By law, believe it or not, there’s a way to do it, however unpopular it is: it’s called adverse possession. When you’re dealing with certain land contracts with realty companies and such, if you’re simply an individual that has staked claim on a spot of land–maybe even built a barn right on the property–you can technically by force of law actually gain title of that land after a specific set amount of time of occupation, no matter what said realty company can do.
Sounds hostile, doesn’t it? It is. That’s not even half of it, though.
If you’re attempting an adverse possession of any piece of property, you do so by actually owning the land–the rhetoric in law states that “owning” in this standard would mean simply put ‘maintenance,’ or a simple change of the landscape, such as mowing or weeding. Moreover, in order to achieve adverse possession, you must do so noticeably. That simply means you have to overtly show to the real owner or any reasonable person that you are staking claim on the land. In other words, you’re looking the person dead in the face and saying, “I’m taking your land from you.”
To make it even more outrageous, a person needs to use the property exclusively for a set period of time. This goes back to the whole barn-building thing. If you build a barn on someone else’s property and only you use it, that would apply to the requirement. You’re using the land ‘exclusively’ outside of the realm of the real owner. In addition, the fourth requirement for adverse possession is ‘hostile or adverse use of the property.’ That simply means you’re entering the property, using the property, all technically without the real owner’s permission–without asking, without even caring. The last requirement is simple: continuous use of the property. The statute of limitation, which is basically the set amount of time of occupation, if not met by continual use of the property loses the person’s right to adverse possession.
Crazy stuff, right? Just purchase the property from the realtor, for God’s sake.