A squatter took possession of a small fiber house before selling it for nearly $1.5 million. The huge sum was given to his widow.
Ross Paul owned the one-bedroom property in Gymea Bay, in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, for almost 50 years after Joseph Louis Saric died in July 1968.
The pair lived in a nearby suburb and Mr Paul was organising the funeral for the Croatian migrant when he died, but it is unclear whether the two men were friends.
Mr Paul later passed away in 2018, after which the executor of his estate initiated legal proceedings to allow him to sell the property.
He argued that Mr Paul owned the cottage by prescription, a term commonly known as ‘squatter’s right’.
New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Francois Kunc ruled in May that Mr Paul was the rightful owner.
He concluded that none of Mr Saric’s heirs had any right to the cottage as no one had claimed it and the 40-year limitation period had expired in 2009.
“It is proven that Mr Paul arranged Mr Saric’s funeral and that he treated Mr Saric’s fibro cottage in Gymea Bay as his (Mr Paul’s) own for the next 50 years until his own death in 2018,” Justice Kunc said.
The home in Gymea Bay in Sydney’s Sutherland region eventually sold for $1.5 million and the owner’s family got nothing in return.
Mr. Saric died of cancer in July 1968, in his mid-40s. The divorced man had not made a will and had lost contact with his family.
According to Judge Kunc, Saric died ‘without family and perhaps without friends’.
Mr. Paul took it upon himself to notify authorities of the death and held a funeral a few days later.
The judge ruled that Mr. Paul did everything a homeowner would do: he insured the house, paid the property taxes and utility bills, and split the cost of a fence with a neighbor.
Mr. Paul even rented out the house since 1995.
The court ruled that it was ‘highly unlikely that Mr Paul would have allowed the cottage to fall into disrepair’.
In his ruling, the judge referred to ‘the possibility that Mr Saric told Mr Paul that he could have the house, perhaps in exchange for the care that Mr Paul provided him’.
But he said there was no evidence for this.
Judge Kunc ruled that ‘the precise nature of the relationship between Mr Saric and the deceased Mr Ross Paul is not apparent from the evidence’.
Cathy Sherry, a professor at Macquarie Law School, told the Sydney Morning Herald this was “a fairly typical statute of limitations case”.
She said it showed how “people can lose sight of the land and their families”.
The court heard that Mr Saric may have outlived his mother and at least one sibling.
Ms Sherry said that after Mr Saric’s death there was “no doubt” his family would have a claim to the house, but “as with all claims to land there is a time limit – and they did not claim it within the required time”.
The judge ruled that Mr. Paul did everything a homeowner would do: he insured the house, paid the taxes and electric bills, and split the cost of a fence with a neighbor.