How Your Neighbor Can Legally Take Your Land

There is a twist to an adverse possession claim in New York City, according to WCBSTV. The claim isn't for an encroachment of a neighbor's property, but for a four acre parcel, owned primarily by the city of New York. The man moved his business onto the land back in 1995 and now the city wants him off. He's claiming ownership via adverse possession. The city asserts that adverse possession does not apply to city owned land.

Adverse possession is an interesting quirk in real estate law, which allows a person to take ownership of property, most commonly their neighbor's. Back in July there was a rally in Bolder Colorado, protesting adverse possession.

The law goes something like this: if your neighbor encroaches on your property, maybe by building his fence a few feet over the property line, or plants a small vegetable garden on the far corner of your land, without your permission, and this continues for a specific length of time (ranging from 5 to 30 years, depending on the state), one day that neighbor can claim ownership to that chunk of property. If he was using the land with your permission, that would be a different story.

The landowner who sits by, and ignores the fact that a neighbor, or someone else is using their property, is in jeopardy of loosing ownership. Typically, for an adverse possession to be valid, it must meet the following criteria: Open, meaning it is an obvious occupation, clear for anyone to see. Notorious, meaning the occupation is known by others. Continuous and uninterrupted, meaning the occupation continued for the length determined by state law. Hostile, meaning the owner did not grant the neighbor permission to use the land. And adverse, to the original owner's possession.

To claim title of the land, the claimant would usually file a court action to receive undisputed title. Recently, in Ohio, one resident was awarded a section of their neighbor's yard. The claimant had unknowingly continued their landscaping onto the neighbor's property. Years later, when the neighbor had a survey and realized that the landscaped area was on their property, they asked for the items to be remove. Instead of complying, the infringing neighbor filed a claim of adverse possession, and received legal title to the strip of land that they had been using for all those years. This was done with no financial compensation to the neighbor.

Adverse possession is a controversial point of real estate law, and for some citizens, as those in Bolder, a law worth protesting.