Squatting in Style in Douglasville

A man living in a Douglasville house he occupied without paying a dime is advising others on how to take possession of vacant homes.

Roderick Walker uses a Facebook page to promote his services under Georgia's adverse possession law.

Walker told WSB-TV all about his use of adverse possession, which is meant to resolve property disputes. He said the law allowed him to move in July into an abandoned three-bedroom, 2½-bathroom house on Mackenzie Court; the house once was valued at almost $300,000.

The process takes advantage of the high number of foreclosures and abandoned houses in recent years, many of which Walker said are fraudulent.

He said the paperwork involved in adverse possession has persuaded law officers to let his clients stay, although WSB talked to a man who was evicted and is fighting to get the house back.

The actual legality of what Walker is doing is questionable, but the state law does say that if you hold a property for seven years under adverse possession, that property is yours unless you took possession by fraud.