July 7th, 2008

Boulder sees influx of adverse possession cases as law changes

From The Daily Camera:

Exactly as some legal experts predicted, Boulder’s courts saw a spike in claims of “adverse possession” filed by people apparently trying to beat the clock on changes to the controversial land law.

Of the 25 active adverse-possession lawsuits in Boulder County — where a person or company claims someone else’s land after trespassing on it for at least 18 years — 15 of those cases were filed in June, said Debra Crosser, head clerk of Boulder District Court.

Some of those cases were filed just hours before changes to the law went into effect last Tuesday, court records show.

The changes, drafted by a bipartisan group of state legislators in the wake of a high-profile adverse-possession case in south Boulder last year, were designed to make it more difficult for people to win such cases by raising the standard of proof and requiring a “good-faith” belief that a trespasser rightly owned the disputed land to begin with.

The changes also could prove financially costly to would-be plaintiffs, as judges have gained the ability under the law to order adverse possessors to pay the losing side for the land, as well as 18 years or more of back property taxes and interest.

Read the full story here.