This doesn’t make any sense, and it feels like there is a lot missing to the story. Can anyone shed some light on “quiet title” and how this is even possible?
This story connects what this guy is doing to the “sovereign citizen” movement.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/26/man-lays-claims-to-abandoned-homes-and-rejects-criminal-charges-filed-against-him/
It just feels like there is missing info in this story. Like why are they in foreclosure? Just because he changed the locks?
I’d like to know how long they were gone. Couldn’t they just slip into one of his 11 other houses while he’s occupying theirs and cast their own quiet title spell?
It sucks that their stuff is gone. I’d change the locks again, and move my ass back into my house.
There’s nothing particularly exotic about a quiet title action–it is, in general, just a form of action that you use to clear up issues with the title to a piece of property. However, it looks in this case that it’s more sovereign citizen nonsense*–file a frivolous lawsuit, waste everyone’s time and money, yell “man overboard!” when the judge steps out of the courtroom and so on.
I pulled a complaint filed in a different county to see what was going on here; it seems like the M.O. is to find a property in foreclosure, wait for the owner to leave the house, move in and claim that it’s “abandoned.” While there’s certainly a personal property concept of abandoned property, I don’t know as I’ve ever heard of anyone claiming real property as “abandoned.” It’s rather as if he thinks he’s found a way to short-circuit the (IIRC) 21 year statute of limitations for adverse possession with this “abandonment” trick–which, to be fair, sounds about right for a sovereign citizen type. In any event, even if the legal theory weren’t specious, I would expect him to take subject to the mortgage–hardly a bargain, particularly for a property that might well be underwater.
Bottom line: Sovereign citizen jerk, filing frivolous lawsuits that will do nothing but waste the victims’ time and money. Most likely he’ll wind up in jail for B&E eventually, but it can’t really happen soon enough.
- From the Raw Story piece linked above: “Carr has been charged with breaking and entering in one of the cases, but he’s fighting the charge – writing “rejected” and “offer not accepted” across the indictment.” Yeaaaah. Let us know how that works out for you, bub.
This is why we need more “self-help” in property cases.
It’s like you’re psychic or something.
So. The video states that the family was letting this house go into foreclosure. But then they had to retain an attorney to fight Carr’s claim of ownership.
I don’t gettit. If they were walking away from the place anyway. Why not let the bank fight with this dude over ownership? Why invest one more nickel in a place you were walking away from anyway?
The earlier story made it sound like they went to be with a dying relative, came back and Carr had broken in, taken all their stuff out, changed the locks and filed the quiet claim. But in the video, there are piles of random crap outside the home.
Shrug.
The bank didn’t sign a contract with the invader, it signed one with the family.
I know that. But they were walking away. They had in fact abandoned it. Therefore it reverts to the bank. Mr. Carr was therefore squatting on the bank’s property. What sense does it make to pay a lawyer, lets’s just say $5000, to get Carr out to then hand the keys to the bank?
Before it reverts to the bank, a number of steps must be taken. Contract law rules here, and as Mr. Carr is not a party to the mortgage contract, he has no say in anything until such steps are taken.
I cannot speak for the jurisdiction in question, but in mine (IAAL), a foreclosure action can only be undertaken through a lawsuit launched by the mortgagee; and only after all other attempts to collect have been attempted. The contract is between the mortgagee (the bank) and the mortgagor (the borrower). No other parties have any standing in the matter. If the mortgagor chooses not to respond (i.e. “walks away from the deal”), then the mortgagee wins (i.e. gains title) by default.
I would not be surprised if the same rules applied in the jurisdiction in question. Until a court allows the bank to legally repossess, title belongs to the mortgagors, and Mr. Carr is trespassing, at the very least.
I would imagine the mortgagors would also want to make it clear that even if they were going to accept the foreclosure, it was not their intent to pass the property on to a third person (while they would still be the ones in debt to the bank).
But yes, it is a strange thing – so if you have foreclosure impending, you better not move from the property lest one of these geniuses decide to declare it abandoned and claim it?
Oh, Christ on a rollerskate, these dudes so need a slapping…
A little fact this genius has missed us that Adverse possession takes 21 years in Ohio. You can’t just enter a home and it’s yours after 10 minutes, even if it is abandoned. Can’t link, but Above the Law mocked this story this morning. I believe one if the tags was “stupidity” 