Obviously these guys need a little recalibration with a Louisville slugger, but why pick a home that someone lives in? You could probably squat for 5 years in some BofA owned repossession,before they noticed...and have an even better chance of pulling off the scam.

This is Texas, why didn't they just shoot the squatter?

And the squatter loses. Since it doesn't look like he has color of title, he'll need to be there 5 years (based on improvements) or 10 years before adverse possession will give him title. Certainly not a few months, as in the case of the woman getting chemo.

FINDERS KEEPERS!!!!

RexTalionis: And the squatter loses. Since it doesn't look like he has color of title, he'll need to be there 5 years (based on improvements) or 10 years before adverse possession will give him title. Certainly not a few months, as in the case of the woman getting chemo.

Yeah, of course they don't ever meet the statutory requirements for adverse possession. But from the article we see the real purpose; get the homeowner to pay them off to go away.

mr_a: Obviously these guys need a little recalibration with a Louisville slugger, but why pick a home that someone lives in? You could probably squat for 5 years in some BofA owned repossession,before they noticed...and have an even better chance of pulling off the scam.

This is Texas we're talking about, I was thinking something more along the lines of Smith & Wesson or Mossberg.

Fark It: I was thinking something more along the lines of Smith & Wesson or Mossberg.

Same here.

"I returned home and found an intruder."

Why didn't they just say they were part of the 'occupy movement'?

Blues_X: "I returned home and found an intruder."

I asked him to leave and he would not. He was trying to tell me that this was his house and I should go away. At this point, I decided that this person was unpredictable and that my life was in danger.

I didn't think this country could match the stupidity of squatter's rights in England, but damn if Texas didn't try. Should have known.

This is going to be an internet tough guy thread, full of examples of what people would do if some guy did that to them, I'm guessing.

Rincewind53: RexTalionis: And the squatter loses. Since it doesn't look like he has color of title, he'll need to be there 5 years (based on improvements) or 10 years before adverse possession will give him title. Certainly not a few months, as in the case of the woman getting chemo.

Yeah, of course they don't ever meet the statutory requirements for adverse possession. But from the article we see the real purpose; get the homeowner to pay them off to go away.

I would just put the story out to the local paper and watch as everyone in the town descended on the people in the house.

Seriously, I'd slash their tires, take their pets (to a shelter out of state), piss on their roses, turn off their water every night at the man hole, sugar their tank, and any number of other acts of vengeance if they did that to my neighbor. Of course, if they moved in to my neighbor's house, I'd be like "Hello, police, I'd like to report a burglary in progress."

FTA: "So far, Shannon is prosecuting about five of these cases with more to come. Investigators are trying to figure out why these cases have popped up in Tarrant County this year and if any of them are related."


Deja vu has a smell and this is it.

Some guy in Sarasota was doing this last year and encouraging others to do this and was puzzling law enforcement until they decided to go after him. He's faded from the news and I don't know what happened to him, but I'll bet that when the smoke clears, somebody from Sarasota is at the heart of Tarrant County's newfound problems.

doglover: Seriously, I'd slash their tires, take their pets (to a shelter out of state), piss on their roses, turn off their water every night at the man hole, sugar their tank, and any number of other acts of vengeance if they did that to my neighbor.

Why would you piss on their roses? Chances are, it's also your neighbor's roses.

Getting ideas from England, I guess. I'm 100% cool with a homeowner shooting to kill anybody who does this, as the squatters have made it clear that they are attempting to steal everything you own.

RexTalionis: doglover: Seriously, I'd slash their tires, take their pets (to a shelter out of state), piss on their roses, turn off their water every night at the man hole, sugar their tank, and any number of other acts of vengeance if they did that to my neighbor.

Why would you piss on their roses? Chances are, it's also your neighbor's roses.

Between you and me, she was always a biatch about those roses.

Ulp, nevermind. Guy in Sarasota that was doing this offed himself.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110531/BREAKING/110539942 (new window)

Actually subby it takes stupidity and a complete ignorance of Adverse possession law. In most places your possesion of the land you are claiming title to must be open, notorius, and uninterrupted for a period of 10-20 YEARS, and even then most of the western states include "under claim of title" meaning you have to have at least some legal reason you actually owned the land when you were possessing it, and you did things like pay taxes on it,

The intent of the law was to stop somone from say homesteading what they thought was vacant land, building a house there living on it for decades or generations and then suddenly be thrown out because some absentee landlord with an antique deed showed up one day (happened a lot in Ireland before and during the potato famine, so the immigrants from there were eager to no let it happen again).

The AP writs and mechanic's leains you see showing up these days in courts is an outgrowth of that same "soveriegn citizen" bullshiat that people use to claim they don't have to pay income taxes because the 16th amendment is fake somehow. These people seem to geniunely believe that Judges and lawyers ignore all common sense, and are bound to give you whatever you demand if you have the right combination of words on a piece of paper. It's the law as ritual magic basically.

atomic-age: My parents bought some crappy land 35 years ago and did not do anything with / to it. Someone has placed a trailer on / across the property line and cleared a portion of the land to give himself a yard. I am in the process of settling the estate, and I fear this is going to be a real headache. To make matters worse, the trailer people tore down the signs the realtor put up when my mother put the land up for sale. We were unable to sell it because anytime prospective buyers went to look at it, these fine neighbors chased them off with guns.

It's a mess.

To be fair, that's exactly the kind of behavior that adverse possession was created to discourage.