Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Property Line boundary

The squatters' rights law is more properly known as the law of adverse possession, and it is part of our Civil Code. One of the requirements for acquiring title by adverse possession is that the claimant must have paid all the property taxes due and assessed against the parcel or portion of a parcel to be claimed.

Since parcels in urban areas are usually appraised and assessed based upon maps, surveys and legal descriptions rather than eyewitness impressions, your neighbor has probably been paying the taxes on every square inch that his deed says he owns. However, there are exceptions. I have actually been involved in a case where we were able to show, through the county appraiser's records, that a field study was done and the appraised value reflected what the appraiser saw rather than what the parcel description on record said.

I might add that courts are reluctant to adjust property lines based on mislocated fences in urban settings, and the judge would require solid proof that you met all the other requirements to establish an adverse possession, including an absence of express or implied consent by the neighbor to the location of the fence and your possession of the strip of land. Consent removes the adverse nature of the possession, which is one of the requirements.

There is also the theory of easement by prescription, which doesn't have the tax payment requirement because easements aren't usually taxed separately from the fee; but here again, courts nowadays are reluctant to recognize exclusive prescriptive easements because they have the same result as transferring fee title.

So, I'd say the answer is no; the neighbor can reclaim the land.

Re: Property Line boundary

Your question presumes (incorrectly) that you have ownership of the land. If the area bounded by the fence is your neighbor's land (per assessor), then you can only obtain title by specific statutory procedures (or by grant, which clearly is not at issue here). The procedure is called adverse possession, and one of the requirements is that you pay property taxes on the land at issue. In early times of the settlement of this country, and even after the Spanish land grants in California, it was possible to pay the property taxes of a parcel like this. But nowadays, with formalized records, title plants, assessor's maps, generally clear legal descriptions, and computerized documents, it is very difficult to pay property taxes on someone else's land without them knowing it.

In short, if you have not paid the property taxes on your neighbor's land (at least the disputed portion), then you do not have ownership by adverse possession.

At best, you have earned an easement. But you cannot have exclusive possession of the property, because by definition, an exclusive easement is tantamount to ownership of the property. California does not recognize such a result.

For more information, or in the event of litigation, seek out a qualified real estate attorney with experience litigating easements. We have several attorneys with such experience. Feel free to call or email.