Media reports have been circulating about a Texas man who paid $16 to file a document that could make him the owner of record of an abandoned $300,000 home. The scenario likely had more than a few people wondering if they could own a foreclosed or abandoned property for just the cost of a $16 filing. So we asked an expert about the probability he will eventually become the legal owner of record.
The man identified in the news reports is Kenneth Robinson.
Using an “affidavit of adverse possession” he obtained online, Robinson filed the form with the Denton County courthouse for a total cost of $16. He moved into the home, located in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, in a neighborhood where properties go for $300,000 — though he has no power or water.
Now Robinson hopes to become the legal owner of the property located at 2205 Waterford Drive within three years.
“This is not a normal process, but is not a process that’s not known,” Robinson told WFAA in a television interview. “It’s just not known to everybody.”
So what are Robinson’s chances of acquiring title to the property through adverse possession?
“Very little,” according to Stephanie Ward, an attorney with the Dallas office of Patton Boggs LLP.
Ward explained that Section 16.024 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code allows for someone to sue for adverse possession after three years if “acting under color of title.” In other words, Robinson would need some sort of conveyance — which he appears not to have.
A second possibility under Section 16.025 of the code would enable him to sue for title after five years if he pays the property taxes and claims the property under a duly registered deed in addition to living in the home for five years.
But Robinson apparently doesn’t have a legitimate deed as required.
Under Section 16.026 of the code, he could acquire title after living in the property for 10 years even without a deed as long as he pays the property taxes and lives in the home for 10 years.
However, this would require a decade of inaction by the owner of the property — a highly unlikely scenario according to Ward.
While the original mortgage company reportedly went out of business, and the original borrower reportedly abandoned the property, Ward explained that some entity — a securitization trust, MERS or some other organization — now has title to the property.
“In all likelihood the person acting would be the special servicer, but it would be highly unlikely that in the normal course of business a special servicer would ignore a property for ten years,” Ward said in a statement. “This isn’t a cause for panic. If over the course of a decade a special servicer discovers someone inhabiting an abandoned property, simply get them to leave.”
Ward said that the situation would be very similar in all states, though the time periods might vary.
