Claim title of ownership through adverse possession?

"can you claim adverse possession if you rented but did all upkeep and paid all taxes for 8 years? we are in florida"

Adverse possession laws do not simply give people the property they live in just because they have been there. There are very specific reasons to use this legal tool.

If you rent from someone for more than the adverse time frame does not give someone the right to get a house for free. The lease itself is the vehicle for someone having the right to rent a property. If you could get it through adverse possession then noone would get to keep their properties from renters. Why would anyone buy a home they could just rent for 3-25 years and get the house for free.

can my neighbor claim owenership of the right of way in front of my house? he has extended his driveway 43 feet into my frontage. is that legal?

can my neighbor claim owenership of the right of way in front of my house? he has extended his driveway 43 feet into my frontage. is that legal?

Not unless you let hom or do nothing about it. Contact an attorney to find out you roptions.

Good Luck
Brian

What about original possession by renting, although the lease agreement turned out not to be valid (owner never signed it) and owner has never received money for rent. Taxes are being paid by possessors, owner has not spent one dime on the residence in over 5 years (possessions have lived in residence 5 years, has maintained property and was required to make extensive repairs because the City cited the property as dangerous and run down, including putting on a new roof, an upstairs balcony (per City), landscaping (per City). Owner is not US residence, lives in Europe and has no intention of ever living in the house. He purchased house in 1986 and paid cash for it. Possessors have spent at least $100,000 for the maintainance and repairs to the residence. Owner knows the condition of the property, but puts responsibility onto possessors since he is absent from US. Possessors have lived openly in the house for 5 years, owner knows they are there but has only talked to possessors 2x in 5 years. How do you go about obtaining title by adverse possession once the delinquent taxes have bee paid? (Property is in California) Is it possible?

Hi Stacey,

According to the California laws, for adverse possession, one has to occupy the land and claim it for the period of five years continuously and should have paid all the taxes. The taxes include State, county, or municipal which was levied and assessed upon the land or property from time to time. If you fulfill all these criteria, you can apply for an adverse possession. But if there is a rent to lease agreement between you and the owner, then you will not be able to claim an adverse possession.

Thanks

can my neighbor claim adverse possession on a portion of MY yard that he was maintaining for the previous owner? I PAID for a house and my yard!

Hi wolfie!

Welcome to forums!

Laws regarding adverse possession vary from state to state. If your neighbor has maintained the property and paid taxes for it for a certain period of time (as mentioned in your state laws), he/she can claim the property.

Feel free to ask if you have further queries.

Sussane

I have part of a city street fenced off for 24 years, Now the city wants me to remove the fence for installing a sewer line for people moving in back of me. Do I have any rights?

I am on the board of a cemetery association in Arkansas. This cemetery is a public cemetery but no one was taking care of it. So we formed an association to take care of it about 4 years ago. We are trying to get a deed for it from the county, we have had it surveyed. One of our problems is the adjoining land owners over the years have fenced off 1 acre of the land that was suppose to be for the cemetery. The 2 1/2 acres was set a side in 1889 and we have all the deeds and tax records to back up our claim. Our problem is one of the land owners are kin to a circuit judge that has inferred in 2 burials and one association meeting. She has only been to the one meeting in 4 years. My question is can these landowners keep the one acre? I have read several place that adverse possession can not be taken on public property. It there different laws for cemetery? We have a meeting in the morning with the county attorney but he seems to know the owners to and doesn't seem want to do help us much either.

I believe a requirement of adverse possession is that the occupancy must have been adverse to the owner. IE: if someone gives permission or does not know you are on their land, you cannot claim adverse possession. If the owner knows you are on the land without their permission but does not take action to remove you and you treat it as yours, you can (assuming other conditions such as time period.)
Thus, if the owner did not know you were using the land as yours, you were not in "adverse" possession of it during that time.

I am not a lawyer; I did once have someone try to claim adverse possession of a portion of my property. They had been carefully mowing a patch of yard for years, with their plantings and maintenance giving the impression of a property line location significantly further onto our land than reality. When we purchased the property we had a survey done, though the state did not require one. We found the real property line and informed them of their error. They triumphantly claimed ownership since they had maintained it for more time than the adverse possession law required. Consulting a lawyer (both sides) revealed that since the previous owner had had given them permission, there was no possibility of adverse possession. My understanding of the discussion was that this would have been true also if the owner was completely unaware that they were using his land. Adverse possession requires actual ADVERSE possession.
I am unable to offer an opinion as to whether this might vary by state.

I don't understand the usage of "color of title" concerning adverse possession.

Hi Bastian,

It is true that any claim to title by adverse possession should be made under the color of title. It means a claim to title is made by way of a fact which is defective and also falls short of establishing the title to the real estate. However, on the face it appears to support a person's claim to title.

I live in Florida and my neighbor cleared about 75-100 fee into my wooded property in the back and built a shed has a road on my property which I did not know was on my property until recently. You can,t see it from my house. I saw an arial view on zillow.com and he is clearly using my property. How do I go about addressing this? Do i get a new survye, a lawyer or what? Adverse posession in Florida I read is 7 years and I don,t th

Welcome Lynne,

You should go for a new survey and also consult a real estate attorney in order to know what steps you need to take in this regard.