Adverse possession is a way of acquiring title to real property by physically occupying it for a long period of time.  As strange as it may seem, you may acquire property without the consent of the actual title holder if you possess it long enough and meet the legal requirements.  The adverse possessor, or the person occupying the land, may or may not be aware that the land belongs to another.  Under the law, the occupier’s knowledge is irrelevant which makes this type of possession more common often than people realize.  Some examples include: where a home owner puts up a fence based on an erroneous survey, and no one catches the mistake for many years; a neighbor parks his RV on the vacant lot next to his home for years and the subsequent purchaser does the same but builds a garage on the land believing the land is part of the property he has purchased.  The error may not be discovered until a purchaser attempts to build on the land, partition off a portion of it, or have the land surveyed.

Watch this video, featuring Platt & Westby, P.C. attorney, Andrew Rahtz, as he explains how to know when adverse possession has occurred. Learn more about adverse possession