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Adverse Possession

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carrj

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Iowa

My family has farmed and maintainted a piece of ground for over 50 years. There is an adjoining lot that the current owner purchased about 5 years ago. Years ago the majority of the current land in dispute was a town with platted streets that are obviously long gone. The county within the last few years has deeded the platted street back to the owners on each side of the street splitting 50-50 from the center of the where thre street was. This has now got the owner wanting us to move our fence and stop farming their ground. Which in my opinion is not theirs. The county should have deeded the entire street to my family. We are talking about less than 1 acre of Agriculture ground. Does this person have any legal claim to this property? Can we claim adverse possession?
 


divgradcurl

Senior Member
Does this person have any legal claim to this property?
If the county owned the property, and then deeded it to this person, then yeah, that person would have a legal claim, because the property would be theirs.

Can we claim adverse possession?
If the county owned the streets, then no, because you cannot adversely possess publically-owned property (city, county state, etc.).

However, you might want to talk with a local attorney just to make sure you understand everything, and to make sure everything is on the up and up.
 

efflandt

Senior Member
One clue might be a county plat book or tax map. For example there is an easement for an alley at the back of my property (which is on my survey). And while I have not seen the plat map, I did look up my property on fema.org to make sure I was not in a floodplain, when refinance company got flood report for wrong county. The FEMA map clearly showed the alley, even though there is no alley, and maybe never was (but there is reserved easement for one).

I certainly would not be right claiming the entire non-existing alley instead of just my half of it. What makes you think you have more of a claim to the previous "public" roadway than other adjacent owners? Are you claiming more than your survey or legal description shows, or more than you paid property taxes for?
 

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