Overheard in Twitterland
From a resident of Quincy Street in Bed Stuy: “Spent hours last night convincing cops that men breaking in to house next door were not owners – no arrests but they all left.”
From a resident of Quincy Street in Bed Stuy: “Spent hours last night convincing cops that men breaking in to house next door were not owners – no arrests but they all left.”
No “leads” on this one, Mr. Brownstoner? Or do you only report on crime in Crown Heights and Bed Stuy?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/22/2009-03-22_wabc_radio_newsman_george_weber_found_st-2.html
I’m not sure I understand why everybody is jumping down The What’s throat. I don’t read his posts on this thread as advocating any sort of behavior – rather he’s just saying “I told ya so.” Empty foreclosed houses invite squatters, particularly in a down economy. Nothing controversial there.
Seems to me the neighbors have every right to evenhandedly call and politely call attention to the situation though. Today’s squatter home can easily become tomorrow’s crack den, with the resultant impact on safety (and, yes, property values, but mainly safety).
The whole adverse possession argument seems a bit silly. (Isn’t the statute of limitations, like, 20 years of continuous occupancy or something?) But I’m not sure the comment was intended to be taken so literally.
“In the end the undercovers came back from their cars after calling to the precinct and decided that the would be squatters should leave and bring the deeds to the house down to the precinct in the morning, at which point they would be allowed access to the house. Of course they left never (yet at least) to be seen again.”
In the end, despite all of the commotion, the right thing happened. If the “sqatters” ARE legit, they have the opportunity to prove it. If they aren’t, they were prevented from trying to inhabit an unoccupied house. The cops weren’t going to make a decision until Mr. James Doran and his neighbors became insistent – welcome to Brooklyn! Anyway, “mind your own business” doesn’t apply in this case, and I’m big on MYOB. If it were MY house they were moving in next to, I’d definitely rat them out to the cops. In my experience, it’s best to confront an issue like this right at the beginning, or it would just become worse.
Just like Mr. B said, adverse possession most often is used to refer to the purloined strip of lawn…and is actually fairly common. My sister’s neighbor planted trees over the lot line before they moved in; it was a year or so before she figured out that something was in fact wrong, so she had a survey done. He wasn’t happy to lose the 4-6 feet he had annexed.
Agreeing with bxgl, there’s little about the particulars of the situation as recorded here that suggests adverse possession would be seriously considered by a judge. By all mean, get the city councilperson involved; make sure the owner secures the property, but be careful too.
What and ROW have–on some levels–forecast the fall before others, but forecasting a decline doesn’t mean that people should just roll over on their backs and give in. Hell no. That’s when people should do what they can to hold things together, in spite of the difficulties, not say, “hey things are bad, there goes the neighborhood.”
I would call my city councilmember asap — and get the name of the precinct community affairs officer as well and call him/her. And the Brooklyn papaers and anyone else I ould find — you have to stop this asap and make everyone aware of it.
Adverse possession is in regards to abandoned property. A foreclosed property is hardly abandoned. And if a property left vacant for a few weeks were subject to adverse possession by anyone, there would be no vacation homes, no one would go away for a month, no one would be able to sell a house after they had to leave it to go to work in an other state…
If these people meant to occupy the house in some constructive manner they presumably would have made more of an effort to ingratiate themselves to their new neighbors rather than telling them where to stick it.
When the cops say it’s a civil matter, that’s pretty much game over.
So what’s this new scam? Look up recently foreclosed houses up on the web, break down the door and move on in using a print out from property shark as proof of possession? Down and Out in Beverly Hills meets Brooklyn. Ever seen a meth lab explode?