http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession
Basic requirements for adverse possession
Adverse possession requires at a minimum five basic conditions being met to perfect the title of the disseisor. These are:
Actual possession of the property – The disseisor must physically use the land as a property owner would, in accordance with the type of property, location, and uses (merely walking or hunting on land does not establish actual possession). In Cone v. West Virginia Pulp & Paper, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Cone failed to establish actual possession by occasionally visiting the land and hunting on it, because his actions did not change the land from a wild and natural state. The actions of the disseisor must change the state of the land (in the case of non-residential property, taking such actions as clearing, mowing, planting, harvesting fruit of the land, logging or cutting timber, mining, fencing, pulling tree stumps, running livestock and constructing buildings or other improvements) or, if the property is residential, maintaining the property for its intended use (taking such actions as mowing the yard, trimming trees and hedges, changing locks, repairing or replacing fixtures such as a swimming pool, sprinkler system, or appliances), all to the exclusion of its true owner.
Non-permissive, hostile or adverse use of the property – The disseisor entered or used the land without permission from the true owner. Renters, hunters or others who enter the land with permission are not hostile. The disseisor's motivations may be viewed by the court in several ways:
Objective view — used without true owner's permission and inconsistent with true owner's rights
Bad faith or intentional trespass view— used with the adverse possessor's subjective intent and state of mind (mistaken possession in some jurisdictions does not constitute hostility)
Good faith view — a few courts have required that the party mistakenly believed that it is his land.
Open and notorious use of the property – The disseisor's use of the property must be so visible and apparent that it gives notice to the legal owner that someone may assert claim, and must be of such character that would give notice to a reasonable person. If legal owner has actual knowledge, this element is met; it can be also met by fencing, opening or closing gates or an entry to the property, posted signs, crops, buildings, or animals that a diligent owner could be expected to know about.
Continuous use of the property – The disseisor claiming adverse possession must hold that property continuously for the entire statute of limitations period, and use it as a true owner would for that time. The statute applies only to the disseisor's time on the property, not how long the true owner may been dispossessed of it (by, say, another disseisor who then left the property). Occasional activity on the land with long gaps in activity fail the test of continuous possession; courts have ruled that merely cutting timber at intervals, when not accompanied by other actions that demonstrate actual and continuous possession, fails to demonstrate continuous possession. If at any time during the statute of limitations period, the true owner ejects the disseisor from the land either verbally or through legal action, and the disseisor then returns and dispossesses him again, then the statute of limitations period begins anew.
Exclusive use of the property – The disseisor holds the land to the exclusion of the true owner. There may be more than one adverse possessor, taking as tenants in common, so long as the other elements are met. But if any time the true owner uses the land for any reason, adverse possession cannot be claimed.
