Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia
Adverse possession
I have a stonewall along my driveway and it was placed there back in the mid '60's. Part of the wall is on a neighbors property. The neighbors property was sold for the fist time since I have lived here. The new owner is demanding I pay $10,000 for this small amount of land. It is my understanding that I can take possession of this land by ''adverse possession''. If I am correct what are the proper steps I need to do, and how quickly can this be done?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Adverse possession
No, you may not have necessarily fullfilled all of the criteria which are necessary in order to successfully claim the abutting strip of land by way of adverse possession.
The requirement that you have continuously possessed the strip in question (for the required 15 years)in a manner that was open, notorious, hostile and adverse to the claim of the owner of record appears to be missing in your recounting of the relevant facts for this situation. And, if in fact you had possessed the strip with even the tacit permission of the previous owner, that would likely be enough to completely unhorse your claim to the property by the remedy of adverse possession.
Unfortunately, in these cases of claims and counterclaims involving adverse possession, where the key facts may be somewhat nebulous, litigation quite often is the only way they're finally resolved.
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