can I claim piece of land I've maintained 16yrs

[ussmomffg4]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? illinois
a piece of land joining our property line approx 15 to 20ft wide, on the other side is a large creek wooded on both sides of the creek. We have lived here 16 years, have planted trees, pets and extended our fence along the front of our house, about 3 sections extend onto said land. We have maintained this land from the time our house was build in 1994, never once has the owner of this piece of land maintained it, the owner is a developer that has a reputation for being obnoxious, he wants us to move our fence and says he is selling that piece of land along with a lot on the other side of the creek. No one could put anything on this ground there isn't enough room and would have to go along side my house to access it. Is their a law that would let us claim this as part of our lot after maintaining it so long and it being of no real use to anyone else. If it weren't for us this ground would be in bad shape

 

[justalayman]

The time period for adverse possession in Illinois is 20 years. Since it has been less than that time, you have no legal claim to the property. Since you have been notified to vacate the property, the accrual of time has ceased.

 

[FarmerJ]

Since current owner wants to sell it , even though there is a creek dividing it , You could ask the current owner if you could lease it via a long term land lease, current owner is free to accept and lease it to you , you can politely suggest to current owner the lease would never give you any legal option to make a claim against the property , a land lease would assure any owner that you will be maintaining the leased land so that way they wont be ticketed for say not controlling weeds if there is a local weed ord , current owner can say NO to a land lease , I would imagine a future buyer might ask a few times over the summer to access it from your property in order to mow it, but you do not have to tolerate anyone turning your property into a major throughfare to get to it via your property, for more frequent access they can #1 use waders / boots and cross the creek when it is not frozen # 2 use something to float across it # 3 if there is no law barring it they can build a foot bridge during drier periods / low water times to cross the creek to get to the part they do own.

 

[drewguy]

Or offer to buy it from the developer. Since you're not at the a.p. time limit you don't have a lot of leverage--if you did, you could "settle" your a.p. claim by purchasing the land at a discount.

As it is, given the creek it may be considered a less-desirable piece of land, unless there's some zoning regs. that make it beneficial to hold onto. Why not offer to purchase it from him? And if he's unreasonable, then go to the buyer and offer to purchase it from them.