This is how you buy a house...

goindhoo

Junior
Feb 29, 2008
1,172
276
83
********.

Sec. 16.024 - The Three-Year Statute

A person [i.e., the original owner] must bring suit to recover real property held by another in peaceable and adverse possession under title or color title not later than three years after the day the cause of action accrues.
Under this section, the possessor must have title (i.e., a deed as part of a regular chain of title) or “color of title,” which refers to a claim of title that has some reasonable basis but for some legitimate reason does not fit within the usual chain of title. So, the possessor must be able to produce some conveyance/title paperwork to support his claim if he is to assert adverse possession.

Sec. 16.025 - The Five-Year Statute

(a) A person [i.e., the original owner] must bring suit not later than five years after the day the cause of action accrues to recover real property held in peaceable and adverse possession by another who:


(1) cultivates, uses, or enjoys the property;
(2) pays applicable taxes on the property; and
(3) claims the property under a duly registered deed.


(b) This section does not apply to a claim based on a forged deed or a deed executed under a forged power of attorney.
Under this five-year statute, some sort of deed of record is still required.

Sec. 16.026 - The Ten-Year Statute (Nicknamed the “Bare Possession Statute”)

(a) A person must bring suit not later than 10 years after the day the cause of action accrues to recover real property held in peaceable and adverse possession by another who cultivates, uses, or enjoys the property.

(b) Without a title instrument, peaceable and adverse possession is limited in this section to 160 acres, including improvements, unless the number of acres actually enclosed exceeds 160. If the number of enclosed acres exceeds 160 acres, peaceable and adverse possession extends to the real property actually enclosed.

(c) Peaceable possession of real property held under a duly registered deed or other memorandum of title that fixes the boundaries of the possessor’s claim extends to the boundaries specified in the instrument.
The ten-year statute is the “catch all.” A deed or other memorandum of title is not necessary so long as the elements of adverse possession are met – however, such documentation may be useful to establish the boundaries of the claimed tract. Otherwise the key to determining boundaries is what area is fenced in as a “designed enclosure” - not just a “casual fence.” Rhodes v. Cahill, 802 S.W.2d 643,646 (Tex. 1990).




This guy does not have a deed that would subject him to the 3 or 5 year rule. He won't be there too much longer.
 

clintstone

Redshirt
Oct 14, 2008
355
9
18
I think if I were a neighbor I think I would invest in a few gallons of gas and a match.
 

UpTheMiddlex3Punt

All-Conference
May 28, 2007
17,941
3,898
113
Last fall the bank that held my mortgage was shut down by the FDIC and quickly my mortgage was snatched up by another bank. The assets of the bank also should be owned by someone else. At some point one of these banks will be going through their books and find they own this property and auction it off.<div>
</div><div>Looks like the guy would have to stay there 10 years to get it. Still, it's worth it to him to stay there as he's living rent free and property taxes probably are less than the annual rent on a decent apartment (Rough calculation of $6k, or about $500 a month).</div><div>
</div><div>Ironically, if this guy doesn't pay property taxes and just assumes he'll get the property, someone else can pay the property taxes each year and get the property in the end.</div>
 

AssEndDawg

Freshman
Aug 1, 2007
3,183
54
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goindhoo said:
This guy does not have a deed that would subject him to the 3 or 5 year rule. He won't be there too much longer.
The only person who can get him out is the original owner. In order to make a claim he will have to pay off the full amount of the house because he no longer has a mortgage. Do you think someone who walked away from a loan they couldn't afford is going to all of a sudden pay $330,000 just so they have have the joy of evicting someone from a house they didn't want in the first place? TheMortgageCompany could do something... if they existed any more. I don't see how this guy is going to lose.
 

boomboommsu

Redshirt
Mar 14, 2008
1,045
0
0
He claimed he owned it. If you haven't paid attention to the foreclosure scandal of the last year, that's all the banks have been doing either: they don't have any paperwork, they didn't bother to keep up with it. they paid a company to do that electronically, and they took the money and didn't do their job. that the banks don't have a clue who owns what has been a key feature of the financial crisis.
 

goindhoo

Junior
Feb 29, 2008
1,172
276
83
there may be a delay in sorting the mortgage assignment mess, but the assets of the defautl mortgage company will become someone's and they will eventually foreclose and evict.

My main point is that this guy is dreaming if he thinks 3 years is all its gonna take.
 

goindhoo

Junior
Feb 29, 2008
1,172
276
83
He has what most refer to as an "affidavit of adverse possession". Its nothing other than a sworn statment that is recorded to put the world on notice he is claiming the property by adverse possession. He doesn't have any documents purporting to convey, warrant, quitclaim, release, remise, or convey the property to him. The statutes even refer to the deed having some link to the chain of title. This guy has nothing other than an affidavit. He may get to live free for a few years, but he will not make it 10. Especially, since the dubmass has put his face in front of a camera.
 

AssEndDawg

Freshman
Aug 1, 2007
3,183
54
48
goindhoo said:
there may be a delay in sorting the mortgage assignment mess, but the assets of the defautl mortgage company will become someone's and they will eventually foreclose and evict.

My main point is that this guy is dreaming if he thinks 3 years is all its gonna take.


That I read a more detailed account of this same story. The house was part of a mortgage backed security that went into default. So now, tell me who owns the house? Worst case scenario for this guy is that The Fed owns it, and then I seriously doubt they are going to turn their attention to a single house in Texas anytime soon. Best case scenario for him is that it's owned by several dozen people who have written off the investment as a loss and moved on.

I think there is a fairly good change this guy has a new house. BTW, this kind of thing happens a fair amount. I took over a two foot wide, twenty foot long strip of land in my back yard that originally belonged to my neighbor. Dumbass decided he wanted a privacy barrier so he planted some high growing shrubs right on the property line. Then he built a fence two feet into his property making the bushes, and the land they were on, my responsibility. One day I cut them way back and he pitched a fit and was a complete ***. So I went to court and legally took the property. I had been tending to it for over six years.

I have to admit though. All the press coverage is not helping him.