Has anyone ever been affected by Adverse Possession?

Question

Picture this...you buy a piece of property, have it surveyed, begin to build the house you've been saving money for...for the last 13 years. Your new neighbor comes over, introduces himself, and asked if he could buy a portion of the property? Your not interested. By the way, the property was for sale for 2 years. The SOB then decides he's going to take you to court....he wants to claim your land by Adverse Possession! Now, 2 years later, we both have attorney's, and major fees! If there's a Lawyer out there that can offer some hope....please answer!!!!!! Wondering if I should call the local news, and try to bury this guy?????HELP????

Answer 1

I have dealt with adverse posession before. Each state has different time requirements. However, I am wondering if you have title insurance: you may be able to claim against it.

As your lawyer may have told you, adverse possession requires (in most states) open, notorious, hostile, continuous and uninterrupted posession for the statutory time (about 20-50 years depending on the state). Generally all are required, if you can determine that at some point permission was granted to temporarily occupy the property, that would destroy continuity of the hostile or adverse nature of the posession. A suit for adverse posession is completely legal and is not necessarily an evil thing, as it was originally developed to encourage the development and transferability of land.

Good luck, I hope you have a good lawyer and title insurance. I'm also wondering if you have some kind of claim against your predecessor in interest - to the extent they were aware or should have been aware of this issue.