Squatters' Rights or Grandfather Clause

[mslinda]

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

What classified as squatters rights?

 

[FlyingRon]

The term doesn't appear in the statutes.

There are two things people refer to when they talk about such.

The first is adverse possession, where someone occupies a property open, notorious, and hostile for a certain period of time, they can obtain ownership on it. It's hard to bring such an action and it takes a long time.

The other is just terms in the eviction laws that make it hard to get people out who are no longer (if ever) paying rent.

 

[mslinda]

Property inhabited 40 years - siblings want to sell

I am writing to see if I can help my brother in law (BIL) who is 86 years old. He and my sister have lived in a mobile home on some family owned land since 1968. His father who has been dead 12 years was to have deeded the 7 acres to him but according to two of his siblings who share in the administrator role of the estate, there is no legal paper showing this ever happened. The stakes are evident where the land was marked when surveyed many years ago. There are 5 adult children left, of which he is the oldest. Three of the four want to sell the land (approximately 80 acres) and the funds would be split 5 ways. They want my BIL to move off the property where is has lived for 40 years. He and my sister cared for both his mother and father over the years when both were ill. They put the septic system in, paid to have the water line for city water installed and various other things that were necessary in order to inhabit the property. They live on social security and have no other source of income. My sister is on Medicaid because of many health issues.

Now they are trying to force him to move. I personally feel this is despicable and cannot believe what they are doing. Does he have any rights in this instance? Is there any way I can help him? This is the reason I was asking about squatters rights. He has been told they cannot make him move, but meantime, he is worried and is now experiencing health issues due to the worry and uncertainty of his remaining years.

 

[mslinda]

I am writing to see if I can help my brother in law (BIL) who is 86 years old. He and my sister have lived in a mobile home on some family owned land since 1968. His father who has been dead 12 years was to have deeded the 7 acres to him but according to two of his siblings who share in the administrator role of the estate, there is no legal paper showing this ever happened. The stakes are evident where the land was marked when surveyed many years ago. There are 5 adult children left, of which he is the oldest. Three of the four want to sell the land (approximately 80 acres) and the funds would be split 5 ways. They want my BIL to move off the property where is has lived for 40 years. He and my sister cared for both his mother and father over the years when both were ill. They put the septic system in, paid to have the water line for city water installed and various other things that were necessary in order to inhabit the property. They live on social security and have no other source of income. My sister is on Medicaid because of many health issues.

Now they are trying to force him to move. I personally feel this is despicable and cannot believe what they are doing. Does he have any rights in this instance? Is there any way I can help him? This is the reason I was asking about squatters rights. He has been told they cannot make him move, but meantime, he is worried and is now experiencing health issues due to the worry and uncertainty of his remaining years.[/QUOTE]

 

[FlyingRon]

You should see if a deed was ever recorded with the county. If one was, you're way ahead of the game.

How was it that he came to live in the home in the first place?
Has he been paying property taxes on the 7 acres?

If everything is as represented: He was permissively living on his father's land and no deed ever took place, then he's not entitled to any special treatment just because he has been there for a while and he cared for family members.

It's possible that he may be able to force a partition so that his inheritance would be a divided part of the larger parcel (presumably the part he's already on).

Unless you can negotiate with the rest of the family, it's going to take a lawyer.