In 2008, the New York State Legislature enacted sweeping changes to Article 5 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) which governs the circumstances under which title to real property may be acquired by adverse possession. We have fully discussed the broad historic changes to the law in previous articles. See Bailey and Desiderio, “Adverse Possession Changes Make Result Less Certain,” NYLJ Feb. 11, 2009, “Adverse Possession After the 2008 RPAPL Amendments” NYLJ Oct. 13, 2010, “Adverse Possession in a Post-‘Walling’ World,” NYLJ 10/12/2011, and “Application of the Adverse Possession Amendments,” NYLJ 6/10/2015.

This article will focus on how New York Courts are interpreting the way in which RPAPL §543 (Adverse possession; how affected by acts across a boundary line), enacted in 2008 as a new addition to RPAPL Article 5 (Adverse Possession), has changed the law of adverse possession from what it was pre-2008.

Adverse Possession Basics