Can any old person claim ownership of part of your farmland because of “squatter’s rights?” It seems one New York farmer is dealing with a neighbor who’s done just that. His neighbor has taken over one strip of his cornfield and is claiming legal ownership of it through adverse possession. That’s what’s commonly known as squatter’s rights. Stan Hoskins, 79, told AgWeb the dispute has run for years and has cost him about $75,000 in legal fees. His case is set for court in late July, when a judge will finally make a ruling on the situation.
Hoskins and his brother, Lynn, grow corn, soybeans, and wheat and produce hay for a dairy operation in the Finger Lakes region. They have a 300-acre farm they leased starting in the 1970s and bought in 2009, when the landlord offered to sell. A private residence on a 2.5-acre lot sits directly adjacent to the land.
Hoskins said the man he bought the farm from had property line disputes with the owners of that house, and the dispute passed to him with the purchase. What began as a small garden barely crossing into the field grew over the years, he said. A fence went up around the garden. A small greenhouse appeared beside it. The garden eventually reached about 60 feet into the field, and the homeowner later planted several maple trees on ground Hoskins says is his.
Hoskins had an attorney send a letter in 2024 demanding removal of the garden, greenhouse, and trees. The homeowner responded that the land was now his through adverse possession and that Hoskins was not permitted to be on it. Hoskins says he holds the deed, pays the property taxes, and had visible survey stakes in response. He summed up the standoff by saying the homeowner calls it adverse possession, but he calls it “stealing.”
What New York Law Says About Adverse Possession
Adverse possession lets someone who occupies another person’s land gain legal title to it. New York generally requires 10 years of continuous possession of the land, and the state rewrote its statute in 2008 with language that makes these claims harder to win. The law also asks whether the occupier had a reasonable basis for believing the land was theirs.
Under Section 543 of New York’s Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law, a list that includes fences, hedges, shrubbery, plantings, sheds, and non-structural walls deems them permissive and non-adverse, just like lawn mowing and other similar maintenance across a boundary. Those provisions apply to claims filed on or after July 7, 2008, and courts have already used them to dismiss claims built on landscaping and plantings.
Why Proving the Timeline Has Been Difficult
Hoskins said the expense and difficulty with the case came from establishing when each piece of the encroachment happened. He could not pin down what year the garden was widened by 5 or 10 feet, when construction on the greenhouse began, or when the fence went up and was finished. Google Earth imagery helped with some of it, but didn’t resolve all of the issues.
Hoskins said he offered a settlement. Under his proposal, the maple trees would come out, the garden could stay at its current size until the owners died or sold the property, and a $250 annual payment would keep future adverse possession claims from happening. He said the homeowner turned it down. His advice to other landowners? Address a boundary problem early rather than let it sit, because the problem only gets worse from there.