Amendments to Article 5 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) that took effect on July 8, 2008, significantly altered the law applicable to adverse possession claims in New York.1 Decisions by the Appellate Divisions in the Second, Third, and Fourth Departments have made it clear, however, that the Legislature’s changes to the state’s adverse possession rules do not apply to rights that vested before the law’s effective date. Although neither the New York Court of Appeals nor the Appellate Division, First Department, have opined on the issue, the appellate court rulings that already have been issued should give a large degree of comfort to property owners who acquired rights under the adverse possession standards applicable before the law was changed.
Background
A person seeking to establish a claim of adverse possession before July 8, 2008, had to demonstrate, by clear and convincing evidence,2 that his or her possession had been (1) hostile and under claim of right; (2) actual; (3) open and notorious; (4) exclusive; and (5) continuous for the required period of time3 (e.g., 10 years).4
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