Landowners have the right to keep trespassers off their property. People usually use fences or signs to prevent intruders from entering their property. But if someone enters your property without permission, then as a landowner, you have the right to call the police who will warn the person or make an arrest if necessary.
Keeping away trespassers from your property can become important in certain circumstances, as it can become a serious issue if the person claims legal right on the property. This practice is found to be in existence in Israel, especially in abandoned properties. So you should be really careful when acquiring abandoned lands as there is a great possibility for another person to claim the ownership of the land. Hence, when searching how to find abandoned property in Israel, you should also look for the presence of trespassers in the property.
What Is Adverse Possession?
You might be surprised to hear that a trespasser can occupy your land and gain its ownership legally in certain circumstances, which is known as “adverse possession”.
Through adverse possession, a trespasser will be able to acquire the ownership of just a few feet of land or even hundreds of acres.
Sometimes, the trespasser may not do it intentionally. It is possible for your neighbor to build a fence on your land because of a faulty property description. Here, he is not doing it intentionally, instead it is a honest mistake committed by relying upon faulty property description. This may not be identified by the owner of the land, however, it can become problematic when the owner is selling the property.
How An Adverse Possession Claim Ends Up In The Court?
Adverse possession can become a problem during the sale of a property. Hence, the owners and trespassers will have to come to a settlement before selling the property. But if they cannot settle the issue on their own, then such claims will be brought to the court. The landowner might sue the trespasser, or the trespasser might claim the ownership of the land.
When an adverse possession claim is filed in the court, the court will look for different factors to decide the ownership of the property. It will check whether the trespasser occupied another person’s land by mistake or was it intentional.
The court will also consider whether the trespasser actually possessed the land by being physically present in it. Another important thing that the court will check is the “open and notorious” possession, which means whether the trespassing was obvious to others.
Also, for a trespasser to claim the ownership of another person’s land, he should exclusively and continuously own it for a certain period of time without the intervention of a third party or the owner. All these factors will be evaluated by the court before deciding the ownership of the land.