WSBTV Reports: A man who told Channel 2 Action News that he could help anyone move into a foreclosed house and live for free, is now in jail. Roderick Walker filed an Affidavit of Adverse Possession for a $300,000 vacant home on Mackenzie Court in Douglas County, and has lived there for the past six months for free. He also started a Facebook page teaching others how to do the same thing, but that’s not what he was arrested for. Deputies charged Walker with criminal trespassing Thursday night, saying he helped one of his clients get back into a house on Prestley Mill Road which he’d been evicted from.
“He’d come back in after the cleanup crews left. Went through the basement, up through the house and helped him move all his property right back in,” said Douglas County Sheriff’s Investigator Josh Skinner.
Deputies moved the belongings right back out, and charged the client that day.
“If they would have just took the 3 or 4 months of rent free living as a good blessing and left, nobody would have gotten in trouble that day,” said Skinner.
But he says Walker and the others’ attempted use of Georgia’s Adverse Possession law to occupy the vancant homes is not legal. He calls it fraud and says law enforcement intends to crack down on anyone using paperwork to try to claim houses they don’t own.
“I think it’s a very good way to wind up in jail,” said Skinner, “We just won’t tolerate this kind of behavior.”
Skinner says some of the banks that own the vacant homes are willing to tolerate it and don’t want the hassle of pushing for prosecution of squatters. They just wait until they want to sell the house and evict the squatter, or pay them to leave.
“It most certainly is part of the problem. What we run into is these individuals are telling us nobody owns the property or cares about it, so why not move in and live for free for a year,” said Skinner, “There’s a good possibility had he not put himself in the limelight, that he could have got away with this for quite some time.”
Walker had already been in his new home for six months because the owner had walked away and the bank had yet to foreclose. Now deputies have gotten the old owner to sign paperwork saying she did not authorize anyone to live there. Walker interpreted Georgia’s adverse possession law to say the house would be his if he could live in it for seven years. Investigators say a successful adverse possession cannot be rooted in fraud, but unless a neighbor or realtor calls, it would be hard to catch. Plus, many homes are in foreclosure limbo right now, making them ripe for adverse possession attempts.
“Georgia’s filed a moratorium on all foreclosures right now so even if the bank wanted to, they’d have a very difficult time trying to push somebody out right now,” said Skinner.
He says both Walker and his client could face even more charges relating to the house on Prestley Mill Road. The power company required proof of residency and investigators believe the pair forged a lease to open an account. Walker is being held in the Douglas County Jail on an $11,000 bond.
