Another Crackpot Claiming 'Adverse Possession' Defense Faces Criminal Charges In Vacant Home Hijacking Scam

In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• During Henry VIII's reign in England, a law was written to punish owners who lost track of their land by granting ownership to anyone who put it to good use for a few decades. Now, in one of the most unusual side effects of the mortgage meltdown, police say a local man misused Florida's version of that ancient law to take over homes still in the foreclosure process and rent them out to unsuspecting families.

• Sarasota County Sheriff's detectives say Joel McNair ran a business called "Homes for Americans," in which he researched abandoned homes on the Internet to see if they were in foreclosure. If they were, he would change the locks, move out any furniture inside and rent out the home to a new family, according to arrest reports.

• [P]olice arrested McNair and charged him with fraud and grand theft over $100,000 in what amounted to the theft of two houses. McNair told police that in the past two months, he had taken over and rented out at least 11 houses in Sarasota County alone, and had done the same with more houses in Manatee and Hillsborough counties, according to the report.

• McNair, 60, told police he was simply taking advantage of a Florida statute called the adverse possession law, which allows people to claim the abandoned homes of others if they pay taxes and act like the owners for seven years. It has been on the books in Florida since 1869. "I spend a lot of time and money making sure it's legal," McNair told SNN Local News 6 before his arrest last week.

For more, see Home rental strategy a service or fraud?