My property abuts a 93 foot section of roadway that went into probate in 1935. Since that time no one has taken claim to this section of roadway, and the town has not accepted the roadway as a public or private way..... betterments were installed by the town and fees charged to all abutters. Now one of the abutters is attempting to take adverse possesion of this section of roadway. There are 3 land owners that depend on traversing this roadway to gain access to their property. My question is does he need to say he solely took care of this roadway to take it by way of adverse possesion ? He has been living on this roadway for greater then 20 years....and I have been here for 17 years. What is the best way for this action to be stopped ? Does a roadway fall under this adverse possesion law?
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The Editor, Mark Bernardin, is an attorney living in MA. Please send your suggestions or comments to: TheEditor@malawforum.com
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Editor's Response
This situation sounds like a mess, and I'm not sure why the town would be improving the land if it had not, at some point, taken ownership or control of it. If your neighbor is moving forward with an action to quiet title in his name, you need to get yourself a Massachusetts attorney, ASAP, and dispute the neighbor's claim. The way I interpret the law of adverse possession in Massachusetts, your neighbor would have to have had exclusive use of the land in question. He did not, because other neighbors use the land for essentially the same purpose. Also, as an aside, because of the concept of tacking, you may have as much of a claim to the land (albeit a flawed claim) as your neighbor. Good luck.