Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Your Investment Property Could Be Someone Else's Before You Know It: How to Protect Yourself Against Squatters

By Adam Ciboch


Have you checked in on the properties you own but don't live in consistently? It's definitely worth the time to verify your properties remain unoccupied or that tenants have moved out when they were supposed to, even if it sounds strange or silly. A squatter is someone who is living in your home without permission. There are several ways to approach the matter.

A squatter can exercise their rights by obtaining a title in someone else's property without paying or compensating the actual owner. Squatter's rights are considered a smaller subset of the legal concept of adverse possession. In the event that property is taken possession of in direct conflict of the actual property owner by another person or even a business in some instances, adverse possession laws then proceed to apply.

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.

The first thing a squatter must do is retain actual possession of the property for a time that is mandated by the statute of the state in which the property is located. This is a period of seven to fifteen years in most states. As opposed to just having a token verbal claim, actual possession requires a physical presence on the property. The second criteria requires open and notorious use by the squatter on the property. It strengthens the true landowner's claim that the squatter did not meet the requirement that the property be used openly and notoriously if no one sees a squatter using the property. Exclusive use of the property must also be established by the squatter. The squatter must appear to be the real and true owner by acting in accordance with that belief and excluding other people from the property. If the squatter uses the property in a way that implies he or she is some kind of agent or was given permission by the true owner, the squatter can no longer retain their claim to the property. The property must lastly 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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