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Adverse possession in common law, and the related civil law concept of usucaption (also acquisitive prescription or prescriptive acquisition), are legal mechanisms under which a person who does not have legal title to a piece of property, usually real property, may acquire legal ownership based on continuous possession or occupation without the permission of its legal owner.
For example, in Tennessee law, tax map boundaries can become property boundaries (notwithstanding a survey and deed to the contrary) merely by paying the taxes on the land for twenty years in the belief that it was part of the ownership, even if it encompasses adjacent gaps and gores. See adverse possession.
Adverse possession is a legal concept that occurs when a trespasser, someone with no legal title, can gain legal ownership over a piece of property if the actual owner does not challenge it within ...
Land in the Regular System may be lost by adverse possession (including squatter's rights, encroachments, and public trespassing) but land with registered title cannot be lost by adverse possession or other prescriptive means. "'No title, right or interest in, to or across registered land in derogation of that of the registered owner shall be ...
Anyone hoping to claim any one of thousands of foreclosed homes in Florida through adverse possession -- simply squatting on the land for several years to obtain title to the home -- are out of luck.
Usucaption is a method by which ownership of property (i.e. title to the property) can be gained by possession of it beyond the lapse of a certain period of time (acquiescence). While usucaption has been compared with adverse possession, the true effect of usucaption is to remedy defects in title of lands that are without encumbrance on them.
Rather, common law recognizes and rewards adverse possession as a form of undocumented ownership of neglected land (which becomes documented when it is challenged or registered by deed or survey or otherwise), suits for trespass or ejection from land against which deeded rights are grounds or defense.
Property can be considered lost, mislaid, or abandoned depending on the circumstances under which it is found by the next party who obtains its possession. An old saying is that "possession is nine-tenths of the law", dating back centuries. This means that in most cases, the possessor of a piece of property is its rightful owner without ...