After filing legal notice after notice in recent months with the Pasco County Clerk of Courts Office, Stephen Bybel has said he thought that was enough to allow him to take over unkempt property left to deteriorate during foreclosure proceedings.

Once Bybel, 48, "took over" 72 properties and spruced them up enough to make them clean, he rented out 31 of the homes, most located in central Pasco.

He was arrested this week by Pasco sheriff's detectives on one count of scheme to defraud. Authorities say he broke into vacant homes, changed the locks and rented them out. Pasco Sheriff Bob White said Bybel collected nearly $17,000 in rent in January.

Bybel maintains he's done nothing wrong and simply began a business that not only gives him an income but – more importantly – also helps clean up a community left in disarray by the economy.

He did so by pointing to a seldom-used statute called "adverse possession." In each of his Memorandum of Adverse Possession notices filed with the clerk, he named the owner of the individual property and stated "the property listed below was found to be vacant, abandoned, open, unsecured and a hazard and a nuisance to the community."

The notice stated that his company, Real T Solutions Investments LLC, had taken over the property "in the best interest of the community" as pursuant to Florida Statute 95.18. He signed the memos that included his address and telephone number and had them notarized.

Expert: Law found in every state

Adverse possession statutes can be found in every state, said Stetson University College of Law Professor Darryl C. Wilson. It is when one person can legally take another's property without paying for it. There are several requirements that have to be met to successfully possess property adversely and claim title, and each state's requirements vary.

Wilson said that the individual seeking someone else's property in this manner must use the property in the "highest and best" use; in other words, when found the property it isn't being used to its potential.

It could be a vacant parcel of land where junk has been dumped for years. It could be a rundown house that's become a flop house. There are several situations where the property isn't being used to its highest potential then someone comes along, cleans it up and makes better use of it, Wilson said.

The law is based on common law principles, he said. It's also known as "squatters' rights."

"Real property is such a valuable resource," Wilson said, "that we don't want to see it useless."

Before the title can be transferred from the original owner, several criteria must be met. The property must be openly and notoriously used by the title seeker; it must be used in a hostile manner (a person cannot have permission from the owner to use the land), it must be exclusively used, and it must be continuously used. In Florida, it must be used by the secondary person for seven years and that person, not the owner, must have paid the taxes on the property.

After all the requirements are met, Wilson said, it must then go before a judge, usually in a quiet title action case.

A person using the adverse possession statute is walking a fine legal line, the professor said.

"An adverse possessor is a trespasser," Wilson said. "The law is giving the owner time to kick that person off the property."

What if the person isn't kicked off?

"You're rewarded for getting away with it," he said.

Clerk: Not our job to scrutinize

Bybel didn't get away with it.

"He had obviously not been in continuous occupation of the homes for seven years," Wilson said. "So I don't know what was going on in his brain."

In theory, though, Bybel could have become the legal owner of the homes by the adverse possession statute.

According to Bybel, he did improve the property. But, he also said, he attempted to find the homeowners and seek permission to help them with their property – that right there would've negate the hostile takeover requirement.

Admittedly, Bybel has said, he knew he was operating in a "gray area," but he thought it was worth it to clean up Pasco. In fact, he said he thinks he was saving the county one house at a time while giving his tenants affordable places to live.

"I'm trying to help here," Bybel said Thursday. "Nobody else has got a good idea. Maybe this is not the greatest idea, but it's an idea."

He has another company name he registered with the state just last month: Save US Now Corp. A record check in Pasco didn't turn up any legal documents filed under that name, however.

After news of Bybel's arrest and business plan became public this week, some questioned how the clerk's office didn't notice that a rarely used memorandum was being filed. Pasco Clerk of Court and Comptroller Paula O' Neil said the document is labeled simply as a memo and thousands of different types of memos are regularly filed.

In addition, she said, it's not their job as clerks to scrutinize documents that come in.

"We don't practice law," she said.

A clerk's job is ministerial in nature. Simply put, they are required to record documents filed with their office. In 2009, her office indexed 663,596 names and recorded 500,550 pages related to 187,398 documents.

"We wouldn't have time to go over every document we record," she said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.