I have a legal question

[Chaos Ranch]

I know laws vary by state, but I was hoping someone could give me a bit of insight as to what to do. Here's the situation.

Last year, in May our friends got thrown out of their house. They had 2 weeks to move. They argued with the guy for a week and a half, then had only 3 days left to find somewhere to go. They had a young baby, so we offered to let them rent our other small trailer on our property for 150. a month. The conversation went just like this.

He says " It may be plum up till I get my tax refund before we can afford to find a place of our own" I say "Well, ok, if that's what it takes."

Ok, so Jan. Tax refund time comes and they blow most of their money on all sorts of stupid things. My husband offers to sell them the trailer for 700. but they have to find a place to move it to. They agree and buy the trailer. At that point they stop paying us anything to stay there, but yet they remain living there.

Ok, just a tad bit of information to show you how considerate I have been with these two. I had my second satillite reciever over at their place and paid their cable bill for 10 months. I have also supplied them EACH with a cell phone on my calling plan for the last 3 years. They did however pay me half of the cable bill and half of the phone bills for two months. I also sold 3 of my miniature horses to pay his attorney 1800. to go to court to get custody of his son. Who has lived with his mother (my friend's mother) every since he was about 8 months old, even after he got legal custody of him. He has claimed tax credits and unearned income credits on the child for the past 4 years, yet the boy does not live with them, and he does not give the boys grandmother any money or any help of any kind. He supplies no clothes, no food, no medication,... nothing. These two get W.I.C. and food stamps on the child as well... yet as I said, the boy does not, and has not ever lived with them and spends only about 4-5 nights out of the month with them. But that's just my personal rant, doesn't pretain to the "legal matter at hand".

Ok, so I get fed up with everything when he gets rear-ended and gets nearly 2,000. out of it, and instead of finding a place to live yet again, he blows the money. His wife continuously curses out my kids, threatens them, and calls them all manner of names. I finally got tired of it all, told them they have a week to find another place to live. So they hee-haw around all week, and when their last day comes, they pack up and take a camping trip !!! When they get home it just hits the fan. I turn loose on them and just let them have it. I turned their phones off, pulled my cable out of their house, and shut the water off from my private well.

They say since they have kids, (again, they only keep one of the two) they are allowed to remain on my property for up to two years! We have no rental agreement, they bought the trailer and was supposed to have moved it 5 months ago. Then they say they do not have to leave at all because we contacted the post office and had a seperate address given to that trailer, so they are allowed to stay there as long as they want because the address is in their name. This is our property, there was never any property rented or sold with that mobile home they were in.

So what my questions are, how long do they have to vacate the premises? Can I have the mobile home removed, at their expense? At what point (if any) can I get rid of the mobile home, as they have left now and are staying with family, but their personal items are still in the trailer. They say they are going to sell the trailer to another lady, so how long are they allowed to leave that trailer on my property?

 

[sfmini]

You need to be asking a lawyer these questions.

 

[Pepipony]

Down here we have County Attorneys that you can call and ask questions of, for no fee. I would try that, or possibly your Sheriffs Dept. I know laws vary, but recently a man tried to evict someone and he had to give them 30 days. You have Been WAY too patient with these people. They dont know how to behave, guess no one taught them manners

 

[luv2ridesaddleseat]

I'm assuming you have a contract in writing and signed with these people??

 

[sfmini]

If they try to use their kids' plight to blackmail you, be sure and tell them you are sure that Children's Services would be more than happy to make sure they are cared for.

 

[Chaos Ranch]

A county attorney? How do I find out if we have one of those? What would I look under?

Sorry, no contract. It was only supposed to be short term, so I never felt the need for one. They were supposed to be our friends, and I felt like I could trust them to keep their word.

The thing about their kids plight, I know beyond a doubt that if DHS were called in, and they seen the inside of that trailer, they would remove the baby right away, and I'd feel awful all my life for a baby being taken away from it's parents. I don't like it that they are trying to use the fact that they have a baby to stay and get a free ride, but I don't know if I could live with the guilt of having a baby taken away from her parents.

They came here this afternoon, and they told my daughter that they were moving the trailer to another town down the road in about half an hour. They left, and 3 hours later they come back and tell my husband they are actually moving to this other town, but that they are selling the trailer to another woman from Oak Grove and now we'll have to deal with her about having it moved.

There was never anything in writing. There's no title to the mobile home. They never got a bill of sale from us or anything. Not that I would try to lie and say they never paid for the trailer... just saying that I have no way to show that they paid for it in Jan.

I will try to find out if we have one of those county attorneys. That would really help if I knew more about our legal options.

 

[Marty]

Kim for heaven's sakes! There you go being nice to people as usual and lend them a helping hand and get crapped on for it. You have squatters and they need to gooooooo.

Go to town to your Court House and also your local Sherrif's department and ask there what you can do. Surely you should be able to get them gone without having to go through the expense of an attorney. Also there should be a title to the mobile home in your name. Bring that with you and the deed to your land, plot plan, property tax plan, etc. just in case you need proof you are the land and home owner. If the baby was in fact living in filth and an unhealthy situation where he is in trouble that should be reported too.

 

[muffntuf]

You better get familiar with squatters rights in your county and state! Find out fast, for sure I bet they know by now.

For exmaple:

What's the law on squatter's rights?

All depends. You usually only can acquire land by "adverse possession", if you are there in the open and "notorious" (e.g.. so anyone can see it.) You can also try possession under a claim of right (e.g., as if you had reason to believe you had the right to be there and keep the land, perhaps because you were watching the other property for the owner, and he said I want you there and if you look out for the rest of the land, this land will be yours). A tenant under a lease doesn't get to keep the house after paying rent for 25 years, for example since this was by "permission".

But you need to contact an attorney in your state who can explain what your state's rules are and how they apply to your exact situation. It's worth a shot.

And here is the legal definiton of a squatter -- you better get a jump on this before they file:

Squatter definition

 

[chandab]

I will try to find out if we have one of those county attorneys. That would really help if I knew more about our legal options.

Kim

Don't know if its the same where you are, but... I just used the phone book to look up our county attorney. Went to the white pages for our city (also county seat), looked up "(county name)County of", and below that is a list of services including County Attorney with his name listed (its a small county/city so I knew, but my husband told me to look it up this way, and it worked, so perhaps it will work for you). For this sort of thing it should be free or a very small fee for a consultation with the County Attorney, or he can tell you who to contact.

HOpe you get it sorted out soon and in your favor.

 

[Littleum]

You really have to have legal counsel on this one. It's well past the time to lawyer up.

Eviction and squatters are delicate matters, even when the law is clearly on your side. The laws vary wildly from state to state and even county to county. There's a process to it all and YOU (not them) have to do EVERYTHING right.

You might not even have been able to turn off the water legally.

 

[Feather]

You live in Arkansas = where each county is run like a separate country!

Ever deal with a legal problem and the other person supplies the local chief his moonshine?

Seldom well you win. Its Arkansas! (ALL meant in good truthful terms!)

Fact: Just have to touch bases with the local persons in charge & determine if they have

an SOP(Std Oper Proceedure) that covers your problem.

It'll mean A LOT who the people are that are actually involved.

Title to the trailer = owner w/o a salebill/proof; in most cases.

Good Luck!

Do Not release anything without a reciept from the taker & some id(copy: # or actual ID)

You could wind up in the middle of a bigger mess.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Dont know about the legal rights or anything, but if they are to be paying you 150 a month and quit paying you in January, and its almost June, it seems more to me like they paid you $700 rent upfront, then owe some. Were they told that rent was to be paid until the trailer was removed from the property?

 

[Jill]

That's kind of what I thought too. The $700 for all that time is a bargain if it was rent. Urgh... with my temper, this wouldn't be a good situation. I'd also talk to the authorities or an attorney and find out what your fastest and most decisive action can legally be and do it to get their butts off your property asap. Also stuff like canceling the cell phones and satellite if not already done. Sounds like these people can't take care of themselves, let alone be parents

 

[kaykay]

Trace brought up some excellent points. This would invoke the adverse possession law and that varies state to state. Heres a link adverse possession

We had to study this extensively in real estate law class. So many people do not understand that this is a real law and if you let someone use your property for any reason they can claim ownership. We had a case in Ohio where someone let their neighbor a 1/2 acre to plant a garden. After some years they decided to tell the neighbor they couldnt use it. The neighbor claimed it was theirs and took them to court. They won! They got to own that 1/2 acre

In most states this person has not lived there long enough yet, but like I said it varies state to state.

Never never let anyone use your property without a written rental contract!

I would contact a real estate attorney asap

 

[wildoak]

A written contract or lease is much better of course, but an oral agreement is binding in some cases - another question to ask your county attorney.

Jan

 

[Genie]

You need legal counsel but you could take a look at "squatters rights" for your state.

Anything you do with ANYONE, needs to be in the form of a written contract.

SOunds like the people are "using you" and they know they can get away with it.

Who would do what they have done without providing some compensation.

 

[Chaos Ranch]

Thank you all very much. I was going to look to see if we had a county attorney today, but I've been busy all day with company and then had physical therapy on my back this afternoon, and by the time I got a minute to call my attorney her receptionist said she's been in court all day, and that she doesn't really handle real estate type issues. I will have to have my husband look in the phone book for me. The writing is too small for me to see it. I'll try Google-ing it here in a minute.

I know I really should contact DHS. There's many things I know about that just aren't very fair to that baby... but I've always felt like that was a very mean thing to do to someone...taking someone's child(ren) away is about one of the worst things you can do to a person... but then again, I know I'm not being very fair to the baby by not doing anything about it either. I don't want to do something like that while I'm angry. I'd rather wait, and make sure I am not reacting out of spite or resentment. That's a pretty serious matter.

They are moving some of thier things out of the trailer right now. What I'm worried about is, that they will move their belongings out, then leave the trailer there for God only knows how long. Or they'll sell it to someone else, thus ridding themselves of the responsibility to move it...and also making it to where I don't know who they sold it to so I can't make that person move it in a resonable amount of time. Oh you guys are right. I am really going to have to call an attorney over this. I have to make sure I do everything legally.