# Can I Steal My House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2006, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448 "2006-07-14T09:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/41 "2006-07-19T22:42:30Z")
I didn’t read the link previously, my apologies **Ponder**. Still, that article was about a 10 ft by 20 ft vacation cabin. In the OP **Geisel** says “expensive homes”. It’s one thing to put a cabin on a flat bed truck and make off with it; quite another thing to move a normal-size house without a trace. The bank left holding the mortgage would scour the earth to find the culprit, beginning with every house moving company they could find. I don’t think one could get away with **Geisel** ’s ploy, as long as he’s talking about, say, a standard 3-bedroom-2-bath house. ---
**Author:** ![Geiselcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@Geiselcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geiselcat)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/42 "2006-07-19T23:06:04Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] You haven’t met many Building Officials, have you? [/QUOTE] Yes, I have. They are self righteous about their misguided ideals, but are actually in it for the ability to feel powerful by having some measure of control over other people (who are actually producing something). As long as I show my respect to them; to signify to them that they are of equal value to me, despite having done nothing useful, they will feel that they’ve gotten what they want out of me. [QUOTE=NinetyWt] Cite? [/QUOTE] Where do you want a cite from? A leading expert and confirmer of ideas that have never been done before? [QUOTE=NinetyWt] How to you propose to do the actual moving without anyone noticing a house going down the road? [/QUOTE] By moving it down a road where no one lives. When I design the house, I will keep in mind that it must be able to be moved down the road in question. Long and narrow, and possibly detachable make sense on a surface consideration. [QUOTE=NinetyWt] Building permits aren’t about possession. They are about meeting building codes. [/QUOTE] That’s kind of like saying “Filing taxes isn’t about money, it’s about meeting tax laws.” Ultimately, possession is always the question with houses. What will the governing body do if I fail to comply with their demands to follow their codes? They will seize control of my property, after I’ve compiled an insurmountable amount of fines for disobedience of the codes. Don’t make pretend that it’s anything so civil as you’re suggesting. What it comes down to, eventually, is that if I don’t obey the governing body, they will come to my property and take it by force. [QUOTE=NinetyWt] It hasn’t been mine. [/QUOTE] Maybe that’s because you weren’t perceiving what was actually going on. No one ever says or believes that they are morally corrupt. They pretend that they are doing things out of other people’s best interest. But funnily enough, what’s in everyone’s best interest always seems to involve taking a piece of the action. [QUOTE=NinetyWt] Stop work orders are issued to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The Building Official whill shut you down if you are in violation. It has nothing to do with you “benefiting” them. [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] So you’re trying to tell me that when faced with a well constructed home, out in the middle of nowhere, that they’re not going to work with me to get things resolved. They’ll say “No way” and stonewall me? I doubt it. They’ll want me to dance for them because they got me for skipping over them. I’ll dance and eventually they’ll “give me a break” to feel superior and for me to owe them something. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/43 "2006-07-19T23:18:24Z")
**Geiselcat** , after reading your last post, all I can say is: Please, please, please try this for real. Please. Pretty please with sugar on top. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/44 "2006-07-19T23:20:51Z")
If your question is, “Can I get away with this scheme?”, my answer is still no. It appears obvious to me that the scheme would leave a trail for the mortgage company to follow, and you would get caught. We disagree; I won’t belabor the issue any longer. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/45 "2006-07-19T23:58:39Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] You haven’t met many Building Officials, have you? [/QUOTE] A bit of relevant info, granted this was in a heavily populated county but at least here they have excellent orbital imagery of the entire county witht he ability to project property lines and such overlaying them. Properties are color coded by zoning. So an “empty” property with a structure suddenly popping up will eventually get tagged by city/county planning, even if it never had any power or water hooked up. In the why not try camp…you might be able to go offgrid power and a well. DIY photovoltaic setups would be far from impossible, drilling a well might be a bitch but you could claim to be doing it for “future development” or ag needs before you moved the house in. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/46 "2006-07-19T23:58:52Z")
I do love posts by someone who plans to pull off a caper of one kind or another and claims it will succeed because the cops are all on the take, the government fools are too stupid to realize what is going on, and if needful a bit of largesse will be distributed to the necessary outstretched hands, and mainly, it will succeed because it is my own idea, and I refuse to think about it having any weaknesses. I am in the right and therefore I must succeed, and because I must, I will! How can anything go wrong? Well, I design buildings for a living, and I am aware of the steps local building departments will go to to prevent circumventing planning and building codes. I had a client once who wanted to add on to his house despite the fact that local planning laws forbade lot coverage greater than what he had. In other words, his house and garage were already as big as the codes allowed. No problem, he assured me, but I wasn’t about to get involved in trying to slip one past the city where I did much of my work, so he got someone else to draw up the plans, and set out to build the addition on the sly. No dumpster out in front to alert the inspectors. All work to be done on weekends and as discreetly as possible. Every precaution was taken. But a framing sub-contractor who expected to get the job did not get it, and in retaliation decided to drop a dime on the home owner. Boom. Visit from the inspector and a red tag stop order on the door. Now he came back to me, and after some time and drawing and re-drawing, and with his reluctantly agreeing to the demolition of part of his garage, we were able to add on to the house and do it legally. Of course, he got a fine equal to the amount of his building permit for trying to sneak a shitty past the building and planning departments. And he wasted a few months while the rains came through the demolished walls and the kitchen was inoperative as the city took its sweet time going through his plans and finally granting a permit. The moral? You are never as smart as you think you are, and things you cannot foresee or control are waiting out there to trip you up. If you pulled off the Flyaway House Caper, it would be only because of sheer luck. And if you did succeed, some day someone will recall reading about this thread, and will tell his Aunt Mildred, whose husband is a building inspector, who will tell his colleagues, one of which will be in charge of your new home’s jurisdiction, and he will be curious as to…well, you can guess. ---
**Author:** ![Geiselcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@Geiselcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geiselcat)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/47 "2006-07-20T06:56:04Z")
[QUOTE=movingfinger] . And if you did succeed, some day someone will recall reading about this thread, and will tell his Aunt Mildred, whose husband is a building inspector, who will tell his colleagues, one of which will be in charge of your new home’s jurisdiction, and he will be curious as to…well, you can guess. [/QUOTE] But I have no intention of never getting caught. When I would stop making mortgage payments, everyone would find out. I would, however, be nowhere to find at that point. And this thread, once discovered, will only add to the audaciousness of the scam. For all you know, I may have already done this, and I’m planning on abating my mortgage payments next month. I might have started this thread just for an amusing icing on the cake to frustrate the authorities. As it would be, however, I have not and will not attempt this idea because I value my legitimate name too much. But someone out there, maybe one among the teeming millions, someone who’s more deperate, might find it more appealing. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/48 "2006-07-20T07:23:48Z")
I think you watch too much TV. Either that, or you ate stupid food for breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/49 "2006-07-20T12:17:02Z")
So you do it. How are you going to sell the property as a new house? Pay off the attorneys to ignore the search? The City Offical to issue an Initial Certificate of Occupancy? And who is going to buy this mansion in the middle of nowhere? Sell it really, really cheap so the Buyers won’t sue you and notify the government? At some point, somebody is going to say something. And everyone who ever committed the most minor crime (never mind one that breaks as many laws as you are proposing) things “I’m not going to get caught.” ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/50 "2006-07-20T12:46:54Z")
I take it that after you’ve moved the house, you continue to pay the mortgage on the original (now empty) lot? You get that theft of a house is a crime, right? If you don’t pay that mortgage, they’ll find you, take the house back, and you will go to prison soon after. If you’ve remortgaged it on the new property, you only did so by committing mortgage fraud, which will subject you to additional civil and criminal penalties. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/51 "2006-07-20T13:06:10Z")
[QUOTE=Geiselcat] Yes, I have. They are self righteous about their misguided ideals, but are actually in it for the ability to feel powerful by having some measure of control over other people (who are actually producing something). As long as I show my respect to them; to signify to them that they are of equal value to me, despite having done nothing useful, they will feel that they’ve gotten what they want out of me. [/QUOTE] Excuse me? How many building inspectors have you interacted with? I do it as part of my job, and I’ve never met one like this. Their job is to make sure that buildings are suitable to be inhabited by people. If they fail to do so, tragedy can occur. I’ve never met one on the take (but I’ve never offered to bribe them), or willing to look the other way and let anything slide. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass, but better than having an inhabited building collapse, flood or burn down because someone wasn’t doing their job. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/52 "2006-07-20T15:03:13Z")
[QUOTE=Geiselcat] As it would be, however, I have not and will not attempt this idea [/QUOTE] Wow. What a totally overwhelmingly staggering surprise. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/53 "2006-07-20T18:38:57Z")
Start slow and use prefab houses. Buy large prefab house-0 on lot-0 and buy empty lot-1. Move house-0 to empty lot-1. Build small prefab house-1 on now empty lot-0. Sell small prefab house-1 on lot-0. Do not try to get around permits. Betcha get full larger house amount for smaller house. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/54 "2006-07-20T19:01:48Z")
Why do people ask questions if they refuse to accept the answer? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/55 "2006-07-20T19:07:50Z")
[QUOTE=Geiselcat] 1. Will I get stopped on that rural road by the police? 2. Will the state come and check on my progress, as I “build” the house? Usually, from my experience, the state never wants to drive out to check on anything, they just want you to send them money. [/QUOTE] I’ve never participated in moving a house, but we have had prefabs brought to building sites. We had to notify the Police and Fire Departments about the activity. I image moving a house would require some kind of notification to various City Departments. This again proves that you can’t do this without the City getting wind of it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/56 "2006-07-20T19:43:24Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I image moving a house would require some kind of notification to various City Departments. [/QUOTE] Not at all. Don’t you remember? He was going to sneak it across state lines\* by making the house “long and narrow”. And of course the house moving company wouldn’t say anything. That’s because he’d operate by bribing everyone involved. It’s foolproof, I tell you. Foolproof! \*Yes, I know this would make it a federal crime and get the FBI after him. But that doesn’t matter because he’s just going to move to a _different_ state. How could they possibly track him down? ---
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/57 "2006-07-21T01:47:20Z")
It certainly isn’t foolproof. It’s a plan that could only be executed by a meticoulous and very convincing conman. Remember, con artistry is about deception, and convincing all the people you deal with that you’re an upstanding, well intentioned person. A couple of things that still seem to be misunderstood by many here: 1. There will be no available information for lawyers to discover about the “new” house. It will be presented as a newly built home, i.e. new, with no history behind it to research. The original location of the home will remain under mortgage, and all parties involved with it will assume that it is still there (unless they’re paranoid maniacs). 2. I would not intend of bribing any people if possible. I would persent myself as an honest guy who just wants to work with everyone to resolve the problem. It is my suspicion that those other people would ASK for whatever they want. They would not ask for money, personally, they would just want me to show them that I will do whatever they say. I would oblige. A man long ago sold the Eiffel tower twice to two different scrap yards in Paris. I doubt anyone he might have told would have believed it could be done if he’d suggested it beforehand. [http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/lustig/](http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/lustig/) ---
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/58 "2006-07-21T01:49:58Z")
Sorry, I forgot to mention, this is Geiselcat, using Copperwindow’s computer. I forgot to log out and log in as Geiselcat. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/59 "2006-07-21T02:34:11Z")
I have moved houses. You know what’s one of the most expensive things about it? Power lines. The next time you take a drive, count how many utility wires you pass under. All states have a minimum height, and it’s not very high. I remember 18 feet in New York. The utility is responsible for moving it if it’s below that height, otherwise it’s up to you to pay for it, but in both cases there’s a lot of expense and paperwork involved getting electric, cable, and telephone companies out to move and replace wires. Then there are overpasses. Here is a relevant cite for that. Minimum Vertical Clearance “Clear height of structures shall not be less than 16 feet over the entire roadway and usable shoulder width. There shall be an additional 6 inch allowance for future resurfacing on new structures. The vertical clearance to pedestrian overpasses and sign trusses shall be minimum 17 feet. The vertical clearance from the bridge deck to cross bracing on through trusses shall also be minimum 17 feet.” DD-601 GEOMETRIC DESIGN CRITERIA FOR RURAL HIGHWAYS September 1, 2003 West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways Design Directive [http://www.wvdot.com/engineering/files/600/DD601.pdf](http://www.wvdot.com/engineering/files/600/DD601.pdf) 16 feet total height. And you’ve got a trailer under the house. If it was a small place, on the order of a modular, you might be able to do it without being over the limit, but it’s an overwidth and overweight load, especially on the back roads you’ll be making your getaway on. Somebody’s apt to want to see your “R” permit. That R permit was for overweight loads in NY. I assume every state has the equivalent. If the house was small enough to fit on a conventional flatbed truck, which is 10’ wide and 40’ long, and it was less than 12 feet high at the highest point so that loaded on the flatbed (and you’ve got to support it even on the flatbed, you can’t just lay it flat on there, you need room for your jacks and beams), you might just be able to get away with it. And then what have you gotten for your perfect crime? A used house, that even if it were stick built, might as well be modular, single story, maybe 1000 square feet, assuming you have some overhang over the flatbed. What’s the market value of that? You’ve paid tens of thousands to move it, you’ve attracted the attention of every looky-loo in a tri-state area, and you’re liable for fraud. Look, go out and rob a bank. That’s where they keep the money, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448/60 "2006-07-21T07:21:20Z")
[QUOTE=copperwindow] persent [/QUOTE] This tells me everything I need to know. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-steal-my-house/364448.md?page=4)