Adverse Possession in Washington

Didn't know there was anything "new" about them. Has something changed?

As usual, the laws have seemed to me to be pretty clear, but finding a judge that understands them or a lawyer willing to educate the judge can be a problem.

The possession must be open, notorious, adverse and meet the 10 year time frame. Even then though title may pass, there may remain a cloud on the title until it is adjudicated. Has this changed?

> What is "new" about Washington's laws regarding Adverse Possession?

Lily v. Lynch 88 Wn.App.306, 945 P2d 727 (1997) seems to be cited in just about every Washington boundary law case these days, including this one just last week.

There is supposed to be a WSS ACSM meeting tonight With Robert Zierman speaking about the new law. We had about a foot of snow yesterday and today it's freezing rain so I doubt they will have it. This is a link to his blog

This is a copy and past from the e-mail:

> Robert W. Zierman will be speaking about the new law of Adverse Possession.

> Last year the Washington State legislature changed the law of adverse possession by giving courts discretion to award (1) reasonable attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party; and (2) taxes for 'lost land' to the title holder, the county assessor or both as deemed appropriate.

> Robert W. Zierman, Esq., who practices boundary dispute law and authors the blog www.boundarydisputelaw.com, will provide insight on the legislative process and its result. He will suggest how the new law may increase both settlements and gamesmanship. Most importanly, he predicts the new law will shift claims away from adverse possession to alternative boundary claim methods. Finally, he explains that for surveyors this will likely result in more dueling surveys.

I was going to go but I don't want to drive to Issaquah when the roads are like this. There are a lot of idiot drivers out there and most of them live in the Greater Seattle Area.....;-)

Let me know if you have any questions and if they reschedule, I'll see what I can do to find the answer.

Douglas Casement

Thanks Doug. I can see how the "reasonable" attorney fees may change some things, but would be interested to know how this may result in more "Dueling" surveys.

Driving to Issquah is not in the program!

Thanks for the info Dugger, an interesting blog.

I'm not planning on heading over Snoqualmie Pass for the meeting (just checked and Westbound is closed anyway). Keep all those bad drivers on the West side, OK? 😉

Doug