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Archive for September, 2010

Squatters Trying To Take Over Homes Arrested For Damages

As a blogger for an Insurance School there are insurance implications for squatters moving into  empty homes  after the Real Estate Crash and trying to take ownership through  the process of adverse  possession.  The squatters damage the property and  therefore create insurance claims  .

People are taking ownership through adverse possession and being arrested for it .  In Florida hundreds of those claims are taking place and the police are arresting the people involved .   The law  harkens  back to use in Europe in the 16th Century .  In Florida if you move into a vacant house and pay the taxes on the house for seven years you will then become the owner.  That’s if the owner doesn’t pay the  taxes due on the house  .  When I  prepared  for my Real Estate License I had to learn about adverse possession because it was part of the law .   I wonder why they teach it as  a method  to gain property if all  the work and trouble just gets you  arrested by the police for  attempting it?

–This story brought to you by Florida Insurance and 220 School offering nationwide insurance and securities pre-licensing classes.

Obviously some are breaking  multiple laws  to do this .   Some  are pretending to be landlords of homes and renting them out for money .  People are also being arrested for  being a trespasser  and for breaking and entering.  The law states that the person has to publicly let people know they are there, and not hiding there.  But the law kind of encourages you to try.  Yes you might get arrested, but you might also win .   Can you imagine  a law that says you can  sell   dope  and if you don’t get  apprehended  for  7  years, you are immune from ever getting busted again?  That would encourage you to try .   Would that make adverse possession like state-sanction entrapment?   What do you think about this latest  twist  in the Real Estate  fallout  ?

Rick Sabian

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