Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Squatters Rights; What are they in Cal. 2005

"Squatters' rights" is a slang term that usually refers to legal rights in real property that are acquired, over time, by uses that are initially trespassory.

The first of two main categories is adverse possession, whereby legal title to real property is obtained through five years of continuous, open and notorious and hostile possession, All of these terms have technical meanings. For example, "hostile" means "without the owner's permission" and not "warlike" or anything like that.

The second main category is prescriptive easement, in which an easement is obtained through continuous or repeated use for five years of someone else's real property, where the use is hostile (without permission). The main difference between the two is that a prescriptive easement does not require possession, but merely use.

Both categories require that the adverse possessor or user pay all the property taxes. This is where most claims of adverse possession fall down. Prescriptive easement claims usually survive the tax-payment hurdle because easements usually aren't separately taxed.

These principles are part of the law of California and, with variations, every other state, in 2005.

Obtaining title, or an easement, by these principles doesn't automatically get reflected in the public records, of course. A claimant must sue for a judgment which, when filed and recorded, will correct the record title to show the adverse possessor as the new holder of title or the prescriptive user to hold an easement.