Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Florida Responds Fecklessly to Adverse Possession

In the wake of the highly publicized story of a former Real Estate agent taking homes under the guise of adverse possession, and then renting these homes to unwary suspects, new legislation has been drafted in Florida to help prevent such dastardly deeds. Unfortunately, this new legislation is far too little to be of any substantive change in ending legalized land theft in Florida.

These new bills, HB 887 and SB 292 only add the following
:
Adverse Possession
:
Requires person seeking property by adverse possession to send to property owner of record copy of return filed with property appraiser; requires property appraiser to cancel return if person does not submit proof of mailing; provides exception.

This is a start, but clearly does not go far enough in abolishing legalized land theft.

Today, this story appeared in The Ledger, "Some Say Florida Land Tax Law is Unfair to Owners"

The best quote in it, is the very first line:
"A 19th century law that worked well on the open range is causing some problems in the 21st century." -- So True!

This is a great article to read, as it illustrates the problem Florida has with people literally stealing property from unsuspecting owners. I've talked to a few people in the Sunshine state. It sounds more like the Wild West -- pure lawlessness -- all for greed and stealing land.

What really should be the wake up call is all of the out-of-state homeowners or soon-to-be retirees. Think about it. You bought your dream lot (say $99 down and $99 a month), and now you're going to retire and build your home on land that may already belong to someone else.

Wake up Florida -- when droves of retirees find out their "dream" retirement spot has been stolen, you can count on stronger legislation than HB 887!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Clouded Title with a Chance of Encumbrances

Life is so ironic.

This is my personal post about our neighbor, Angie Lynn who at 11951 Miller Rd NE, Bainbridge Island, WA sued us for adverse possession. In fact, her lawsuit sparked the whole reason to create "End Adverse Possession Now."

Because of our neighbor-to-neighbor lawsuit of legalized land theft (aka adverse possession), my wife and I went through the same hell that thousands of people go through every year. It is for this reason, we know adverse possession so intimately and personally. No politician can appreciate having their land stolen until they experience a neighbor, like Angie, using such an arcane law to steal something that was never paid for.

But, I digress... the irony here is that we settled with Angie. Our lawsuit is over and done. Despite her claims of being a "good Christian woman" she was more interested in stealing our property than being a good neighbor. However, in the whole legal process of signing quit claims and boundary line adjustments, it appears that our mortgage now encumbrances HER title.

What's funny is that the land she fought to steal from us is now encumbered by our mortgage, which puts a cloud on her title. Normally, that might not be a big thing, but recently, she decided to put up for sale her house (and the land that she fought so hard to take from us).

But, as you and I know, most people won't buy a house with a cloudy title. It's a recipe for disaster.

Which brings me to the irony of it all. If Angie decided not to sue us for adverse possession, this whole thing would have never been a problem. But, because she thought the law gave her a right to take something that she didn't pay for, and now she's stuck with a property with a clouded title.

Good luck in selling that house. Maybe the lesson learned from all this is that greed and adverse possession is a sure fire recipe for problems to come. Another reason why adverse possession needs to end now.