How do you prove adverse possession?
There are generally five things to proving adverse possession. It depends on the jurisdiction, but there are four or five things you're going to have to prove in order to obtain title to somebody else's property by adverse possession. The first thing that you're going to have to prove is that you have possessed it under either a claim of right or colour of title. Claim of right simply is basically trespass, meaning that you've been using it. You claim the right basically through possession; because you are a trespasser, you have a claim of right. Colour of title means that you actually have some instrument; a deed or something like that, but it's defective. For some reason, it wasn't effective, but you have this piece of paper under which you are trying to claim title, and that's considered colour of title. The second thing that you're going to have to prove is an actual open and notorious occupation of that other person's property in such a manner that it gives notice to the true owner that you have been occupying it. It can't be a secret. The whole point of adverse possession is that the world knows about it. The true owner knows about it because you cannot obtain title through adverse possession without this notice that's implied by your occupying that property. The third element of adverse possession is that it has to be exclusive and hostile to the true owner. In other words, you can't be there with the true owner's permission and then end up owning his property. Consent is a complete defence of the true owner to your adverse possession claim. So, your occupying that property is going to be exclusive. It's got to be just you, and it's going to be hostile to the true owner of the property. The fourth element is an uninterrupted and continuous possession of that property for whatever the statutory period is in your state. It's what we call the prescriptive period.
