What are the laws regarding squatters rights in Pennsylvania?

Answer 1

We don't have anything called 'squatter's rights' in the United States. Squatters are trespassers and they have no rights during their period of trespass. If someone occupies your property without permission you should seek legal advice immediately and take the steps necessary to have them removed from your property. Any vacant property should be secured and checked regularly for unauthorized occupants.

In the traditional common law a person could obtain title to property through use. The common law has been codified under state and federal statutes. Under the various state codes, a person must use the land for a certain number of years, without permission and right out in the open for all the world to see.

If the owner does nothing she is considered to have abandoned the property and the adverse possessor can claim the land. The method of claiming by adverse possession varies from state to state. Some states require only that a notice be recorded in the land records. Other states require that an action be brought in a court of equity and if the plaintiff can prove his case the judge issues a court order that establishes title in the plaintiff.

If a person uses or lives on another person's land with permission, no matter how long, they are barred from making an adverse possession claim. The time period required in Pennsylvania for an adverse possession claim is 21 years.

Adverse possession has a dark side in American history when during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries black land owners were run off their land in several states, barred from returning and their "abandoned" farms were taken by adverse possession by others who were not in the minority.