NEW PORT RICHEY — The homes had been vacated due to foreclosure when Stephen Bybel discovered them.
Authorities say Bybel attempted to seize the properties through an obscure state law, then posted the properties on Craigslist and filled the homes with tenants...But the Pasco County Sheriff's Office says Bybel was simply helping himself, collecting rent on dozens of homes he didn't own or legally control. In January alone, authorities say, Bybel pocketed $16,780 in rent...
...When Bybel found a foreclosure property, authorities said, he posted a notice on the home alerting the owner he would take "adverse possession" of the property unless the owner contacted him in seven days.
The notice cited chapter 95 of Florida Statutes, which spells out how someone can take possession of a property through squatter's rights. The law requires a person occupy the property for at least seven years and fulfill other legal requirements.
Had Bybel or this reporter taken my class, I would have told them the following:
First of all, adverse posession is not an "obscure state law" and it exists in various forms in all fifty states. Without getting too deep in the weeds, the history and purpose of adverse posession goes back centuries and is designed to place a statute of limitations on ownership of disputed property. In other words, a property owner has a certain amount of time to remove a hostile trespasser or they will lose that right.
Florida law not only requires a seven year waiting period, but also requires that the would be possessor pay the property taxes during that time. Among other things, it also says that you have to show evidence of some legitimate claim to the property, whatever that may be.
Nevertheless, you have to admire this guy's inventiveness, if not his stupidity. I'm impressed that he managed to take 71 houses and rented over 30 of them. If anything, this shows just how unmanageable these foreclosures have become.
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