How to Acquire a House via "Adverse Posession"

You might be asking what Adverse Possession is.  Let's give you the history step by step:

Have you ever heard of Squatter's Rights?  That is the beginning of home ownership through Adverse Possession, which takes just as long as a mortgage does, but for the most part, these houses are stuck in a long process and go forgotten until the process comes to a complete closure.  Then after that, many houses remain shells in slow damage.  Sometimes a squatter who improves the area is the best thing that ever happens to a broken home - empty and forgotten. Neglected and beginning to fall apart. 
Then you come along, with your ohana, and fix the house, love the house, bless the house and live in it.  The neighbors don't want to see you go! You've done so much work to that house! You get to stay, because of your rights, or be equally bought out at least for equity, maybe plus the liens you have paid, the pain of losing your home, + $20,000. Yep, demand the world for your rights.  Claim the Kingdom and the Kingdom will claim you.  This applies to your Kingdom (home) and your Kingdom of Hawaii. 

Squatter's Rights are the beginning of this phase and Adverse Possession is the ultimate goal.  Just know that everything you have ever documented as having spent in the house, is what you get back and a little bit more, if you are forced to go.  Liens, repairs, taxes... all of it!  So you still have something decent to look forward to. 

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The principle of adverse possession allows you to assume the title on a property if you occupy it for a certain length of time without challenge. To establish adverse possession of a home in Hawaii, you must occupy the home for 20 years, and that occupancy must be "actual, continuous, hostile, exclusive, open and notorious." "Actual" and "open and notorious" mean you lived there as if you owned the place, making no attempt to hide it and doing the things an owner does, such as maintaining the property and paying the bills. "Continuous" means you lived there the whole time. "Hostile" means you lived there without clear title to the land. And "exclusive" means the home was on private, not public land, and you didn't share the property with someone else who may claim title.

Read more: How to Acquire a Home Through Adverse Possession in Hawaii | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_10001827_acquire-home-through-adverse-possession-hawaii.html#ixzz2PcUN8lSB

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Instructions
1
Occupy the home for 20 years in an "actual, continuous, hostile, exclusive, open and notorious" manner. You can assert an adverse possession claim to a property only once every 20 years -- so if you make such a claim and the court rejects it, you must occupy the home for an additional 20 years before you can try again.

2
Gather any evidence that supports the idea that you are the rightful owner of the home. Hawaii requires that any adverse possession claim be made in "good faith." That means you must have a legitimate reason to believe that you are the rightful owner. If you know that someone else has legal title to the home, yours is not a good-faith claim.

3

Prepare a "quiet title action." This is a lawsuit to establish your title to the home. If you know of another party asserting ownership of the property, your action will name that party as a defendant. If you don't know of anyone else asserting ownership, the lawsuit will simply ask the court to declare you the rightful title holder.

4

Go to the Hawaii Circuit Court for the district where the home is located. The 1st Circuit covers Oahu, and the court is in Honolulu. The 2nd Circuit covers Maui, Molokai and Lanai, and the court is in Wailuku. The 3rd Circuit covers the Big Island, and the court is in Hilo. The 5th Circuit covers Kauai, and the court is in Lihue. (There is no 4th Circuit; it merged with the 3rd Circuit in 1943.)

5

Go to the filing window at the proper Hawaii Circuit Court building and file your quiet title action. From there, the case is in the hands of the legal system. If the defendant, or anyone else, challenges your action, there will be a trial. If no one challenges, and the court concludes that you have a qualifying good-faith claim, you may get a summary judgment in your favor. If the court concludes that your claim is in bad faith, it may issue a summary judgment against you.

Read more: How to Acquire a Home Through Adverse Possession in Hawaii | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_10001827_acquire-home-through-adverse-possession-hawaii.html#ixzz2PcVEv1Rr
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Now that we've given you our introductory statement and have cited its information source, let us get down to the nitty gritty of the situation.  

Where do you start with all of this? Can we get a breakdown of the stuff up there?  Yes we can.


First things first:  

• find out how and how long the house has been vacant and assess the neighborhood to figure what might be missing from the infrastructure.  Usually drug neighborhoods don't have any aluminum or piping, so right off the bat, you have a rough idea of what your looking into, although many places can surprise you.  
• look up the title work to the house.  Best to build a portfolio of the house and its situation, so surprises won't be as dramatic. Always assess the total amount of liens on the property.  To make it yours, paying these liens is part of the process.   
• see what the neighbors tell you.  Make notes when you finish meeting with them.
• Assess how you will get into the house, and you will have to be able to re-secure the house upon exit.
• Bring cameras and take as many pictures as you can get while looking around.

When you go home from viewing and pic snapping, grab a snack and sit down to write what's fresh in your mind.  There will be a lot to remember.  Slowly go through the pictures, and do your research on how many resources you have to help you and what supplies will cost you. Write down a rough estimate and sleep on that. Make your decision the next day.  It gives you plenty of reaction time to something that might bother you later.

If you are moving forward with it, this is where you begin:

• print yourself a lease so that you will be able to get utilities and such.
• Make a photo album/scrapbook for the house.  It will come in handy later, for everything regarding legal stuff for the house.
• Call all the agencies and poke around with questions regarding the debt and how to handle it.  The big question is what are you liable for, in order to completely own the house.
• Make a binder for all house related information including bills, payments, receipts.
• Get a receipt book and have those who help you, write charges for the help they've given.  This is home equity, you know.
• Have someone who cannot do much physical labor, be the secretary of what's getting done to the house, while everybody else does the work.  That person will be able to keep more accurate records, as they can focus on the writing and picture taking. 
• Do all the work you will need and move in right away.  This secures the establishment of your presence.
• Continue to make improvements, as you can afford them and make sure the house appears better than before.  This will ensure that the neighbors will have your side in any future legal battles that may or may not occur in regards to the house.
• Always take pictures before and after everything you do.  The proof is always in the pictures.
• For everything that you do to the house, make sure you do background research on the house as well as the project itself.  You do not want to do something that is going to end up a waste of your time and efforts.  
• Always stay on top of the structural necessities, as they are most important to not only your family, but to the record keeping of the house.

If you can follow these simple instructions, you should have minimal issues and maximum success in complete ownership of the said property.