What Is Squatter's Right? Here's How A Delaware Man Lost $100,000 Property To Neighbor

A Delaware man lost his $100,000 beachside property after his neighbor claimed squatter's rights in court.

Burton Banks, who inherited the Ocean View property from his father, had to give up the land to his neighbor Melissa Schrock after a Delaware Superior Court judge ruled that the latter had a claim to the property. Schrock had her goat pen on Banks' property and was using about two-thirds of an acre of his land for decades, Delaware Online reported.

Banks realized his land was occupied by Schrock only when he tried to sell part of the property in 2021. Another neighbor also had an animal enclosure on the property, but that person agreed to remove it. Banks approached the court when Schrock refused to leave the land. Schrock then filed a counterclaim of adverse possession saying: "It's just always been my backyard since I was a little kid."

Banks and his wife, David Barrett, lived in Atlanta and "only occasionally" visited the property. They lost their claim to squatters right after the court ruled in favor of Schrock last month when she proved her 20-year occupancy, NY Post reported.

What is Squatter's right?

Squatter's right allows someone living on a property that is not technically theirs to claim ownership of it through "adverse possession."

Although "adverse possession" laws exist in all 50 states of the U.S., the time period for claiming the right of ownership by the occupant is different in different states. Some states mandate that the squatter have a deed, or should have paid taxes during their occupancy. The number of years may be reduced in some states if the squatter can produce the required documentation.

For example, in Montana and California, the squatter's right can be claimed after five years of occupancy, while in Louisiana it requires 30 years to raise the claim. It is 20 years in Delaware.

After losing his property, Banks now warns people who are unaware of the state's squatter's rights to be careful. "I can't afford the appeal. But (I'm) hoping I can at least warn others," he said.

In a similar case in 2015, a Delaware court gave 15 acres to a man who hunted on the land, which was not his, for over 20 years.