They are a well-off Christian couple – he is a respected school teacher, she is a rising singer-songwriter … and both seem like the last people you’d suspect of living in someone else’s home without paying a cent.
But Jeremy Hubbard and Rachel Savage found themselves at the centre of a media storm this week, after revelations they were living rent-free in a $2million century-old home in the exclusive Perth western suburb of Shenton Park.
There is speculation the couple were laying the groundwork to claim the property under rarely-used squatters’ rights laws, particularly after Google Streetview images made it clear the couple had given the decaying 107-year-old home a makeover – a necessary part of making such a move.
The family seemingly erected a new white picket fence, mowed the lawn, planted some shrubs and spruced up the property’s fading frontage, eventually raising the eyebrows of locals, who remembered the elderly owner who long ago moved away.
Mr Hubbard and Ms Savage have gone to ground, deleting their social media pages. All they have said publicly is that they were living at the home lawfully. But the owner believes the couple were following the typical pathway of an adverse possession property claim.
It is a rarely used but entirely legal pathway to take ownership of someone’s property simply by occupying it for a lengthy period of time – in most states and territories of Australia, after 12 years.
However, such a claim comes with strict conditions – in Western Australia, a squatter must openly live on the property, make changes to it and not have the consent of the owner.
And, while many have tried, there are very few cases of it actually succeeding in Australia – with one being that of a wealthy property developer who seized a derelict home in Sydney’s western suburbs and made a tidy profit.
Jeremy Hubbard and his wife Rachel Savage (pictured) have moved out of the home the owner said they were squatting in
In 2020, the property was looking worse for wear – the front lawn was overgrown and a dilapidated white picket fence had been removed
2024: Google Street View shows the couple seemingly made improvements to the Shenton Park home including putting up a white-picket fence and planting shrubs
What we know about the couple
The couple are widely known in local circles. Ms Savage, a pop singer, has featured at Los Angeles’ iconic House of Blues, and collaborated with Grammy-winning producers like Rob Elmore (The Veronicas, Selena Gomez).
Her husband, a devout Christian and Kings College teacher, was equally admired.
The couple seemingly knew the Shenton Park property was vacant because they were living just metres away, on Austin Street, in the same suburb.
And they clearly had warm feelings toward the property because, in 2022, Ms Savage posted a handwritten note to its owner, Marilyn Watson, proposing to purchase her ‘beautiful’ home.
She said she would be ‘honoured’ to acquire and care for it.
The couple (pictured) have not publicly spoken out about what occurred, except to say they were living at the property lawfully
A removalist truck is seen emptying the Keightley Road property last week
The home was left vacant in 2010 after it was damaged in a hailstorm and Ms Watson moved to the seaside town of Mandurah, 75km south of the Perth CBD.
Ms Watson, now 81, had no idea how the couple managed to track her down to get in touch, but never accepted their proposal.
In December 2021, the local council, the City of Subiaco, issued an untidy notice on the vacant property with the warning pinned to the front door of the home.
The overgrown yard and crumbling house stood in sharp contrast to the neatly trimmed lawns and white picket fences of its well-kept neighbours.
Ms Watson and her nephew, Greg Preston, claim the couple moved in without permission at some point, paying no rent and signing no lease.
After the story was revealed, a removalist truck was spotted at the property, and the family appear to have left.
The successful squatter
In order for an adverse possession claim to be successful in WA, Sparke Helmore lawyer Andrew Ferguson said the use and occupation of the land must be continuous, and to the exclusion of all others, for no less than 12 unbroken years.
‘An adverse possession claim is highly technical, complex, and lengthy,’ he said.
‘In order to make a successful application for adverse possession, the overriding criteria that an applicant must demonstrate is that they have used, and occupied, the land in question in an open manner, their holding of the land is not a secret.
‘It has to be in a peaceful manner, they cannot hold the land by force in a way that is adverse to the actual owner. And the actual owner cannot have consented to the use of the land.’
It’s a hard claim to prove. In March lawyer and real estate agent Yael Abraham was ordered to vacate two Rozelle properties she had been secretly squatting in.
Ms Abraham claimed to have been living in the properties since 2011, which would have given her claim of ownership under NSW adverse possession laws.
But a court found she failed to occupy the property in a ‘visible’ way, which led Acting Justice Michael Elkaim to rule against her.
One of the few successful adverse possession cases is Sydney property developer Bill Gertos who claimed a Sydney home as his own.
Bill Gertos (pictured) claimed the house as his own after learning the previous owner had died
The property developer came across the freestanding three-bedroom house in Ashbury, in the city’s inner-west, in 1998 when he was visiting a client.
Mr Gertos learnt the elderly woman who lived at the home had died. It was derelict and he decided to take it as his own, changing the locks, repairing the roof and adding $35,000 worth of renovations.
Mr Gertos spent almost two decades renting the property out and eventually, in 2017, applied to the state’s Registrar-General to be named as the owner of the land.
That was challenged by two of the owner’s grandchildren in the NSW Supreme Court, which eventually ruled that Mr Gertos had ‘been in factual possession of the land with the intention of possessing the land’ since the late 90s.
Mr Gertos sold the property for $1.4million in 2020. And while he invested in the property’s upkeep, he never had to pay a cent to own the property.