June 28, 2011
The Little Squatter Who Could: How Shacking Up in Someone Else’s Property Can Potentially Make It Yours
Been to your vacation home or investment properties as of late? Maybe it sounds a little bizarre or random, but you as a homeowner need to visit your properties on a regular basis to ensure that they’re still vacation, on the one hand, and that any tenants to whom you may have rented actually moved out when they were supposed to. If someone’s living in your home without your permission, they’re called a squatter. Read below to see how to handle it.
By obtaining a title in real estate without paying or compensating the actual property owner, squatter’s rights are created. Adverse possession is the blanket under which squatter’s rights fall. Adverse possession laws kick in when an individual person or, in some cases, a business physically takes possession of property in a way that conflicts with the rights of the property’s true owner.
A squatter needs to take certain legal requirements in order to establish squatter’s rights. These steps are important to know so they can be combated in the event that you as a property owner have a squatter trying to claim title to your land.
First, a squatter must maintain actual possession of the property in question for a period of time mandated by state statute. In most states, this is a period of seven to fifteen years. Actual possession requires a physical presence on the property, rather than a mere verbal claim. Second, the property must be used in an open and notorious manner. If no one sees a squatter using the property, this strengthens a true landowner’s claim that the squatter did not meet the requirement that the property be used openly and notoriously. Third, the squatter must establish exclusive use of the property. This means that other people must be excluded from the property, as though the squatter was the real and true owner and acting in accordance with that belief. Fourth, a squatter retains no rights to the property if the property is used in a way that implies the squatter is some kind of agent or has permission from the true property owner. Lastly, the property must be used in a continuous and uninterrupted manner.
Adverse possession, or squatter’s rights, can only be obtained if all of these requirements have been met. It is absolutely essential to know the requirements to establish title by way of squatter’s rights so you can counter the actions and ultimately retain the title to your land if you are the true property owner, dealing with a squatter or holdover tenant on your property.
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