Squatter who paid $16 for Texas house gets evicted

Feb. 07, 2012
Squatter who paid $16 for Texas house gets evicted
Yamil Berard | McClatchy Newspapers

ROANOKE, Texas — The man with the $16 Flower Mound, Texas, house was a no-show in eviction court Monday morning.

So the court moved to evict Ken Robinson, who drew national attention for his ability to secure access to a vacant home in an affluent Denton County neighborhood by filing an affidavit with the county clerk.

"Any able attorney can sometimes beat an empty table every time," Denton Justice of the Peace JW Hand said Monday morning, staring at the defendant's open chair.

"But," the judge said, addressing several attorneys for the bank that owns the home, "you do need to prove your case."

A document swap between the judge and attorneys ended the court hearing in a matter of moments. Bank of America holds the title to the property, which sold in early January in a foreclosure sale for more than $400,000, attorney David L. Ovard said.

Robinson has until Monday to get out or to appeal the eviction. If he wants to contest it, he will have to post a bond of more than $8,000, based on the value of the house and the likely rent for the time he has lived there, Hand ordered.

In June, Robinson, 51, filed an affidavit of adverse possession with the Denton County clerk for the home, which was vacant but had not been foreclosed on. He cited the state law that allows individuals to claim abandoned property as long as they maintain and pay taxes on the property and no owner contests the claim.

The hearing drew a small group of elected officials from Tarrant County, including County Clerk Mary Louise Garcia and Constable Clint Burgess.

It also drew Chris Custard, a neighbor of Robinson's in Flower Mound who had called police to try to have Robinson removed from the property.

Over the weekend, Custard said, he and other neighbors saw vans moving items out of the Waterford Drive property. They suspected that Robinson was moving out.

"We're going to throw a party," Custard said. "It's going to be good."

He said neighbors have objected to Robinson's claim since he moved in during the summer. "Nobody's been real happy with the situation," he said.

Efforts to reach Robinson were unsuccessful.

Robinson drew national attention for his supposed business acumen. He said that all he was doing was a mere "real estate transaction," and he used a website to tout use of adversarial possession affidavits to claim supposedly abandoned properties.

But in Tarrant County, law enforcement officials have treated some Robinson copycats as criminals, charging them with felony burglary. Tarrant County District Attorney Joe Shannon classified the adverse possession documents as fraudulent in November. Since then, the county clerk's office has not accepted them.

Custard said he wonders why Denton County hasn't taken the same approach.

"I don't understand why Denton County hasn't gotten on this," he said.