Similar
Stories
Content from our friends over at Candy's Dirt
Monday, July 18, 2011
Squatter claims $300,000 Flower Mound home for only $16
Kenneth Robinson has exposed a loophole for all it's worth.
2301 Waterford Drive in Flower Mound (NOT the squatter house)
Could Texas law net someone a $300,000 house for filing a $16 fee online? Maybe. Kenneth Robinson told WFAA-TV he moved into the house on Waterford Drive on June 17 because it had the perfect storm: The home was abandoned for foreclosure, then the mortgage company that owned it went out of business. After researching a Texas law called “adverse possession,” Robinson moved in. It’s not a normal process, he admitted to WFAA-TV, but a process that is not known to many people.
Say what?
Robinson claims he filled out an online form and then filed it at the Denton County courthouse for $16. This gives him rights to the house, which was abandoned due to a foreclosure. Now he is claiming ownership.
He allowed WFAA reporters inside: The house is virtually empty, with just a few pieces of furniture. Oh, and Robinson has not yet turned on utilities, at least as of the report, so there is no running water or electricity.
(Wonder how he’s flushing toilets?)
The neighbors on this pretty little street took note when he moved in without the usual sale or, I guess, moving van.
“What paperwork is it and how is it legally binding if he doesn’t legally own the house?” said Leigh Lowrie, a neighboring resident. “He just squats there.”
Lowrie says the house was in foreclosure for more than a year and the owners walked. Then, the mortgage company went out of business. Neighbors are naturally peeved that this guy may net a home scot-free.
Robinson claims Texas law gives him exclusive negotiating rights with the original owner because he has set up camp in the home. If the owner wants him out, he would have to first pay off his mortgage debt and the bank would have to file a “complicated lawsuit.” An underwater, likely bankrupt ex-homeowner is probably not going to do that. Robinson says the law says if he stays in the house, after three years he can ask the court for the title.
When neighbors complained about Robinson’s takeover to law enforcement, they were informed that it was a civil matter and they were unable to intervene.
I called one title attorney on this case who did not wish to comment on the record. But he told me he seriously doubted that Robinson will get ownership of this home, but he may get a free place to live for several months. The owner of the home will be whoever acquires the assets of the defunct mortgage company, but that company will have to re-group and take legal action against Robinson. And that could take months.
But hey, if my source is wrong, and Robinson nets himself a $300,000 home for $16, I’m grabbing my sleeping bag and heading to the courthouse!
What do you think?
Pegasus News Content partner - Candy's Dirt
Related stories
Nearby stories
Faved or commented on by...
Latest Contests
Latest comments...
Pop icon Peter Max exhibits paintings at the Crescent Hotel this summer
"humbleness"??????
Um, Mr. Means (reporter), your fourth-grade English teacher is going to smack yo
flong52, anonymous:
SMART man. I'm looking for me a house to set up camp in right now. Thats how half of United States was taken over by it's pass citizens. Free land due to squatters rights. Huh? Didn't know that? His neighbors need to look it up and stay out of his business.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
JesusRamerez, anonymous:
Flong is obviously another POS deadbeat like the squatter. America was built on the backs of hardworking people that earned everything they obtained. Now we have a class of cockroaches that embrace welfare for able bodied young people and don't want to work for anything. They feel there's some birthright to prosperity in this country. Guess what? Scamming is not an occupation. Get a job and stop being a drain on society.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
PowerOn, anonymous:
What a mess...
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
SitizenKane, anonymous:
To maintain his claim, he will have to continue to pay the RE taxes and maintain the property with utilty connections. If he just camps out in the place, he will not have standing.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Clay213, anonymous:
Adverse possession in TX takes 10 years and the taxes need to be paid. All the title holder needs to do to prevent it-- is simply give this guy permission to occupy.
Can't claim adverse possession if the owner gives you permission to be there
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
lbucci61055, anonymous:
If this guy succeeds in getting this house with a $16.00 filing fee, he should be congratulated for researching the law thoroughly enough to do it. The police already told the neighbours that this is a CIVIL matter. Most states have made quiet title or adverse possession more difficlt to obtain. People in Florida are trying this, too. It's difficult, but LOTS OF LUCK!
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
harmony777, anonymous:
Are the neighbors jealous that he got the house for $16 while they paid hundreds of thousands for their own homes? I, too, am impressed that he researched the law and is using it to his advantage. If he maintains the house and the property I would think that it would be better than letting the house sit unoccupied.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
cfoke, anonymous:
Give him props for working the system. We'd all do that if we could. So maybe the recession has a silver lining for those who have the knowledge. Well, in this case, the lining is probably platinum.
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/...
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
RedWolfeXR, anonymous:
It would take more like 10 years to claim it, and would work better if he found one where the owner died intestate but owned the house outright.
All the owner has to do is order him off the property after which its tresspassing. The adverse possesion statutes is intended for abandoned properties and fallow land. (basically land nobody is paying taxes on, and the person involved has to pay them)
Of course the neighbors protested, Flower Mound isn't the most white city in the metro but they are way up on the list.
-- three years only counts if there is a problem with conflicting titles -- as it was explained to me that means that if Spain, Mexico and Texas federal governments gave three people title to the same land... its referred to as the "color" of the document.
You can do the math as to how long ago THAT was. Most likely this guy would take 10 years. I suspect he will get at most one. (likely less, with the locals sounding willing to buy the note themselves to get him out)
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
keilandmc, anonymous:
Jesus remererz .America was built on the backs of hardworking people but they did not earn everything they deserved (slavery come to mind? maybe indentured servitude?). So this is a case of the wealthy or psuedo-wealthy being upset that a law that was designed to help the rich get richer allowed someone else to profit or at least win for a change. If this was about donald trump or warren buffett buying a company for a steal and then raiding the company and firing the employees, I can only imagine you would be smiling and talking about the great job they did. Sir, even the little guy gets a chance to win sometimes. Small victories count. and can only assume you wish you had known about it first!!!
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
barb, anonymous:
What the guy did is perfectly legal. if he hadn't put it in the newspaper he might have gotten away with it. A lot of things get over looked when you keep a low profile. Now that it has been brought to the attention of the rest of the world, someone will be keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't ultimately get away with it.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, verified:
Ok, THAT one takes some 'splainin.' Just danged near impossible to envision a "squatter" as one of the "haves."
His problem really is that he didn't bother to canvas the neighborhood first. If it was an "acquaintance" moving in next door that they knew was not just a drifter or drug dealer, but was a solid good neighbor that would be as worried about their property values (something a mortgage kinda implicitly states), then I think we'd never have heard of it.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
RedWolfeXR, anonymous:
He had nothing to do with it getting in the paper.. the neighbors did that in the quest of getting him removed. They called WFAA and the rest followed. All the media is from the crusade to get rid of him.
He has to make his claim "open and notorious" but that doesn't require press attention.
If he had a nice $100K car and/or was white it probably would not not incited the neighborhood as much.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Clay213, anonymous:
WAIT HE'S NOT WHITE?!?!?! WELL THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Dtx75220, anonymous:
He's a squatter, who stated on the news cast he want's to hold a seminar to take your money and teach "How to squat" to all of you looking to him for inspiration.
So far he's got a roof over his head with no air-conditioning, running water or cable. Impressive. Without a doubt an improvement for him.
Seriously, the hope of living there 10 years. Without someone, mortgage company or bank challenging his bogus claim.
He's got nothing, not even shame.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
gmw112252, anonymous:
what's the difference between the wise-a$$ soul bro livin in this house & Barak Hussein Obama??? NOTHIN!
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, verified:
Oh, GREAT. Someone discovered he's "not white."
So yes, Clay, that changes everything.
Waiter! Check please!
So a house empty for over a year, whose grass is probably being cut by another neighbor trying to sell his own house, suddenly has "no trespassing" signs in the windows, a lawn chair in the den and a no lights on at night but a complete stranger coming and going.... and the thing that supposedly gets him noticed is "not white"-ness.
Can someone please "Godwin's Law" this one for me?
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
aletheawills, anonymous:
Ppl need to get off the man's back, if he took the time to research and profit from it, well great. The neighbors are mad because they did not do it. Let's be clear the man is a real estate investor..key word INVESTOR. Business is Business! Donald Trump would have done the same thing. To make this nationally known is what's sad, he followed the law and now ppl are calling the man lazy. Note! He did work for it....he did his research! I hope this comes to and end because the neighbors are wrong. I live in Kentucky and anyone can pay the taxes on abandon property and take over ownership.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
RedWolfeXR, anonymous:
The racial makeup of the town was 90.24% White, 2.92% African American, 0.35% Native American, 3.05% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.77% from other races, 1.61% from two or more races, and Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.63% of the population.
Oh yeah, and the rest of it: About 2.2% of families and 2.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.7% of those under age 18 and 1.8% of those age 65 or over.
Like I said, the neighbors raised a hue and cry to get rid of him. He could probably get utilities turned on without much trouble if he wanted to. (unless the water dept has a bunch of those neighbors working there, anyway)
Its a sign of the changes of the last 50 years that he is still alive. 2.92% of the town is black.. that low of a statistic isn't an accident or because no black man can afford it.
Its not Highland Parks 97% white, but...
It will take as long for someone to get him out as it would take someone to foreclose on the property if he wasn't there. The average is 2-4 years, and its been 1 already.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
steveguy95, anonymous:
Flower Mound, Texas’s own Kenneth Robinson adverse possession class coming soon!!!
https://www.flowermoundtxofficial.com...
alt site: http://www.adversepossession.com/?hop...
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
What do you think?