Guest Post: Absentee Landlords Post SHTF

by Jack

Hear are a few ideas for using public records to identify absentee landlords in your area for properties that would likely be abandoned by their owners post SHTF:

You can get the property records online from most county tax collectors, and you can see where the property address is, AND where the mailing address is for the property owner. When these two don’t match, the property is usually owned by an absentee landlord.

If the mailing address is out of state, that property has potential in a TEOTWAWKI situation. In the event of a massive disaster, i.e. EMP, super-volcano, limited nuclear terrorist strikes, owners who live in NY, DC, LA, etc. are probably not going to make it to their undeveloped property that’s 1000 miles away. “Adverse possession” is a legal, common law method for taking what would be essentially abandoned property in such an event.

Every state has different laws, but essentially, you just have to use it as if you owned it for a period of years, and then the property will legally belong to you. You are not stealing, or taking anything from anyone who would be using it, you are simply following established law to keep property productive.

If the mailing address is out of state, that property also has potential in a minor or personal SHTF situation too. You may be able to use it for hunting, to harvest firewood, use it for hidden gardens, or camping, or even attempt to take “adverse possession” since non-residents may not even check on the property for years in an economic or slow slide scenario.

Trespassing is a crime, however, usually you have to get at least one warning, and the OWNER has to file the charges against you after you violate that warning. If the owner is fried by a nuke in NYC, the chances of him coming to file charges are negligible.

To stop the Trolls: I am not advocating the violent or malicious theft of anyone’s property. I am talking about legally taking property that is essentially abandoned due to societal collapse by using the ancient right of “adverse possession”.