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| Pastor accused of squatting in a $440k home leaving family h in forum [Foreclosuregate]
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Jenha
Posts: 84
Incept: 2009-03-27
Florida
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http://www.wokv.com/news/news/local/past....Quote:By Kevin Rincon
Jacksonville, FL —
Imagine going through the entire process of buying a home and just days before your set to move in you hear, “You’re trespassing, I’ll shoot.”
That’s what a family in Clay County is dealing with after buying a $440,000 home. They found Pastor Marcellous Dunbar inside with furniture moved in and wasn’t alone. He says the property is his through adverse possession, a very controversial Florida Statute.
A local real estate attorney Tommy Shea says adverse possession happens one of two ways, you can physically take possession of the property or you can create what would almost resemble a fabricated deed. Shea says one of the things that stops this from going any further is if that person doesn’t pay for taxes and they have to be there for seven years.
The Realtor told our news partner Channel 4 that the family closed on the home a week ago and when she went to check up on the home the screws on the locks had been removed and the pastor had moved in.
The homeowners did not want to be identified; they told Channel 4 it’s a cause for concern, “I purchased the property legally and on the same day I’ve got an individual that went in and filed for occupancy of the home.”
The Realtor did say this was a family that bought the home, they’re currently with the military and have four children.
Clay County deputies are investigating.
The pastor says he’s doing everything according to state law. He says he’s working on reducing Jacksonville’s homelessness and that’s why he took the home and has other people living in there with him. He says he’s doing it for a good cause.
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Fraudster
Posts: 4181
Incept: 2011-05-10
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Sounds like his argument is a fail and he would be a murderer if he shot and killed someone. Adverse possession takes a number of years, depending on state law, and that article makes it seem like he moved in recently
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Misterb
Posts: 530
Incept: 2007-08-02
Minnesota
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I read the original article and it sounds like the police arrested him and removed him from the property. It is not actually clear if that happened. There was a similar story in another state some time ago where the police REFUSED to remove the squatters on the basis that it was a legal matter and that the true owner had to get a court order first to remove the squatter as in possession is 90% of the law. Sounds like a self help situation to me.
Adverse possession relates solely to property boundaries - fences etc. If a property owner puts a fence up that actually goes over his true property line AND that fence is in place for MANY YEARS then the fence line becomes the the legal boundary line. Each state has its own rules on adverse possession and the length of time that needs to elaspe for adverse possession to take place.
There is much rural acerage that has never been surveyed and people historically put up fences on an estimated basis. Averse possession in effect recognizes these historical fence lines as the legal property lines.
I bought a rural 40 acre parcel a few years back that had never been surveyed. I had it surveyed. There is a very old fence on the 40 south of my property (which has never been surveyed) that clearly is about 20 feet over the line into another neighbor's property. If the neighbor ever complained about the fence line he would probably lose his claim because that fence has been there for many many years. One way to look at this situation is that these properties were most likely bought and sold after the fence was in place and the purchasing parties in effect accepted the fence line as the property boundary.
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