Whether you own a small home outside of Philadelphia or a large plot of land in Bucks County, Pennsylvania property owners should be aware of the doctrine of adverse possession. If you have neighbors whose land borders yours, and who start to cross the property line and use portions of your land, those neighbors might be able to gain legal title to those portions under this legal doctrine. Or, a trespasser can also essentially squat on your land and eventually claim legal ownership.
There might also be situations in which you yourself need to assert an adverse possession claim over land that you feel you've developed a right to use and want to continue using.
To make sure that your existing land remains yours; that is, that a neighbor or trespasser can't lay claim to a portion of it after having encroached on it for a while; it's worth familiarizing yourself with Pennsylvania's laws on adverse possession.
The concept of adverse possession developed in early Britain, and has persisted as a way to achieve a fair result when one owner has neglected or forgotten about a piece of land while another has been using or caring for it for a long time. The idea is that forcing the person who is actually using and caring for the property to depart would be unjust, and create hardship.
Because adverse possession law is developed by state courts, it differs slightly from one state to the next. Pennsylvania courts don't make adverse possession easy. They repeatedly emphasize that they assume that a person who occupies the land of another does so with the latter's consent. In other words, it's up to the trespasser to prove a claim of adverse possession by clear and convincing evidence. The legal holder of title is the presumed owner until the adverse possessor can meet that burden of proof.
Also, adverse possession is impossible in Pennsylvania within the boundaries of a planned community, such as a condominium development (See 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 5527.1(f)).
Like in most states, adverse possession in Pennsylvania can be proven based on the character of a trespasser's possession and the length of time he or she possesses the land. While some aspects of adverse possession are spelled out in local legislation, courts dictate the elements that a trespasser must establish. A trespasser's possession must be:
For example, imagine that Barry and June live next to one another in Bucks County. There is no dividing fence or apparent boundary between their yards. Barry builds a shed that is actually on June's side of the property, covering about ten square feet of earth. June says nothing, though she surely saw the shed. Barry uses the shed as if it were on his own land. He does this for ten years. Under the rubric described above, Barry can probably establish that he "owns" the land on which he was encroaching. From June's perspective, she could have stopped Barry by demanding over those years that he remove his shed, or sign a rental agreement, which would make the use an agreed-upon one, rather than a "hostile" one. But Pennsylvania courts will not allow her to suddenly eject Barry after sitting on her rights for a decade.
Also see What Can You Do About a Boundary Dispute With a Neighbor?.
A trespasser does not necessarily need to occupy the land for the entire ten-year statutory period. Sometimes, courts will allow "taking on" of a previous trespasser's occupancy of the land if there is a chain between them. In our example above, imagine that Barry sold "his" shed property to Ben after 7 years. If Ben inhabited the shed under all of the other adverse possession requirements for an additional three years, he would be able to claim title to the land against June.
What if you're a property owner and notice that a trespasser is on your land? Or you notice that your neighbor seems to be encroaching on part of your yard? Your first step, of course, is to speak with that individual and remind him or her of your property boundaries.
But if the encroacher refuses to move, you might need to file an action to quiet title. This is essentially a judicial declaration that you own the land, and your neighbor or other encroacher does not. This sort of court order can come in handy, particularly if you're looking to sell your property and need to give assurance to a prospective buyer about your boundaries.
In Pennsylvania, one may not use the adverse possession doctrine to acquire title to property owned by the federal or state government. In other words, if you live alongside a national park in Pennsylvania, like Gettysburg, you cannot seek to expand your yard by "possessing" part of the parkland for ten years.
Need a lawyer? Start here.