A man in the U.K., who took over a retiree’s empty home in London and gained legal ownership of it under a “quirky” ancient Roman law, has sold the property for a profit, local media reports.
A British construction worker identified as Keith Best spotted an empty three-bedroom, semi-detached home in London’s Newbury Park back in 1997 while working a construction job nearby, according to Express. Best began renovating the property and ultimately moved his family into the home in 2012.
The house, however, belonged to retiree Colin Curtis, who lived on the property with his mother until the late 1990s, when he moved out. Curtis inherited the property, but under what has been described as a “quirky” ancient Roman law that allows “someone in possession of a good without title to become the lawful proprietor if the original owner didn’t show up after some time,” Best became the home’s legal owner, the Guardian previously reported.
Best had filed an application for adverse possession about a decade ago in order to legally obtain the property. The Chief Land Registrar initially denied the application following a law that criminalized squatting, but the ruling was overturned by the High Court in 2014 when a judge ruled the Registrar’s decision was “founded on an error of law,” the Daily Mail reported.
Hayat even balked at the home’s legal history and asked, “How can you just take over an empty house and make it your own, isn’t that theft?”
“It doesn’t make sense to me. How could the courts have just allowed him to become the legal owner?”
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