taking ownership from the current owner

[djprimal]

a house is left in a will to a person, said person never files paperwork to get the house leagly in their name. They allow someone to move in,(rent free) provided they fix the house, pay the taxes and pay the house insurance. we wanted to buy the house and were told 100k, but the house is assesed for only 80k. We've fixed the house and went in debt because of it, paid the taxes every year and and paid the house insurance. there was never a written agreement,or papers signed. now said person wants us to pay rent, and treatened to evict us from a house that isnt even in their name, the person that owned the house that died, died on 2003. title and taxes were never changed, i would like to know if theres anything i can do since I've been paying the taxes and insurance and spent upwords of 12k to fix this run down house, can i take ownership of the house from the person it was left to since they never changed the title to the house over to their name?

 

[army judge]

a house is left in a will to a person, said person never files paperwork to get the house leagly in their name. They allow someone to move in,(rent free) provided they fix the house, pay the taxes and pay the house insurance. we wanted to buy the house and were told 100k, but the house is assesed for only 80k. We've fixed the house and went in debt because of it, paid the taxes every year and and paid the house insurance. there was never a written agreement,or papers signed. now said person wants us to pay rent, and treatened to evict us from a house that isnt even in their name, the person that owned the house that died, died on 2003. title and taxes were never changed, i would like to know if theres anything i can do since I've been paying the taxes and insurance and spent upwords of 12k to fix this run down house, can i take ownership of the house from the person it was left to since they never changed the title to the house over to their name?

You can't "TAKE" ownership, but you can sue for ownership using the principle of "adverse possession".

In NY, it is known as "squatter's rights"!

You more than likely need a lawyer.

I'd talk to one about the theory of your case, "adverse possession".

The problem for you is that NY recently made such claims more difficult to substantiate.

They are, nevertheless, still possible to bring.

That is why I suggested you speak with an attorney well versed in real estate/property law.

If the person that purports to be the owner never perfected his title/deed to the property, and you have made repairs and paid taxes; your "adverse possession" claim might have enough merit for a court to at least hear the matter!

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/07/08/no_squat_law/

http://www.rivkinradler.com/rivkinradler/Publications/newformat/200105dehaven.shtml

http://www.newyorkrealestatelawyerblog.com/2009/02/adverse_possession_is_not_so_e.html

Today, a claim of adverse possession generally involves a disputed property line. The typical case will involve a dispute between the owners of adjoining properties, where one has appropriated the use of a portion of the other's parcel. It becomes a Court case when the other owner finds out. For instance, in a recent case out of Staten Island, the plaintiffs, owners of a certain parcel of real estate, installed a fence on a portion of the adjoining property in 1979, thereby enclosing an area of three or four feet by 158 feet, and planted various bushes, shrubs, and trees on the parcel. Some twenty years later, the defendants, recent purchasers of the adjoining parcel, discovered that fence actually lay on their property, and took it down. The plaintiffs then commenced a lawsuit to be awarded ownership of the disputed strip of land, under the doctrine of adverse possession. Their argument was that because they used and occupied this land for more than ten years (the statutory minimum), they became the owners of the disputed piece.

In New York, a person attempting to prove ownership in this manner must establish that their possession must be "hostile, and under a claim of right, actual, open and notorious, exclusive and continuous." The land must also be "usually cultivated or improved" or "protected by a substantial enclosure." In plain English, this means that (a) you believe you are the owner, (b) you hold yourself out to all as the owner, (c) you treat the property as your own, and (d) the property is fenced in, or otherwise made to look like the rest of your property.

The modern system of registering titles, use of surveys in transactions, and title searches has greatly diminished instances of claims of ownership by adverse possession; but nonetheless, the doctrine lives on in both rural and suburban areas of the state. Indeed, in my research of the topic, over one hundred cases on the subject were found to have been reported in the last five years.