The Expert Podcast

So, what is adverse possession and how does it affect real estate? How does it allow you to gain real estate or put your property at risk by losing real estate? Adverse possession is a legal term that involves the use of a property over a certain period of time and certain actions that allow you to become the owner of that property simply by using it in a certain way. The key to understanding adverse possession is that it has to be notorious, conspicuous, and continual.

What that means is if you rent a house from somebody for 10 years, you don't get to own it just because you lived in it for 10 years. That's where the word notorious comes in. You have to do something that is adversarial to the property; you have to take possession or be on the property without the permission of the owner, and you have to do it for a very long period of time. In most states, it's either five years or seven years, and it cannot be hidden. You have to do it out in the open. You can't secretly do it, because then it defeats the purpose.

A good example of adverse possession is this: let's say you live in a neighborhood and you have a fence between your yard and the neighbor's yard. If you live there for 10 years and then do a property survey, you find out that that fence isn't on the property line; it’s 2 feet on your neighbor's property. Well, because you have used that two feet—maybe you have a swing set there, a picnic table, or whatever—for 10 years, you may now have become the owner of that area because it’s notorious, meaning you did it without their permission, you did it out in the open, and you did it for a long period of time. Just because the neighbor didn’t know about it doesn’t change that.

If you're going to try to use adverse possession, you have to make sure you meet those three requirements. You can't just break into somebody's house, live there for two weeks, and say you own the house—that's called squatting, and that’s not how it works. Adverse possession is something where, over time, you may acquire property rights simply by being a possessor of the property, simply by being an occupant of the property.

At some point, you probably need to contact an attorney to file the right papers to become the legal owner. In fact, this article is from a law firm based in Oklahoma. However, you have to have an attorney near you if you want to do any title work in advance or get consulting. You can click the link below at actualhuman.com; we can talk to you about what your scenario might be and whether it might be applicable to adverse possession.

It's very important to understand the details, as there is a lot of wishful thinking and urban legends about how it works. Here’s another recap of those terms: possession has to be open, meaning it’s out in the open, not hidden; it has to be notorious, meaning it’s not something that’s allowed or permitted; it’s exclusive, meaning you’re not sharing it with somebody else; it’s hostile, meaning you’re not doing it cooperatively; and it’s continuous.

How long is continuous? In Oregon, for example, it has to be 10 years. You have to have an honest belief that it was reasonable under the circumstances. So, if you have a property that you've been using or maybe your property extends onto somebody else's, you may have a claim for adverse possession.

Here's a piece of trivia that might be of interest: Have you ever walked down a big city street and seen a skyscraper or a commercial building with the entrance steps blocked off with tape? Maybe there are three railings that divide the steps into three sections, and they put tape across one of them. The reason for it is they have a schedule that, once a year, they block off different parts of the steps because if they don’t, somebody could claim adverse possession for using those steps continuously without interruption, and they might lose ownership.

Smart commercial properties will block off parts of their building on a regular, rotating basis to make sure that they don’t lose exclusive rights to it. They can let the public use it, but if you let the public use it all the time without interruption, they might lose their rights due to adverse possession. That’s why you might see that occasionally. So, if you look and see it’s blocked off with yellow tape, and there’s nothing going on—no repairs or anything—why are they doing it? Adverse possession prevention is at play with that management company.

If you have questions, click the link below; we're glad to assist. Thank you for watching! Remember, you can access live one-on-one personal consultations with licensed professionals, including a private investigator, commercial insurance broker, certified real estate title examiner, and certified civil court mediator. If you need to talk to an expert in any of these fields, or even a licensed general contractor, you can click the link below at actualhuman.com and arrange a live one-on-one consultation where you can ask questions and get information about your situation. We’d be glad to help.