We are faced with an "adverse possession" suit over two feet of our personal property. The plaintiffs have cut the grass on this piece of our property off-and-on, but no improvements made. We had the property line surveyed last year and erected a fence, all to city code.

Any suggestions???

take the survey to court with you.

consult a lawyer as well as gather any proof you have (survey, receipts, etc)

It's pretty difficult to take someone else's property by adverse possession unless they've pretty much abandoned it.

To prevail in an adverse possession action the plantiffs will have to demonstrate to the court that they held "open, notorious, and hostile" possession of your property for the specified period of time in your state and that you did nothing to stop or prevent them from doing that.

In Ohio, the time period is 21 years. In addition to the things Jim mentioned (open, notorious and hostile), they also need to have had "exclusive" use of the property.

Rappd,

We covered this specific issue an a class recently... The hostile issue is the best issue to press. If you allowed the neighbors to mow the lawn all that time, they were effectively licensed by the rightful owners to do so. A license can be revoked at any time by the lincenser, so, think back and see if you've ever willingly allowed the neighbors to mow that section of the lawn.

But they're right, it does take 21 years of open, notorious, hostile, and exclusive use.

BTW, unless you have a dresser or something at the property line, the property you're referring to is Real, not Personal...

Good luck!

I made a mistake... I shouldn't have said "Best" issue to press.. I should have said a good issue to press... I don't know the BEST issue to press, I'm not a lawyer...

In Georgia & CA; it not ony has to open and notorious but they have had to pay the property taxes on the property also. So check with the county.