# help?



## nobo (Sep 20, 2008)

a friend and i have been scouting out possible squats in the berkeley/oakland area for a few days now, just cruising up and down each street, writing down addresses and surveying the scene. we plan on re visiting those places when i actually re-locate myself back to the bay. im very interested in simply squatting a house, but im getting older and maybe looking for something a little more permanent...ish....is there a way to actually claim an abandoned house without buying it for market value? ive heard of some loop holes, like paying the back taxes on the house and that gets your name on the title at least, so its harder for cops to evict you. does anyone have any good tips besides "break in and squat that shit!"? like where to get information on a property..city hall? public library? im kind of starting at the bottom here, so any information would be great. ive definately squatted properties for short times before, but im looking to get a little more serious about it. thanks!


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## nobo (Sep 21, 2008)

cool, that would be a pretty ideal situation. im hoping that at least one of the houses will have a chill owner who would be down to let us fix up the house in exchange for a rent free living agreement. im also kind of hoping that the owners will be un reachable or deceased so we can claim adverse posession. i found out that in california it only takes 5 years to posess a house that youre homesteading in! 
ok, so ill find that public servant for berkeley. but what do i do? just walk into their office and say i want to homestead a property? or should i just ask who the owner is? is that information public? sorry, i really need someone to just hold my hand and walk me through this. haha. im trying though!


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## BrokeWhiteBoy (Sep 21, 2008)

You know what... this got me thinking... it would be cheaper than rent for me and a few people who are planning on getting an apartment or cheap house setting up base near SF... wonder how hard it would be to get a free or really cheap setup like that.


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## bikegeek666 (Nov 4, 2008)

this is a little old of a thread, but i'm looking into some of that shit now. in portland, there was a website you could look everything up in online. here that doesn't seem to exist, but i've found that the assessors office is at 1221 oak street, room 145. maps cost 3.00, but i don't know if that's necessarily the most important thing...you want the ownership information, which is free. other information could help, but i'm not sure just what you need to do to get it here...things like police calls to the house--if you find the cops have been called for other squatters, for instance, that can give you a clue as to how sketchy it might be. 

but in my opinion, the more you know, the better. the assessor's office is probably where you want to start.


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