There have been recent important developments in Massachusetts in the area of what is called “adverse possession.” Adverse possession involves a person gaining ownership of a piece of property by occupying and using it for a period of 20 years without the permission of the record owner. Here’s an example: your property includes a back yard where your kids play and where you do some gardening. Your yard adjoins a large field that legally belongs to your neighbor. However, the neighbor does absolutely nothing to maintain or use his yard.
In the year 1999, you and your family extended your garden into a portion of the neighbor’s yard. You created a fenced-in garden that includes a portion of your yard but also part of the neighbor’s yard.
Under the law of adverse possession, you have potentially gained ownership of the aforementioned portion of your neighbor’s yard.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently handed down two decisions that break new ground, so to speak, in this area. These two new cases establish that something as mundane as performing yard work can be sufficient to adversely possess land.
In upcoming posts, I will be delving deeper in to these new decisions and what they mean for litigants in cases involving adverse possession in the Boston area and throughout Massachusetts.
Attorney Alex Hahn represents businesses and individuals in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. His biography is here.
