Becoming an Owner by Adverse Possession

• Author: Alan R. Romero
• Profession: Professor of law and Director of the Rural Law Center at the University of Wyoming College of Law
• Pages: 233-248

Chapter 14

Becoming an Owner by Adverse

Possession

In This Chapter

▶ Considering why adverse possession gives a person title to the land

▶ Examining the elements of an adverse possession claim

▶ Taking a closer look at the title obtained through adverse possession

A

ccording to the doctrine of adverse possession, if a person continuously

possesses land for a relatively long time in a way that manifests a claim

of ownership, she becomes the owner of that property even though it wasn’t

hers before. I’ve dedicated this chapter to explaining why the adverse

possession doctrine exists and which elements make up an adverse possession

claim.

Getting Acquainted with

Adverse Possession

Adverse possession may sound like a way for people to legally steal other

people’s land, but that’s not the point of the doctrine, even though it might

occasionally have that effect. The following sections reveal why adverse

possession gives a person title and the resulting requirements of the doctrine.

Clearing up ownership on the ground

People often possess land in good faith, believing they have good title to

it, but they really don’t. Here are some examples of how this situation can

happen:

234 Part IV: Acquiring and Transferring Property Rights

✓ A deed or other legal document describes the boundaries of a person’s

property, but people have to locate those boundaries on the ground.

Sometimes they don’t get the boundaries right. So a person may end up

mistakenly occupying some land that isn’t really hers.

✓ A person may receive a deed to property and take possession of it, only

to discover later that the deed is invalid because it wasn’t in proper

form, it wasn’t executed or delivered correctly, or it’s invalid for some

other reason.

✓ A grantor correctly gives a grantee a deed to property, but the grantor

doesn’t actually have the right to transfer it to the grantee because of

some prior and superior interest in the land.

The adverse possession doctrine gives the possessor good title after she

possesses it for a long period of time. The doctrine thus harmonizes legal

rights with what has actually happened on the ground, giving ownership to

the person who has acted like an owner and whom people generally would

think of as being the owner.

This may be unfortunate for the record owner, who loses ownership because

of another’s adverse possession, but adverse possession is helpful for many

others, such as

✓ The adverse possessor herself: After all, she has relied on her ownership

and made use of the property for a long time.

✓ Other people who may have taken interests in the land or otherwise

acted in reliance upon the adverse possessor’s apparent ownership:

Their investments and expectations won’t be disappointed.

✓ The general public: The public benefits from the adverse possessor’s

productive use of the land and from clearing up uncertainties about

ownership.

Applying the statute of

limitations to ejectment

Another way to think of adverse possession is as an application of the statute

of limitations to ejectment actions. As Chapter 2 explains, ejectment is the

cause of action by which a person with the right of possession can regain

possession of real property from a wrongful possessor. Statutes of limitations

apply to all types of actions, requiring a plaintiff to bring her cause of action

within a certain number of years after she first discovers she has a claim. If

the plaintiff doesn’t bring her claim within that statutory time period, which

varies for different types of claims, she loses her claim forever.