RFP Staff
♦ An Interview with Verlon Hoess, righteous squatter and “Free Housing” Activist in Salisbury, N.C.
Rowan Free Press: Thanks Verlon for granting us this interview. A lot of young people and street anarchists might be interested in “Squatters Rights” and the “Free Housing Movement” in Salisbury, N.C. where squatting appears to be flourishing with so many abandoned houses and buildings throughout the city.
Verlon Hoess: The Free Housing market is flooded in the Bury. Everywhere you turn. I want to be square with you from the get. The Free Housing Movement has nothing to do with bums smoking crack or doing up meth or smack or messing up houses. It about righteous squatting done by anarchists and homeless persons looking for a new lease on life. We don’t start fires. We do home improvement. We want to live free and within the law.
Rowan Free Press: Do I have it right? The Free Housing Movement is all over North Carolina especially in Salisbury, Durham, Charlotte?
Verlon Hoess: Yes and there’s a lot more than that. There’s a lot of squatters in Boone and Raleigh. Just about anywhere in North Carolina where there is a surplus of abandoned houses and buildings. Salisbury is king of the hill in that regard.
Rowan Free Press: What exactly are “squatter’s rights”?
Verlon Hoess: Squatter’s rights are the way to obtain ownership of a property by the right of possession. Those rights may change from state to state. Like what goes in Oregon or Nuevo York or Michigan is governed by laws specific to that state. Here in North Carolina and most other states to my knowledge squatters rights are based on “adverse possession”.
Rowan Free Press: What is “adverse possession”? I’ve heard real estate people mention it.
Verlon Hoess: “adverse possession” is simply the way to obtain a legal title to a house, building or property by the continuous possession of the property without the interference or permission by the property’s owner of record. Each state has specific time limits and rules relating to “adverse possession” of a property. Squatters rights in North Carolina are based upon color of title and claim of title. Color of title means someone claiming ownership has incorrect documentation for ownership or the transfer of ownership is not properly registered. Color of title is one of the ways.
Rowan Free Press: In a prior conversation you mentioned that people claiming squatter’s rights better meet a few key criteria. What are those criteria?
Verlon Hoess: The criteria for legal house and building seizing, the possession must be hostile or open and notorious, meaning that the person claiming adverse possession has to visibly occupy the property. In North Carolina property improvements and tax payments are not needed for “adverse possession”. North Carolina laws require a period of 20 years of continuous possession before a person can file for a title based on adverse possession. In North Carolina, a person may obtain title to real property by adverse possession and color of title after seven years of continuous possession.
Down the road the former owner of record may challenge the claim, but usually not. They’re long gone. If a former owner comes out of the woodwork they may file claims based on disabilities, mental incompetence, they did time in the can or something like that. It happens. In this state the owner of record has three years to challenge a squatter’s claims after the disability is lifted.
Rowan Free Press: Wow–do you have a real estate license?
Verlon Hoess: (Chuckles). The computers on the 2nd floor of the Rowan Free Library will lay it all out for you. Salisbury’s got its share of anarchists and free house adverse possessors who know the ropes. Stay away from the poor neighborhoods because of the dopers and the cops got the evil eye out for people breaking in. Pick a squat off the beaten track where the cops won’t hassle you. There’s plenty of abandoned houses that no one pays much mind. You got to pick your spots. Look for websites keyed in on helping squatters how to find vacant digs and establish the façade of rightful ownership. You know the whole nine yards of blending in with the neighborhoods, setting up utilities, and doing home improvements. That will keep prying eyes off your homesteading and the cops driving by without stopping to check you out.
Rowan Free Press: Thanks for your time.
The Early History of Squatting:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2536601246.html
