Successful adverse possession cases?

[michaelskis]

Ever sense I was a kid, I was aware of bits and pieces of land that where either not occupied, maintained, or controlled by anyone, but part of an adjacent property. Sometimes (as seems to be more common around lakes) these properties are not even owned by anyone.

I currently know of 3 different situations where someone is trying to claim adverse possession of a particular space of ground. Based on my understanding of the law, I doubt any of them stand a chance. From the way a former surveyor co-worker explained it to me, in Michigan, one of the standards requires both owners to have understanding and knowledge of the property lines and the person seeking adverse possession needs be able to prove improvement or occupancy of the land.

There is also a strange part of my property behind the back corner of my garage that is part of the neighbor’s property. It is full of garbage, brush, dead trees, and weeds. The adjacent property owner said that he will get around to cleaning it up soon… but soon was two years ago. Being this is a rental property, I might just ask him if we would be interested in doing a quick claim deed and I would write up new legal descriptions to acquire that part of the property (it would create a nice boxed corner and I can finish my privacy fence) in return I would clean up the that part of the property. It would make is rental property look better, make my property look better, and create a win-win for everyone. I figure he does not maintain it with the rest of the property, why would he want it?

[Maister]

You can always ask him of course if he's interested in quit-claiming his interest in that portion of his property and try to sell it as a win-win scenario, but don't be surprised if he says no. For some reason otherwise sensible/reasonable people have been known to get weird (as in fiercely territorial) when it comes to property lines that you'd never figured they gave a damn about.

It's quite possible in your case you may not be able to meet all of the criteria for adverse possession in Michigan: for a 15 year period.... the possessor's use must be open; continuous; exclusive; adverse; and 'notorious'.

I figure he does not maintain it with the rest of the property, why would he want it?

To use as a 'dump' silly!

[michaelskis]

You can always ask him of course if he's interested in quit-claiming his interest in that portion of his property and try to sell it as a win-win scenario, but don't be surprised if he says no. For some reason otherwise sensible/reasonable people have been known to get weird (as in fiercely territorial) when it comes to property lines that you'd never figured they gave a damn about.

It's quite possible in your case you may not be able to meet all of the criteria for adverse possession in Michigan: for a 15 year period.... the possessor's use must be open; continuous; exclusive; adverse; and 'notorious'.

To use as a 'dump' silly!

I know that I would not be able to acquire this property under adverse possession. As for his use of the property, I will be sure to note that it is a problem for several of the surrounding property owners, and a CODE VIOLATION, and that if he does not want to clean it up, I will be happy to take that corner off of his hands (since it is a strange bump-out into my property) and clean it up to help boost everyone's property values. Of course I will make sure that I wait until after I paint my house and correct any potential code violations I have on my property.

Most of my concern with this section of property is that it has become an attractive nuisance. There is about an 8 foot gap between my corner, (where my fence stops) and a wall that homeless people have been using as a pass through. In March, I found several coats, hats, and similar winter clothing piles back there (they had not been there the week before) and evidence that someone tried to break into my garage. Furthermore, the dumping has gone beyond brush into actual garbage and litter.

Ironically, last fall, several cuttings of my heavily thorned blackberry bushes ended up being spread, and partly buried in parts of this area. This has resulted in a partial deterrent as people don't enjoy walking through them as much. If I had control of this area, the fence would go up and the entire area would be occupied with large flowering hedges.

[B'lieve]

The only successful adverse possession case I've ever heard of was here in Maryland about 10 or 12 years ago: one family owned an island in the Chesapeake Bay, and another family (which may have had a minority ownership stake in the island, I don't clearly remember) had been granted the right to use that island for duck hunting in the 1930's or earlier. In all the decades since, the latter family had invested in improvements--not just duck blinds but a dock, tree planting, erosion-control measures to stabilize the shoreline, you name it--while the owner family did nothing at all except pay the property taxes, and I think the user family may have contributed to that (they definitely paid all permits and fees themselves.) When a descendant of the owner family tried to sell the island, I think to a developer (never mind the Critical Areas law that forbids development in most areas within 100 feet of the Bay shore and severely restricts development w/in 1000 feet of most still-undeveloped waterfront, which includes that entire isolated island) the user family sued. The case was resolved in their favor around the end of the '90s, based on three generations of improvements and investments versus the owners' documented neglect.