tort
Is intentional anti-gentrification a tort?
<p>Suppose I hire some homeless people to stand in a specific neighborhood. Housing prices drop. I then buy a house cheaply. What can I be sued for?</p>
<p>The best idea I had is that if I had them target a specific house being sold, <strong>and</strong> one of them committed a misdemeanor, then a plaintiff could argue that they should be found to be my employees and that they were furthering a business purpose in committing the misdemeanor, and I be found under vicarious liability.</p>
<p>Even with that idea, still sounds like a good way to buy some cheap housing.</p>
<p>There are many variants:</p>
<ul>
<li>What if I had no business motive; I just wanted to de-gentrify the neighborhood at no personal gain?</li>
<li>What if I give them a broader direction, e.g.: giving them a bunch of food and a bus ticket to Denver, and no further instructions.</li>
</ul>

<p>This is an interesting hypothetical. Depending on exactly what happens, you could be committing one of two torts, fraud or nuisance.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud#Civil_fraud" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>Fraud:</strong></a> If your stunt causes homeowners to panic and sell to you at a lower price because they fear the homeless are moving into their neighborhood, you have committed fraud. This is fraud because you have a) misrepresented the truth; b) the homeowner believed your misrepresentation; and, c) she was harmed by acting on your misrepresentation.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/private-nuisance.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Nuisance:</a></strong> If, however, your stunt causes other buyers to panic, and make lower offers, you have committed the tort of nuisance. This is not fraud, since the homeowner did not lose because she believed your stunt, but <em>because others believed your stunt.</em> This is a nuisance because your stunt imposed real and substantial loses on the homeowner, with no off-setting <em>legitimate</em> benefits to you.</p>
<p>Note: <em>You can commit nuisance, even if you do not personally profit from your stunt.</em></p>
<p>Interestingly, your scheme is almost the reverse of classic <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusting" rel="nofollow noreferrer">blockbusting</a></strong> of the 1950s and 1960s. Blockbusting real estate agents would get white homeowners to sell to them at low prices by telling them blacks were moving into the neighborhood. They would then turn around and sell the houses to blacks for higher prices.</p>
