BY LINDA SUTTER
Recently I had a conversation with man who is in escrow and Limbo Land. The young man purchased 4 acres of land in the Smith River area, and it is in escrow. However, squatters have moved in, and are currently harvesting his timber as well as other things from the land.
There is an old house which was condemned by the county and also blighted by the code enforcement officer, which didn’t matter to the young man because he was planning to clean everything up. What matters is he can’t get any help with the fact that there are people on his land and he can’t do anything about it. He has called the Sheriff’s Separtment and spoke with Seputy McManis, who told him in no certain terms, shrugging his shoulders and spittin out some cud, nothing we can do about it. In fact, the future land owner got the impression that Deputy McManis didn’t even like him, to which I responded that Deputy McManis doesn’t like anyone. That’s what to expect from our public service people.
What needs to be done is a law created for these instances when everything is in limbo. Regardless who the owner is; whether it is a bank, or individual, when a house is abandoned yet owned by someone, there should be a law to protect the property from squatters before escrow is closed. You can bet if it was a realtor, or someone in the community that is considered of “high standing”, something would have been done to protect the land from squatters.
There are enough laws.
The Seller is the one who has the ownership rights until the sale closes. The buyer can give the Seller notice that the property is not being kept in the condition he agreed to buy it, and he will not proceed with the sale if something is not done immediately.
If timber is being cut, it belongs to the Seller today, and the Buyer can walk away from the deal, or he can demand he be paid an amount to compensate him for the loss (ie, lower purchase price or cash).
So why dosen’t the young man go ahead and tear the house down,post no trespass signs and evict them himself.Why insist on having someone else deal with it?The sherrifs office seems indiferent so handle the problem.
well Scott, because when you are in escrow you have no legal rights…and there are signs posted..and the sheriffs office needs to do their job.
But the sherrifs dept.cant or wont do their job,the squatters have no rights,so handle it and stop waiting for someone else to deal with it.The system is broken,individuals need to help them selves.
I know you mean it real but, one might go ahead and be firm. If they expect us to behave– we do ask the department be courteous to others, or I might send out an congressman to look into them reporting to congress, or the f.b.i. about our community rights, questions about the department behavior and ethical humanoids, and corruptions, or grand jury decision base on their records. I don’t like to do this but, it seems that every sense someone put a badge on them. They play a role of harassing others for no reason. Oh, well, that life, and yes they don’t get to go to heaven, maybe hell,if they don’t act right with others, lighting can strike any time sending them to no ware land, and they will not be home to eat dinner.
Regardless of the position of McManis, I believe that he does have integrity just poor bedside manner is the best way to describe it.
I don’t like a lacksidaisial attitude when something should and can be done to prevent squatters from staying on the land especially when it is posted…just need to enforce the do not trespass code, or at least show some support on the issue.
As far as McManis demonstrating a presence at the welfare service, he is law enforcement and I would not conclude that he is stealing from the public because he owns this and we see him there…some people get inheritance or acquire equity from relatives or other means.
I beleive Mr McManus is not a Deputy, but rather a Sergeant used to be an all around good cop… one of the best. Unfortunately, he’s shown his true colors to people like me, and friends of mine in the community.
I would use my real name, but i do fear retaliation from the department. He also owns more land than he should for a cop who may be collecting welfare.
He also has been seen repeatedly at Social Services, for which i am not sure why. I’d like to see an investigation from an outside agency against this department, but it’ll never happen.