Texas Man’s $16 Property Seizure Throws Obscure Law Into Spotlight
All fifty states have adverse possession laws
Palm Coast, FL – July 22, 2010
A Texas man who reportedly claimed a $300,000 home for $16 through an obscure legal maneuver known as "adverse possession" is drawing attention to a practice that isn’t new and isn’t limited to the Lone Star State, but could become more popular with a housing market still flat on its back.
Adverse possession, which allows individuals to take property considered "abandoned," has been around since the 1800s with its origins in British common law and to this day, all 50 states have statutory provisions on their books covering the concept.
Adverse Possession
Adverse possession exists in Florida.
If you notice in the article, it takes 3 years in Texas, and this person has been outed by the news media, so he isn’t going to make it 3 years before being "evicted".
In Florida it is 7 years. I can’t imagine anyone making it 7 years of paying property taxes without the owner or the bank getting the person ousted from the property.