Homesteading (aka "adverse possesion") Laws, State

[onemoretime]

now i see the light

[Marlpants]

[quote:f9c6cfa781="Harrifer"]So that's the same as squatting? In the UK I beleive it is 14 years, but all you need to do is live there and have evidence. In addition to that it can take a long time to be evicted.
[/quote:f9c6cfa781]

It used to be like that. The legal position was that the legal owner of the land had the right to kick you off his land, but if he didn't use it for 12 years then the courts wouldn't enforce that right. Since the Land Registration Act 2002, though, adverse possession isn't worth much. That law means that unless you're the registered owner of the land, it isn't your land... (so if you paid for it and forgot to register, tough) and it also means that "adverse possession" merely amounts to the right, after 12 years or so, to ask the legal owner if you can be registered as the legal owner. And he can say no. Oh, and now there's a bill going through parliament trying to make squatting a criminal offence too- rather than purely civil.

But hey, it's only illegal if you get caught, and the legal owner needs a county court order to get you off his property. And court orders take time.

I stress that this is the situation in England. I am entirely ignorant of the law elsewhere.