About 6 months ago, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s detectives rounded up a group of people who had allegedly seized homes in the area under the state’s Adverse Possession law.
Some of the homes had been burglarized and the locks changed, and in at least one case, a home had been seized under adverse possession, then put up for sale.
Last Sunday, deputies arrested two women they say were squatters who were using the adverse possession law in a scam to take over ownership.
Samantha Margas (pictured), 39, and Tami Robinson, 43, were charged with two counts of invasion by false personation, organized fraud, burglary, and grand theft. Their bails were set at $69,500 each.
Tami Robinson
Deputies were called to the 11,000 block of Laurel Brook Court on September 26th. The homeowner reported that strangers were living in his house.
That homeowner had left the home vacant due to a problem with the drywall. When he returned, Robinson had moved in, detectives reported.
Last Sunday night, deputies were called to a home on Crestlake in Riverview and found Margas, who said she had just moved into the home. She reportedly told deputies she had not purchased the home and wasn’t paying rent. She also allegedly reported that Robinson was filing for adverse possession, and she had a locksmith change the locks on the house.
In that case, the homeowner was serving at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, and had closed up the house before leaving town.
Deputies said what has been happening is someone breaks into an unoccupied house and then files paperwork with the court in hopes of using adverse possession to assume ownership.
Under Florida statutes, people can ask a judge to award them title of the property if they fix it up and occupy it for seven years while paying the taxes.
Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, Debbie Carter, said in some cases, the paperwork doesn’t catch up with the process of actually taking over ownership of the houses.
“In these days of so many abandoned and foreclosed homes, people are finding these houses, and claiming adverse possession.”
