Replies

Okay, so. I know some lawyers in TX who use Adverse possession as a scam to get property for basically no money.

Here's how it works: properties which are severely delinquent in their taxes are put up for auction by the state in TX. These guys have an inside guy at the office who controls the auctions for these properties. He tips them off as to which high-dollar properties will soon be up for auction. They then settle the debts on these properties the day BEFORE the auction, and take possession for the cost of the back taxes owed. This is often 10-20k on properties worth 10 times that much.

The properties are stricken from the auction rolls, the state is happy to get the money they are owed, and the lawyers sit on the property until a year goes by - at which time it becomes theirs. At the worst, they get paid back the money they paid in taxes by the original tenants. These guys don't buy houses, they buy farms and ranchland that nobody lives on; usually owned by foreigners, who bought it in TX on a whim (mostly looking for oil in the 80's) and have either forgotten about the property or just fallen out of touch with it.

I went to school with several of these guys, all of whom now owe millions of dollars of property in central Texas. I couldn't bring myself to get in on it when it was offered to me 10 years ago; it just didn't feel right. Now I kinda regret not doing so.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

So are you saying that he needs to make sure he all of the relevant taxes etc, otherwise the State could have a claim as well?

0 Replies

I was amazed at how obnoxious the neighbors were. If the guy mows the lawn and keeps the place up, that is a big plus for them. Apparently they are foaming at the mouth even though they are in no way adversely impacted.

2 Replies

@engineer,

but, but, but...

he didn't earn his way into their club.

0 Replies

@engineer,

engineer wrote:

I was amazed at how obnoxious the neighbors were. If the guy mows the lawn and keeps the place up, that is a big plus for them. Apparently they are foaming at the mouth even though they are in no way adversely impacted.

He's a black guy in an expensive white neighborhood in Houston. What's worse, he doesn't even have the decency to be somewhat wealthy, like most of them believe they are. It's offensive to them on both race and class levels.

Not shocking at all.

Rocky:

Quote:

he didn't earn his way into their club.

Yup.

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

That woman, Lee Lowry?

What a nice lady.

"What kind of paperwork, and how is it legally binding if he doesn't own the house?"

"If he wants the house, let him get the money, and pay for it, like everyone else."

Thank you Marie Antoinette.

That's right Mr. Robinson, why don't you just get the money?

The guys mowing the lawn, the inside looks clean.

He's obviously done his homework as far as how this works.

1 Reply

@chai2,

Hey . . . he's the wrong color to profit from fiddling the paperwork, that's a whites only club . . .

1 Reply

@Setanta,

BTW, a $300K house?

We're not exactly talking Beverly Hills. I mean, I'm not saying those houses don't look nice, but it looks like a neighborhood built the the same contractor, to make a neighborhood that looks a certain generic way.

You get out in the countryside, prices drop, but that's not really a huge price is you live in an urban area.

If on this news story Lowry had said anything about him causing problems, being loud, suspect activity such as people coming and going all hours of the day and night etc. I'd be thinking she and the neighbors were concerned about break ins, their kids, their safety, etc.

She doesn't say anything like that. She just doesn't like it that he beat the system (and probably that she didn't think of it first).

hmmm...and where IS this person that abandoned the house? Anyone notice any newly dug flower beds in Lee's backyard?

1 Reply

@chai2,

This must be how Lee Lowry see's this Mr. Robinson...

0 Replies

@chai2,

from you link, I love this one:

When houses are a banded, it makes the houses in the general area decrease in value.

0 Replies

Quote:

Evicted squatters jailed in Tarrant County
Posted on December 13, 2011 at 6:15 PM

MANSFIELD — In an effort to send a stern message to squatters, authorities in Tarrant County arrested a couple as they left an eviction hearing Tuesday morning.

Moments after Justice of the Peace Matt Hayes ordered Andrew and Alicia LaTour to vacate a Mansfield home, deputies handcuffed the couple as they left the courtroom.

The married couple now faces burglary charges — a move that surprised the LaTours’ attorney, Bob Frisch.

"I had no idea," he said. "Apparently it's now a criminal matter."

Officials said it is the first time in Texas someone has not only been evicted, but also arrested for using the legal definition of "adverse possession" to occupy a property.

This is just the latest move in an ongoing sweep officers have dubbed Operation House Cleaning.

Last month, deputies evicted the LaTours from a $220,000 foreclosed home in Mansfield. The couple had sought ownership of the vacant house by filing for adverse possession. The little-known Texas law dates to the 1800s, and lets people claim abandoned properties as their own.

Andrew LaTour and his wife moved into the two-story house in August after paying a $16 fee and filing for adverse possession with the Tarrant County Clerk.

"If the home is abandoned, it's not being taken care of," LaTour, 31, told News 8 in November. "You have a right to go ahead and claim that."

But prosecutors said that home was not abandoned, just vacant. It is owned by a mortgage company, which asked constables to evict the LaTours.

"They removed all the deadbolts. They took the garage door openers," said Tarrant Count Constable Clint Burgess. "These individuals just out of the blue decided to take the home."

Burgess said this is a growing problem in North Texas, especially with the soft economy creating a lot of empty homes.

News 8 first uncovered the issue after discovering as many as 70 cases of adverse possession filed in Tarrant County this year.

Prosecutors said at least 39 rightful homeowners have been victimized by squatters suddenly taking over. Typically, authorities evicted the squatters, but Burgess said he will also arrest them for burglary.

"We will take action," he said.

At least eight squatters have now been arrested in North Texas. "We will hold these people accountable and return these homes back to the homeowner," Burgess pledged.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/From-Eviction-to-Jail-135537188.html

0 Replies

Texas man buys $300,000 for $16

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