Squatters otherwise known as shitbags rights.

[Phaseolus]

The law is poor, I do have to ask why the owner let a person use his property for 20 years though.

 

[noharleyyet]

Court and statute function too often verifies the predominant good deed to punishment ratio aphorism, and an ancillary negative relationship with common sense.

 

[fowladdict]

Whats the law in Idaho? I hear the Wilke’s brothers have a ton of land and i doubt every inch is patrolled. Little shack hidden somewhere and BOOM, private hunting cabin. Bury a wireless fence for the boundary and get some acreage.

20 years (used to be 7 years). There is a lot more to it than constructing a fence and then waiting for the calendar to turn "x" amount of times. Property taxes paid? (and by whom?), judges belief if the intent to use land being malicious or not, how long each party were neighbors?, where was the fence when neighbor A moved in?, neighbor B?, how long after neighbor A moved in was the fence placed?, neighbor B?, is there evidence of the property being surveyed before the fence was placed?, etc. Besides, good luck having enough coin to fight them in court.

As for the OP, there may be more to the story. I'd like to read the court case. Journalism headlines tend to be shock and awe. But, based on that article it stated that the deceased father gave the property to the deceased mother who then passed it on to her son. There may have been documentation of such transpiring that the 2/3 acre made sense to the judge. Maybe the father forgot to update estate before he passed.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Let me be clear: if you buy something, you should have rights to that something. When property rights mean nothing, owning property means nothing. No matter what mental gymnastics you do to make this seem right, you are wrong.

My comment wasn't whether it was legal or not. It was that our government gives shit away to lazy people at the expense of people who work and I believe that is complete bullshit. And it has culminated to the point where people literally living in someone else's house has claim to own that house.

The man in the article should have been given a warning, and if he didn't leave, a bullet...not the deed to the house.

I'm sorry if you thought I was directing this specifically at our fragile, bumbling idiot in the White House currently....it was directed at our government as a whole, over a period of time where they are all culpable. We are now at a point where people like you will argue why it is right for someone to steal something that is his and claim it....and think nothing of the implications of a country with no property rights.

Perhaps take a moment to Google what happened when property rights disappeared in Zimbabwe around the year 2000.

Your definition of private property has never existed anywhere in the United States at any time in its history.

Are you really this dim? Do you really expect 300 million Americans to manage their daily affairs to your personal but undocumented and unsupported view on how you would like things to work?

 

[VikingsGuy]

If they got on the property without permission (trespassing) then broke into the house to live in it (breaking and entering) it seems a bit of a stretch that it becomes legal, no?

Again, I'm not arguing that the law exists...I don't think the law should exist.

In 2000, when the Zimbabweans decided to take over the white farms and murder the owners right after they stapled their eyelids open so they had to watch their daughters get raped, the government supported this. In fact, one Zimbabweans friend's place was taken by a government official. It was legal, though, so let's not question it.

#aryannation

 

[VikingsGuy]

You guys can politicize and argue over a wet dream. The law is archaic and ridiculous.

Land sitting unused, uncared for, and unvisited for 20+ yrs is the ridiculous premise.

 

[VikingsGuy]

I don’t know how that applies in Montana. My sister owned the property that was adjacent to the neighbor, who built a barn on her property. After a few years, they didn’t get along and she took him to court about the barn on her property and he had to remove it.

No lease or promise of ownership of the land was ever agreed to, he claimed my mother had told him he would get that land someday and that is why he built the barn on it.

It was past 5 years and he was ordered to remove the barn, which he tore down…

It would have had to be 5 yrs without your sister ever raising a concern. It doesn't have to be resovled within a particular 5 yrs.

It is common in the fertile red river valley in ND & MN for farmers to send out letters once every 10 years to their neghbors that include their plat description and saying, "to the extent you are possessing any of my land I hereby put you on notice that I object and demand you cease." It takes care of any inadvertent land shrinkage due to moving fence posts.

 

[Addicting]

Really surprised this isn’t locked.

 

[VikingsGuy]

I agree it is insane that he hadn't checked on it in a decade, but at what point is it reasonable for his land to be taken?

The citizens of that state agreed that 20+ years is the reasonable point.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Land sitting unused, uncared for, and unvisited for 20+ yrs is the ridiculous premise.

Nope. The law is ridiculous. Get off my $*)Q!#@$ lawn.

 

[Nick87]

20 years seems like a long time. But both my grandparents on each side have a farm that a portion of is pretty hard to get too. All four of them being into there 80's I'd say it's been pretty close to 20 years since they've been back there. The thought that if it weren't for me occasionally hiking back in there on a rare occasion, that it's free for the taking for someone else to seems pretty ridiculous to me. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Nope. The law is ridiculous. Get off my $*)Q!#@$ lawn.

The law's goal is clear title, predictability and productive use of land. None of which are served by 20+ yr absentee owners.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Land sitting unused, uncared for, and unvisited for 20+ yrs is the ridiculous premise.

Equating it to squatting in a house for 20 yrs and then getting the title is even more absurd!

 

[VikingsGuy]

Equating it to squatting in a house for 20 yrs and then getting the title is even more absurd!

100 yrs? 200 yrs? For eternity?

 

[mtmuley]

Really surprised this isn’t locked.

It got drug up again so VG could use the new emoji he just found out about. mtmuley

 

[VikingsGuy]

It got drug up again so VG could use the new emoji he just found out about. mtmuley

By the looks of things, it won’t be the last time it gets used.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Your definition of private property has never existed anywhere in the United States at any time in its history.

Are you really this dim? Do you really expect 300 million Americans to manage their daily affairs to your personal but undocumented and unsupported view on how you would like things to work?

Yeah, you're right.

No one cares about property rights.

They aren't important to a society of 300 million Americans.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Your definition of private property has never existed anywhere in the United States at any time in its history.

Are you really this dim? Do you really expect 300 million Americans to manage their daily affairs to your personal but undocumented and unsupported view on how you would like things to work?

My definition of property rights in my post was: "If you buy something, you should have rights to that something."

I am sure no other American has had ever had such an extreme and outlandish view...

 

[VikingsGuy]

My definition of property rights in my post was: "If you buy something, you should have rights to that something."

I am sure no other American has had ever had such an extreme and outlandish view...

Subject to the 200+ old laws that recognize that property right is hardly outlandish. What is it about modern America that celebrates a superficial understanding of our history and our laws?

 

[Pucky Freak]

In IA attorneys representing shadowy clients call country assessor offices monthly and pay all the unpaid property taxes. After so many months they’ll petition the state for title, which may be granted by law. The rich swallow up real estate from the poor.

But, carry on about the scourge of squatters…