Editing Adverse possession (section)

{{short description|Property law concept}}
{{redirect|Squatter's rights|the film|Squatter's Rights (film){{!}}''Squatter's Rights'' (film)}}
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'''Adverse possession''' in [[common law]], and the related [[civil law (legal system)|civil law]] concept of [[usucaption]] (also ''acquisitive prescription'' or ''prescriptive acquisition''), are legal mechanisms under which a person who does not have [[title (property)|legal title]] to a piece of property, usually [[real property]], may acquire legal ownership based on continuous [[Possession (law)|possession or occupation]] without the permission ([[licence]]) of its legal owner.<ref name="wex">{{cite web |title=Adverse possession |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/adverse_possession |website=Wex |publisher=Legal Information Institute |access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref>

It is sometimes colloquially described as ''squatter's rights'', a term associated with occupation without legal title during the westward expansion in North America,<ref>{{cite book |last=Libecap |first=Gary D. |url=https://archive.org/details/contractingforpr0000libe/mode/2up |title=Contracting for property rights |date=1989 |publisher=Cambridge [England]; New York : Cambridge University Press |others=Internet Archive |page=30 |isbn=978-0-521-36620-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Brestler |first=Don |url=https://archive.org/details/youngadultsguide0000bres/ |title=A young adult's guide to the Canadian west |page=44 |date=2002 |location=Calgary |publisher=Bayeux |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-896209-72-2}}</ref> as occupying real property without permission is central to adverse possession. Some jurisdictions regulate [[squatting]] separately from adverse possession.