Squatter who moved into pensioner's home for free then sold it for £540k claims HE’S the one left out of pocket | The Sun
A SQUATTER who moved into another man's house and then sold it claims he is the one out of pocket after spending hundreds of thousands on lawyers.
Londoner Keith Best sold the home for £540,000 last week in an extraordinary coup for the squatter.
He began occupying the Newham, East London, flat in 1997 after noticing it was empty while working as a painter in the area.
Best sold the property despite never purchasing it after invoking squatter's rights.
But that only came after a legal row when the original owner's son wasn't left the property in his mother's will and didn't know he had to apply for control over it.
Best now says he is £255,000 in the red after spending £400,000 on legal fees.
Read more on News
‘TARGETED ATTACK’
‘Pregnant woman stabbed on school run’ by man known to her
BEAMING ROYAL
Kate laughs with kids before meeting Charles for first time since race storm
The 58-year-old also says he paid the original owner's granddaughter £245,000 in compensation.
Speaking to MailOnline, Best said he wasn't a thief and the legal battle with Colin Curtis had affected his health and cost him a lot of money.
"I had a very good job and was being paid £75,000 per year. But I lost it because of all the negative publicity at the time. I went to court eight times over the house, I was sick of it by the end. I tried to settle with the family [of Mr Curtis] before it even came to court."
Curtis's mother, a pensioner, had lived in the Newbury Park home until the mid-1980s, but then died.
Most read in The Sun
NOT ROSY
Reason I’m A Celeb’s Nella had no one to greet her on the bridge after eviction
‘TARGETED ATTACK’
‘Pregnant woman stabbed on school run’ by man known to her
not all rosy
Mystery as Nella Rose ‘pulls out of I’m A Celeb interview’
DOUBLE TRAGEDY
Porn star dies just 2 weeks after ex-Palace footballer boyfriend
Her son continued to live there alone before moving out in 1996, leaving it empty and never coming back to check on it.
"He didn't care about the house, never went there and he didn't even know about it. He wasn't poor. He inherited another property and never went back to the house in Newbury Park," Best told MailOnline.
The retired builder said he had since spent £150,000 of his own money doing up the property.
In 2012, Best was able to apply to take the property rights through a little-known process.
Best applied for 'adverse possession', through which a squatter can legally take get rights of the property if they can show they have controlled it for about 12 years.
He was initially turned down by the Chief Land Registrar as his claim came just a few weeks after squatting was criminalised.
But, that decision was overruled in 2014.
"Under the law I had a right to make this house mine so if anybody has a problem with that, they should be angry at the law, not me. I've done everything by the book. Nobody was cheated and I legally got what was mine."
Curtis then launched a counterclaim in the courts, which was dismissed. He died in 2018.
What rights to squatters have?
Squatting is illegal in residential buildings with the potential for a six-month prison sentence and/or a £5,000 fine.
It is also a crime for a squatter to damage the property, fly-tip, steal from the property, use utilities without consent and not abide by a noise abatement notice.
But, they can become the owner of a house if they have occupied a property for about 12 years.
Squatters then have to fill in a form for 'adverse possession', complete with a statement of truth prepared with a solicitor, which will be decided by HM Land Registry.
The owner has 65 days to object and if they do, the application is normally automatically rejected by HMLR.
Squatting in non-residential properties isn't a crime.
Source: Read Full Article
