Do You Have to Pay Back Taxes on Land Taken by Adverse Possession

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Maryland

My neighbor is claiming that the former owner of his property met the conditions for adverse possession of an undeveloped county right of way between our properties. He is asserting that because the county never accepted the dedication of the plat in 1920 and the county has not used the right of way at all (it only exists on paper), that the land reverted back to both he and I and is not the county's. Thus, he is able to take my part of the land if the conditions for adverse possession are met. While the previous neighbor did not assert the claim, my neighbor is going to assert that claim in court. Maryland is a "tacking" state so the statute does not start over.

All other legal issues aside if, hypothetically, he is successful, how far back would he have to pay back taxes on the land taken by adverse possession? Would he have to pay back taxes from the date the statute ran or only pay taxes in the future.

if all there ever was that the county had was a right of way, you each retained ownership of the land. It was merely subject the terms of the ROW should the county exercise their rights. The land was never owned by the county. Even if they exercised their rights, they still would not own the property.

If the requirements for AP have been met, the neighbor can sue for the title to the land.

as to taxes: if he prevails, he would have to pay future taxes. If there are delinquent taxes, he would either have to pay them or subject the land to a tax sale or whatever MD does with delinquent property taxes.

I am aware that you stated that you were not interested in the legal issues, but there is a question about the status of the 1920 dedication. Is the assumption that the county never "accepted" the dedication based solely on the fact that it was not opened or used by the county?

If it was otherwise dedicated, even if it exists only "on paper", it may be a valid county right of way yet and as such not liable to adverse possession. Mere non-use by itself does not necessarily amount to abandonment.

LS, since a county ROW is not ownership and the ownership remains with the servient tenant, why would it not be subject to AP. I would see where the land would still be subject to the county ROW if it is still valid but I do not see why the land could not be taken by AP if the requirements have been fulfilled.

We haven't seen the grant so we don't know if the dedication was fee simple absolute, fee simple on condition subsequent, a determinable fee, a fee subject to a conditional limitation, a right of way or a simple easement.

If the right of way is in the nature of an easement and is still valid, even if AP works the ROW will still be in place. Once it is removed, the underlying lands may be attached to the adjoiners, not necessarily to the owner of the underlying fee, if any. It varies by state and I haven't researched MD.

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Quoting LandSurveyor

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We haven't seen the grant so we don't know if the dedication was fee simple absolute, fee simple on condition subsequent, a determinable fee, a fee subject to a conditional limitation, a right of way or a simple easement.

If the right of way is in the nature of an easement and is still valid, even if AP works the ROW will still be in place. Once it is removed, the underlying lands may be attached to the adjoiners, not necessarily to the owner of the underlying fee, if any. It varies by state and I haven't researched MD.

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gotcha. Thanks.

1. The plat does not say how it is dedicated ie fee simple etc... I am not sure how I could determine this.

2. The deed to her property does say that her property ends at a "15 foot alley." I do not know if this has any meaning or effect.

3. The legal issue is whether the dedication was accepted by the county. According to some case law I have looked at, the dedicator (or their successor in interest) can revoke the dedication if there has not been clear intent to accept by either using the right of way or by the county passing a resolution accepting the dedication. As the plat was dedicated in 1920 it is very hard to find such a resolution.

4. According to Maryland case law, if there is a county right of way on the property there can be no adverse possession of that land.

5. The square footage of the "alley" is not included in the square footage of either property for tax purposes. I am not sure who would buy the property in a tax sale as it is just a 15x 40 strip of land between out properties. You couldn't do much with it on its own.

Not sure if any of that helps.

here is a scan of the plat.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nCUBk4Rzm4...0/Plat+213.JPG

I'm not an attorney, but I have to wonder about a few points. Your neighbor seems to believe that the parcel he/she owns and occupies is legal and valid and was made so when the plat was recorded; yet by some strange process the ROW that was recorded in the very same plat is somehow not. Further, they believe that ROW, which is not subject to an adverse possession claim can be adversely claimed by them simply because its not been used, just for the asking. Lastly, they believe that instead of both adjoining properties have right of first refusal on claiming that ROW, they get to jump to the front of the line, again, simply for the asking.

Many states don't recognize AP claims on ROW dedications specifically because of this situation. ROW is dedicated at the time a plat is recorded but many times is not used for years. Its silly to expect that a unit of local government has the funds, time and resources to build roads that are not needed just to guard against an AP claim. Also, since it was dedicated as ROW the local unit of government technically does not even "own" it as is commonly understood. Instead it was dedicated to the public, for public benefit. As such, I would guess that a simple grab on the land by your neighbor will not be successful.

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The plat does not say how it is dedicated ie fee simple etc... I am not sure how I could determine this.

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That is an important question. I think a local real estate attorney would be able answer that, and the related question of the act of dedication.

The plat looks like a typical project of it's era. Today a new subdivision plat would probably have fifteen or twenty signatures. The placement of the alleys behind all of the lots is a carryover from horse and buggy times. My feeling is that if the streets were effectively dedicated by this plat, so were the alleys. They may even have been used at one time but fallen into disuse.

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The deed to her property does say that her property ends at a "15 foot alley." I do not know if this has any meaning or effect.

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It means that someone else thinks the alley exists as a legal right of way of some sort. Is this from a surveyor's description?

If the dedication was valid the alleys possibly still exist unless they have been vacated by the county (usually by ordinance) or abandoned by the county. Mere non-use or lack of maintenance by themselves would possibly not amount to abandonment, which is a question of fact to a court.

Many of these issues are state specific and as I said earlier in the thread, I have not researched this from a Maryland perspective and am not familiar with the specifics of the case and statutory law.

You might be able to get an opinion on some of these questions here:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/go...atty/index.asp

In Maryland there are two separate parts of the dedication process. Dedication and acceptance. The plat was dedicated. The question is whether it was accepted. If it wasn't accepted then you could argue that the right of way never existed in the first place. In other words there is only an offer of a right of way and that offer needs to be accepted or it can be revoked. There is some case law that says deeds can be evidence of acceptance. So perhaps the references in the deeds to the alley will be helpful. Also, the fact the deeds reference the alley may help an argument that the dedication was never revoked.

I was able to find deeds going back to 1951 with the description of the property going up to the alley. The description looks like a surveyors description as it includes the precise longitude and latitude of each corner of the property along with some other numerical descriptions of the exact length of each side of the property (it is a rectangle). I could not go back to older deeds because the 1951 deed did not reference the book and page number for the previous deed.

I talked to the county attorney already. They said they would be interested in looking into the issue and becoming a party to the case if it went to trial (because of the precedent it would set for all rights of way in older plats that were not yet developed), but until it did they were not going to expend the resources to research the issue.

Thanks for all your input!