Adverse Possession

Adverse possession is a common law doctrine under which a person who occupies land without the permission of its legal owner can, after continuous possession for a period fixed by statute, acquire legal title to it in place of the original owner. The possession must be actual, open and notorious, exclusive, adverse to the true owner's interest, and unbroken for the whole statutory period, which ranges roughly from five to forty years depending on the jurisdiction and the type of property involved. Once every requirement is met, a new title is treated as springing up in the possessor, and the original owner's right to recover the land is extinguished. Civil law systems reach a similar result through the related doctrine of usucaption, or acquisitive prescription. Legal scholars justify the rule on several practical grounds: it cures defects and resolves minor errors in chains of title by putting a time limit on disputes, it encourages productive use of land by favoring an active occupant over an owner who has effectively abandoned the property, and it recognizes that a long-term occupant often comes to value land more than an absent titleholder does.