Session: State Capitol, Room 121 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-4797 Fax: (907) 465-3884 Interim: post office: 119 N. Cushman, Suite 101 Fairbanks, AK 99701-2879 location: 3340 Badger Road. North Pole, AK 99705 Phone: (907) 488-0857 Fax: (907) 488-4271

Sponsor Statement for SB 309
Adverse Possession

An Act relating to actions to quiet title to, eject a person from, or recover real property or the possession of it, and to acquisition of real property by adverse possession; and providing for an effective date.

Adverse possession is the doctrine under which a person-even a squatter acting in bad faith-can take the owner of record's property without compensation by simply possessing it, in an open and hostile way, for a certain period of years. It is a doctrine born in the Middle Ages under circumstances that have little applicability to 21st Century Alaska, and it offends Alaska's abiding respect for private property ownership.

SB 309 would limit the availability of this doctrine to two narrow circumstances where the rule may have some arguable policy justification: (1) where a person has, in good faith, occupied property under color of title for 20 years; and (2) where a property owner occupies property adjacent to his own land under a reasonable, good-faith error over the actual boundaries of his property. In both instances, the adverse possessor would be required to pay the property's legal owner both full market value for the property taken, as well as any consequential damages.

Adverse possession imposes a particularly harsh burden on private landowners in Alaska who, because of the doctrine, are often charged with the impossible task of policing large remote landholdings to assure themselves that no squatter has taken up residence. It is for this reason that, under existing law, a person cannot take land by adverse possession from the State of Alaska or the United States. SB 309 simply accords equal dignity to private land ownership rights.

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