A Texas black man named Kenneth Robinson once managed to legally,? under Texas real estate law, claim an abandoned 350k house in Flower Mound, Texas.
You see, Texas has a little known real estate law on the books called “adverse possession.” Basically, if a property is deemed legally abandoned by the owner, someone could file for the adverse possession paperwork and start the process of legally claiming the property. That person has to then live in the property and maintain it for a period of 10 years.
In Robinson’s case, the house he claimed had been in foreclosure. The owner walked away from the mortgage and Bank Of America did not want to bother with it. This allowed Robinson to file the paperwork and start the process of claiming it under local real estate law. He only had to maintain it and live in it for 10 years without contest from the owner or the Bank.
Here was the brilliance in his plan. The owners would have to pay off the mortgage in order to evict him from their property. And the bank would have had to file an expensive lawsuit to get rid of him… Well, so Robinson originally thought.
Unfortunately for him, his white neighbors were not exactly supportive of his clever move. They filed complaints, tried to have him arrested for trespassing, and ultimately made enough noise for Bank of America to step in eight months later. The bank convinced a district judge to evict Robinson, and so the story concludes. But for eight months that man lived in a beautiful home for only $16.
Robinson’s story is a story of a man who learned how to use Texas law, also known as “the system,” to his advantage. When I think about stories like Baltimore, I wonder what would happen if those kids put their anger and energy into learning the real estate laws and loopholes like this man did? Imagine hundreds of black families claiming abandoned properties in wealthy white suburbs around the Baltimore area, and there being nothing their new neighbors could do about it. In my opinion, that’s when people really gain power. I take my hat off to Mr. Robinson; he truly deserves to be noted in the history books. I hope somewhere Native Americans watched this story with smiles and laughter.
Here are some videos on this story:
And here are a few words from the man himself, Kenneth Robinson:
