Squatter's rights;

[Jstpssng]

The topic comes up occasionally so I thought I would post this here. Note that he hadn't visited his property "where he had played in his childhood" in 20 + years.

MSN

Years ago a friend of my father told of a doctor who went down to a piece of property on the ocean which he hadn't visited in years. He found a house had been built on the land. I've always wondered what came out of that.

 

[Torvy]

I 100% hate this idea. If it were up to me, squatters rights would be declared unconstitutional. Essentially, it is government taking without compensation (5th Amendment violation). Just because the government isn't keeping the property doesn't change the fact that the government is taking it from the owner and giving it to someone else. This should not be confused with taking due to unpaid taxes (though they should still be required to pay the remaining market value to the owner).

 

[ddbackhoe]

Squaters rights, what a frickin crock

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Sounds like another episode of "SSS" to me...

...and that's all I'm going to say about that.

 

[scootr]

I had some first hand experience with a similar experience when I bought the ranch where we live in CA. The property is a big pie shaped parcel. Turns out the original fence line on the south line was incorrect. The fence company had used a street marker instead of a property line marker accidently adding 1.25 acres of a neighboring parcel to this parcel. A gate was added in the same area to allow access due to a creek separating this area from the main section. This section and the enclosed neighboring property was maintained and used as pasture.
We bought the property 20 yr afterwards and continued the same use and egress. Fast forward a few years and a house was built on the adjacent parcel. The new owner informed me that his surveyor shows my fence on his property. He requested we move our fence to the new marker they set. A discrepancy of about 150' less road frontage.
My sister happens to be a real estate lawyer. So I asked her about this mess. She presented me with a 7 page summary that basically would prove the land was ours to keep because the property in question was fenced with an active egress and was maintained along with improvements and use for so many years. Crazy I know.
In our case we allowed the new neighbor to hire a professional fence company to move the fence to the correct location.

 

[Have tractor did travel]

Scootr: Your resolution of the issue was well handled. No need to make any enemy, let along your next door neighbor. Land likely didn't have much incremental value to your property, whereaa neighbor felt it was his, he paid for it, and would have been stuck in his craw forever,

 

[tradosaurus]

The topic comes up occasionally so I thought I would post this here. Note that he hadn't visited his property "where he had played in his childhood" in 20 + years.

MSN

Years ago a friend of my father told of a doctor who went down to a piece of property on the ocean which he hadn't visited in years. He found a house had been built on the land. I've always wondered what came out of that.

I wonder if squatters rights would work on government land?

 

[scootr]

I wonder if squatters rights would work on government land?

Ha ha ha - I'll bet not. And a quick google search nets this " Property that is held under the state and local government is exempt from adverse possession actions."

 

[Oaktree]

According to the law in my state; "In order to obtain title by adverse possession, the adverse possessor must prove, by a balance of probabilities, twenty years of adverse, continuous, and uninterrupted use of the land claimed so as to give notice to the owner that an adverse claim is being made."

20 years is a long time. If the landowner in the instance the OP linked to didn't care enough to visit his property even once during that time it's understandable that it might be considered abandoned.

 

[scootr]

Imagine you inherit a land parcel at the beach only to find somebody built a house on it 20 yrs ago...and it's not really yours now.
There might be a fire.