Walker signs bills affecting adverse possession

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Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday signed into law legislation meant to give property owners more protection from trespassers who can take over their land through adverse possession.

The state’s adverse-possession statutes let a person who may not have title to a particular plot of land nonetheless obtain ownership if he can prove three things: that he physically occupies the land, that he occupies it openly and that he occupies it separately from the person who does hold the title.

Current law gives property owners 20 years to file a challenge if they want to prevent such an adverse possession from taking place. The time period can be shortened for various reasons. For instance, if the person trying to take over the land has recorded a title claim to the property and has paid taxes on it, it falls to seven years.

The legislation Walker signed Tuesday gives owners an easy means of restarting the adverse-possession clock. With the approval, property owners can now interrupt adverse possessions simply by going to the local register of deeds and filing an affidavit challenging the action.

The proposal got off to a rocky start when critics argued that it — at least in a previous form — would have essentially eliminated adverse possession in all cases.

The bill was later amended partly in response to criticisms made by various organizations that had registered with the state as being opposed to it.

Also on Tuesday, Walker signed legislation that both prevents private citizens from using adverse-possession procedures to gain title to public property and prevents governments from using adverse possession to take over private property. Follow @TDR_WLJDan