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Double checked this and it's still correct, after a period of time a squatter can claim ownership if they can prove they've been living in the property. They

Double checked this and it's still correct, after a period of time a squatter can claim ownership if they can prove they've been living in the property. They can also get fined and/or sent to prison. Edit: it's also legal to squat in a non-residential building

Silhouette 4y ago
Double checked this and it's still correct, after a period of time a squatter can claim ownership if they can prove they've been living in the property. That's not quite the whole story. The rules around adverse possession were changed a while back so that even if someone has been using some property for a long time they can't just file a bit of paperwork and take the legal ownership away from the real owner. The real owner will be notified of the attempt and then has quite a long period of time to address the matter, for example by getting any unauthorised occupants removed instead. It's only if the owner doesn't take the required actions in time and the occupants then go through a second round of paperwork that the occupants can take over the title and even then there are still some other big conditions they have to satisfy first. (I am not a lawyer or property expert but I did have this explained to me at length by someone who was when I was considering buying a property and he had some concerns about the legal title.)
- satori99 4y ago
  In Australia, this still happens. The man is the story below, discovered a house in Sydney whose occupant had died. He changed the locks with no-ones permission and started renting the property out to other people. He did this for 20 years before filing the paperwork to take ownership. Relatives of the the decease owner were contacted, and they tried to to fight him, but he won in court fairly convincingly -- And got himself a $1.5M house and 20 years of rent payments. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/developer-wins-court-battle-to-become-owner-of-vacant-sydney-house-20181031-p50d4v.html https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/developer-wins...
  - bombcar 4y ago
    It was more than 20 years since the last recorded owner: > Justice Darke said when the last owner Henry Thompson Downie died in 1947, he did not leave a will and no representative was appointed to the deceased estate. > A tenant was living in the property at the time, and she remained there for a further 51 years until she died in April 1998. Who was paying the property tax I wonder, and did the gov't even notice? I suppose that's the "council rates".

Silhouette 4y ago

Double checked this and it's still correct, after a period of time a squatter can claim ownership if they can prove they've been living in the property. That's not quite the whole story. The rules around adverse possession were changed a while back so that even if someone has been using some property for a long time they can't just file a bit of paperwork and take the legal ownership away from the real owner. The real owner will be notified of the attempt and then has quite a long period of time to address the matter, for example by getting any unauthorised occupants removed instead. It's only if the owner doesn't take the required actions in time and the occupants then go through a second round of paperwork that the occupants can take over the title and even then there are still some other big conditions they have to satisfy first. (I am not a lawyer or property expert but I did have this explained to me at length by someone who was when I was considering buying a property and he had some concerns about the legal title.)

satori99 4y ago
In Australia, this still happens. The man is the story below, discovered a house in Sydney whose occupant had died. He changed the locks with no-ones permission and started renting the property out to other people. He did this for 20 years before filing the paperwork to take ownership. Relatives of the the decease owner were contacted, and they tried to to fight him, but he won in court fairly convincingly -- And got himself a $1.5M house and 20 years of rent payments. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/developer-wins-court-battle-to-become-owner-of-vacant-sydney-house-20181031-p50d4v.html https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/developer-wins...
- bombcar 4y ago
  It was more than 20 years since the last recorded owner: > Justice Darke said when the last owner Henry Thompson Downie died in 1947, he did not leave a will and no representative was appointed to the deceased estate. > A tenant was living in the property at the time, and she remained there for a further 51 years until she died in April 1998. Who was paying the property tax I wonder, and did the gov't even notice? I suppose that's the "council rates".