If there is an abandoned house with no owner, can I live in it?
07.06.2025 15:28
I have listed three stories - two successes and one failure!
One property that was a “State Owned” (it was turned over to the State because the heirs could not be found or located). A Young man down on his luck, unable to find a job anywhere took a Greyhound bus as far south as the money he put into it. Which sent him down to a small town. He didn’t realize it wasn’t a “nice town”, very heavy-handed on “Blacks”. He went by foot, traveling southbound on US 19 for at least 43 miles. Until a bad storm began to roll in, he went down the ravine and saw some wood and made a temporary shelter. On the wood had an very old (approximately late 1950s’ to early 60s’) For Sale by the State of Florida sign. Since he had a radio on him, he also learned there was an incoming Hurricane, so he needed to find a secured spot. While walking, he saw something that “appeared” to be like a driveway, he followed the path which took him about a half mile to a totally abandoned 1½ story house. A couple of windows were busted, everything else looked pretty solid. He took shelter there in that old house. Since the house had a wood fired stove and oven, the house was pretty much intact, except there were tons of dust everywhere and the heavy smell of musk. He also found a musket (rifle), and an old Kentucky Rifle. While gathering the wood and putting it inside, he got the musket up and running, after baiting the ground with aged old dried corn with hopes a deer or turkey would swing by to feast! He landed himself a deer, and began to process it, cooking it, gathered wild onions, tomatoes that grown wild, and potatoes left on their own growing wild over the years. The day before the arrival of the Hurricane, he had to repair the hand pump (water) well, there was one outside and one in the kitchen. He had to take apart the one outside to repair the one inside. Primed it multiple times with hopes “water would surface”, was about to give up thinking the well went dry, until he realized he kept hearing air, rechecked the pipes and found there were some holes, and used the pipes from outside and brought them inside and it worked. He also had the deer meat “drying” in the oven while keeping the stew pot warm (there’s no electric or refrigeration there). He survived the Hurricane in spite of the havoc and mess everywhere. He never really had the opportunity to even look at the property entirely until AFTER the hurricane passed. He knew the house had electric, but they were the old “knob and tube”. He explored the property and found a couple of old “Electric cable spools” (which would be modern), a “ Breaker Box” (The house had fuse box), and a bunch of breakers in various amps. He had “some” electrical knowledge due to his late Uncle who was a linesman for Georgia Power. While installing new wiring to get out of the old “knob and tube” wiring. He had to throw the fuse off (power line pole) to install the new electrical panel and installation of all breakers, he double grounded (just in case if the first ground was bad) the breaker box. The Power Meter that was removed and tossed aside on the ground, he cleaned it up, sanded down the connectors and plugged the meter on. He then put the transformer fuse back on. He knew there was a power outage in the area per the radio he had. Within 2 days later the power was on, apparently the old 1930s’ electric fan was on, he heard it hum. The next 4 months, he spent all of his time restoring the property. He also located the side-driveway, which was a little over 2 miles to the south, he personally cleared the driveway completely. The mailbox that was standing there, all duct taped up, he removed the duct tape, painted the mailbox, and the Mailman arrived, he gave him his information, and the mailbox became active. He lived there for 29 years before the Duke Energy was tracking everything, and installing new power meters. When the linesman showed up, he was very confused. When he was confronted, he said “Florida Power” stopped sending him the bills and he couldn’t pay it anymore. Duke gathered that “their customer” got lost in the merging of Florida Power to Florida Progress . So the account was established. He didn’t have to pay them anything for the back bills because “apparently it was a system error somewhere down the line.” Since he was employed (got a job about 30 miles to the east 27 years earlier), had a vehicle, everything was registered to his name at that address. Until one day, he saved enough money for a lawyer to acquire “adverse possession” from the State! Surprisingly, the State welcomed it. The lawyer had the title deed over to his name, he could provide proof he was living there for almost 30 years and the tax collector’s office verified he paid the property taxes. The property was now his. FAST FORWARD to 16 years. One of the heirs realized the deceased had a property in Florida, tried to come down to collect the property. He was denied. He filed a lawsuit against him (lost), and then filed a lawsuit against the State (lost that too). One thing here was, he couldn’t “prove” that his “ancestor” was directly related to him! I personally know this fellow, he’s very much to himself (never married, never had children, always work at work and more work at home). I wouldn’t state he was a “recluse” but to a certain degree I would label him as “semi-recluse”. He just keeps everything to himself! The only reason why I was involved was → the Police were concerned, he already sustained 2 heart attacks, and they were wanting to know the “next of kin” and he wasn’t cooperating. (TRUE: One doesn’t have to provide any information. It just makes everything harder if something DID happen to you.) They called me up because “I” had the knack of getting people to talk. I met up with him, and after a few meetings, he was very comfortable with me. So it was then when I learned “he has no next of kin” - he was turned over to the Foster Care, then once he was 16, he hated the Foster parents so much he ran away, far away. Then lied about his age (telling them he was 18 and pushed his birth year 3 years behind (he was really born in 1959, but he told everyone he was born in 1956) and by the time he turned 25, the SSA (Social Security Administration) flagged him, and the HR (where he was working with) realized they told the SSA that they must had put the 6 into the system instead of 9 - a typo on their end. He had to acquire the birth certificate from the Vital Statistics office in the county where he was born, in order for him to acquire his driver’s license. So he was 28 years old “again”. (He looks a lot older than he really is. He’s weather beaten big time.) He worked for that company for a long time until the company shut its doors and wasn’t able to find a job anywhere. Then this takes you back to the very beginning of this “story”. With his permission, I had the Officer to arrive, and explained to her that “he doesn’t have a next of kin, there’s no one to touch bases.” While she was notating this in the system, he then said “Wait a minute.” He then requested her to “hold it off” he was going to locate someone. He contacted the owner he was working for if they wouldn’t mind being the “next of kin”? He gave them time to think about it. About three months later, the Officer called me on my phone to inform me that the business owner have been listed as “next of kin” and “I” was listed as Executor because “he” didn’t trust lawyers anymore! (Who can blame him?) Since I live too far away, I learned he attended to this xxx church, and I arranged a meeting with him and his pastor, and advised him that it would be wiser to transfer the Executor position to his pastor than me, because of the distance! He agreed and updated his will so my name is off and his pastor is the Executor.
The Officer saw when they moved in, and began to question the Bank’s Representative. He was basically grilled down and the Officer refused to evict or arrest and told the Bank that they had to “take them to court”! Trust me, they took them to court alright, while expecting the Judge to rule in THEIR favor turned into a nightmare! The couple won the property, they did have to pay for the title to be transferred over to them and other court costs. The Code Enforcement Officer had recommended that they acquire a “block” to prevent the Bank from attempting to impose a “lien” on their property! (SMART MAN! Because the Bank did exactly that several times!)
Do you regret being married to your current wife?
Yes you can! If you live in it for xx days/months (per the State Laws and/or Ordinances - local) and improved the property, paying all bills on time and so forth. If it was Owner-Owned, they can write up an eviction and then you would have to leave. However, with Banks & Mortgage Companies, if the property was FORECLOSED → if you can prove that you’ve lived there since xx/xx/xxxx, and provision of proof that you’ve taken care of the property and so on. The Banks & Mortgages can lose that property! The win percentage of people taken the property by adverse possession is very high!
WHY? Well it’s the Bank’s / Mortgage Holder’s fault for not monitoring the foreclosed property! The longer you stay at that property, the better your chances are! Is it legal? It’s solely up to the Judge OR State!
One case, a couple with children, just moved into a deplorable tiny house. In this case, they didn’t really take care of it. (Hard to say if their presence there made the house fall into worse condition) They were evicted and denied adverse possession even though they paid the utilities and mowed the lawn (mowing the lawn doesn’t constitute the right to adverse possession). The roof needed repairs, the property needed painting, wiring needed repair, plumbing needed repairs, and a whole bunch of other stuff. They were evicted and given a trespass warning! The original Owner (investor) was cited for numerous code enforcement violation and he had xx days to get it all up to code or be fined! The Investor got it up to code and put the house for sale, those same people moved back in (the Investor lives out of State). They tried again to acquire “adverse possession” telling the judge “the house was fixed up and updated” showing the Judge the photos. They ALMOST got away with it, until the Real Estate Agent called the Investor (he had an interested couple but was confused as why the property was marked as vacant when a family was already living in there). That Investor contacted the Police, the father was arrested the mother was forced to leave with her children and everything they could gather and put into their van and leave at once! At the upcoming hearing, the Judge charged the father for perjury because they couldn’t prove they did anything to the property. Because of already existing “trespass warning”, the father was charged with “breaking and entering”, and the mother also was charged with breaking and entering and violation of trespass warning, but the State prosecutors dropped the charges against her (because it was her first offense, and secondly, the trespass warning was only issued to her husband) the court dismissed the charges against the mother.
There was a homeless couple, she got laid off and he lost his job (company went out of business). They wandered to and fro, from Shelter to Streets. While they had a small storage space rented out, and two vehicles. As my friend told me, one day they went to the laundromat, the Laundromat owner (who knew they were going through rough times) offered them $50.00 if they would clean the place up, and then turned around and offered $100 if they would paint the place. The owner provided the paint and rollers and a couple of paint brushes, after they cleaned it up, his wife thought the old Public Bulletin boards needed to be cleaned up! After they finished painting, she went to work in “refreshing” the bulletin board, removing old ads, and stuff. There was an ad that was on the board about a property that was foreclosed, and for sale. They looked at the address and was quite familiar with that property. The house wedged between two solid old aged Oak Trees (at least 150+ years old). The lot was overgrown, bushes grew wild. They then took the $150 they earned and went to that property. There was a yard sale down the road, and he was able to grab an old partially rusted lawnmower for $15 bucks, fixed it up, got it chugging, and mowed the lawn while his wife trimmed the wild bushes. They found paint in the garage and painted the place up. The old “For Sale Sign” that was taped on the windows was disposed of, the “Bank” For Sale sign was demolished and laying in the front yard. They saw the Code Enforcement and flagged him down, they wanted to know what all they needed to do to bring the house back up to code. He gave them a list. Then luck has it, a neighbor on the same street were extremely thrilled to see that “deplorable property” getting back in shape, they even loaned them some tools so he could trim the Oak Tree (prune), and so on. The same neighbor also owned his own business and hired him! Within a few weeks that house was very well kept, you wouldn’t even KNOWN that house was in such a sad state! The neighbors didn’t want them to leave, because his wife baby-sat some of the neighbor’s little ones (babies and toddlers), and eventually she became licensed to operate a “child-care” services. They lived there for a little over 4 YEARS! (Per the neighbors, the house was abandoned years ago, and the records shows that the foreclosure was processed and original owners evicted 9 years earlier (before they came and took over the property). She made sure she kept all the receipts (Citations) and proof of from the Code Enforcement Officer. Then the Bank showed up, and tried to get them kicked out, they called the Police. The Officer showed up, and she handed him all the Code Enforcement Citations, and HE contacted the Code Enforcement Officer and he told him they deserve the property because they’ve taken it out of a derelict state into a nice dwelling place.