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Originally posted by kingjason
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Entitlement mentality FTMFL.
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Now why on earth should they do that whey they've been given everything for free???
Entitlement mentality FTMFL. -
When watching Judge Judy goes wrong...Originally posted by racrguyOriginally posted by racrguyComment
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I hate actually having to work for a living, and then catching up on multiple page threads.
First off, regardless of Leah's honorable mention in a thread, this is a repost.
Secondly, to Grove Rat's assumption that this is about race, this guy could be a rich white guy with six paid for propertys elsewhere, and I would still feel the same. It's an unscrupulous person trying to get something that they don't deserve, and didn't work for, for free. It could be a corporation, or Donald Trump doing it, I would see it just as wrong.
The ONLY thing different would be that any of these "investors" would keep up the value of their "investment," where as this guy just likes to read law books, and has no means to up keep the property. As a neighbor, I would certainly have issue with him devaluing my property, and the surrounding neighborhood.
Legal or not, this guy is not someone that I could trust, and I wouldn't want him as a neighbor.Comment
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Ah hell. Its getting some traction now in Tarrant County. At least the DA there is about to put the smackdown while Dallas says c'mon brutha and getcha a house!
ARLINGTON — A $400,000 North Arlington home that used to be owned by former Texas Rangers slugger Juan Gonzalez is now the home of a man who claims he legally snagged it for $16.
David Cooper says he simply filed an affidavit for adverse possession when he found the residence was empty.
It's the latest in a string of such cases exposed by News 8, and one of at least 60 such cases filed recently with the Tarrant County Clerk.
"This house was abandoned," Cooper asserted. "It was abandoned."
He said the property was trashed, inside and out. In fact, the homeowners' association has been trying to identify the legal owner, who disappeared and let the property fall into disrepair.
The HOA president said the property is not in foreclosure, and neighbors seemed to know little about the former residents.
Cooper has been fixing it up. But Tarrant County District Attorney Joe Shannon said that doesn't give Cooper the right to file a claim and move in.
"It's kind of a scam that's been going all around," Shannon said, adding that squatters could be committing several crimes.
"We want to send the word that we're serious about doing something about this," Shannon said.
Last month, Minister Tony Brown was charged with burglary after he used adverse possession to claim his Arlington neighbor's house while she was out of town. The owner said he also stole her television sets.
Brown founded Believers in Faith International Ministries. Officials said another of his enterprises, American Vet Services, paid for the utilities at a vacant Mansfield house commandeered by another man through adverse possession.
David Cooper said he doesn't care what the district attorney says — he said he's just following the law.
"It's no fraudulent claim. It's been a law since the 1800s," Cooper said.
Adverse possession is a long-recognized law, but the district attorney says it doesn't protect what squatters are doing.
On Monday, Shannon told the Tarrant County Clerk to stop accepting adverse possession claims.
Ironically, the Dallas County Clerk's office said it just received clearance from the DA last month to start accepting them.
It's not over yet.Comment
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Odds on the overall level of melatonin in the skin of the litigants of those 60 such cases?Originally posted by Frank View Post
StevoOriginally posted by SSMAN...Welcome to the land of "Fuck it". No body cares, and if they do, no body cares.
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so how do i find houses that i can file adverse possession? I dont need a 400k house but a decent 150-190k house will do nicely for 16 dollars.sigpicComment
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Go to the rich neighborhoods and look for one with really trashed yards and peek inside to see if empty
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I don't care if he is white, black, yellow, pink, purple or what. He is still a low life for trying to squat and steal a house. He probably can't even afford the taxes on that house.Comment
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Melanin, brother.Originally posted by stevo View PostZOMBIE REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT 2016!!! hehComment
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Yeah, when I first saw the story - thought it be some white dude.Originally posted by SSMAN View PostOriginally posted by MR EDDComment
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Kenneth Robinson has finally been kicked out of the $340,000 home that he had lived in since June for $16.
Robinson, 51, lived on Waterford Drive in Flower Mound, Texas, but he did not own or rent the home he claimed he had a right to live in. After the owner abandoned the property, which had been in foreclosure for over a year, and the mortgage company reportedly went out of business, he submitted a $16 filing fee at the local courthouse, claiming the law of "adverse possession" gave him the right to occupy the home.
However, a judge in Denton County ruled Monday that the current lienholder, Bank of America, can force Robinson out.
Robinson had became a local celebrity of sorts, writing an eBook and creating a website, http://16dollarhouse.com, about the home in which he lived for about eight months. On his site, he states, "I am successful because I can see it no other way."
After the judge's decision, he told the Associated Press that he had moved out, ending what he called a "huge learning experience." Prosecutors are cracking down on others hoping to emulate Robinson.
Adverse possession is a common law concept developed in the 1800s. According to Lucas A. Ferrara, a partner in Newman Ferrara, a New York City real estate law firm, adverse possession was enacted to ensure that property wasn't abandoned and was "maintained and monitored." It requires the posting of a clear, public notice that someone is at the property -- hence the court filing -- and that someone would remain there for a specific period of time, usually 10 years.
After the time requirement is satisfied, the Robinsons of the world have the opportunity to claim clear title to the property. In the meantime, the original property owner could fight the action, but it would be costly. And since the house has already been abandoned, it's not likely the original owner would wage an expensive legal battle to get it back. The mortgage holder would have to fight a court action too.
The growing number of abandoned homes brought on by the foreclosure crisis has produced a small buzz around the idea of adverse possession.
A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, however, said adverse possession was not common nor on the association's radar screen.
But a quick Google search, however, turned up plenty of websites willing to show anyone how to do what Ken Robinson did.
At AdversePossession.com, for example, for a mere $39.95, "average people" can learn how to "acquire valuable real estate for free." The site takes steps to assure potential Robinsons that adverse possession is not squatting. "Squatter," says the site, "is an unfortunate and negative term used to describe someone who unlawfully occupies a vacant property or other real estate." Nor is occupying abandoned homes for financial gain immoral, according to the site. It's "doing the neighborhood a favor."
Robinson's former neighbors saw the situation differently. After he first moved in, they told local reporters that "If he [Robinson] wants the house, buy the house like everyone else had to. ..."
And Ferrara said, "it's quite an un-American notion that someone can take another's property without paying for it. ... After all, even the government has to pay for your property if it decides to take it from you."
David DeCosse, the director of campus ethics programs at the Markkulla Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said that even though Robinson may have a right to do what he's doing, it's not necessarily the right thing to do.
Some of the great moral thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, said DeCosse, would argue that in the case of an extreme emergency, it would be OK to do something like take food from a grocery store because food is meant to support and address human needs. So stealing would be OK in certain circumstances. But if there is no emergency, "it offends our moral sensibilities," said DeCosse. "What may be legally permissible is not necessarily ethically right."Comment
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FWPD received training on this several weeks ago after the Tarrant Co DA decided to prosecute these cases as criminal trespass.Comment
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So, the judge considered the "lienholder" the owner and allowed them to make the call.
Duh.Originally posted by MR EDDComment
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