ADVERSE POSSESSION & PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENTS

What is Meant by Adverse Possession?

In the State of Washington, adverse possession is a legal method of obtaining legal title to real estate by hostile, actual, notorious, exclusive and continuous possession of the land. These words have been Interpreted by courts in the State of Washington and our adverse possession attorneys are adept at analyzing your potential case for adverse possession or defending you in a case where a party is attempting to make a claim of adverse possession against your property. The time required to make a claim of adverse possession is  10 years in the state of Washington, but reduced to 7 years if the party claiming adverse possession has paid real estate taxes on the property during the continuous period of adversely possessing the property.

This may appear like an old or seldomly used legal theory, but it has modern usage today and is the source of many cases handled by our firm each year.

In our practice, we find that most cases never go to trial or proceed onto formal litigation as we are able, by expert legal analysis, to prove that the party claiming adverse possession has, in most situations, not met the statutory minimums. In such cases, a trial is not necessary as a judge may apply the law to the facts which in most cases is not disputed.

What is a Prescriptive Easement?

Going hand-in-hand along with adverse possession, is a legal theory called “prescriptive easement”. Where in adverse possession a party claims total ownership of the claimed property, in a prescriptive easement case the party claims a right to use property, typically for ingress and egress, as they have used the claimed portion of the property for such non-exclusive use over a continuous ten-year period

The two legal theories have a lot of overlap and the attorneys at our law office are able to analyze each legal theory by virtue of the many cases that have come down in the state of Washington interpreting adverse possession and prescriptive easements.

Why Contact our Office on Adverse Possession and Prescriptive Easements?

Our attorneys only handle real estate matters. That is all they do. Our firm limited practice to these types of matters. Your divorce attorney is generally not equipped to handle complex real estate matters. That attorney that helped with your car wreck does a great job at personal injury, but probably not real estate.

You can contact our office and set up an initial one-hour consultation with one of our attorneys in this area of law or any area of real estate law and the initial consultation will be $150 for that hour. That is our discount of over 50% of our normal consultation fee and is offered to all of our clients on any new matter. Call us at (253) 471-1200

We Welcome the Opportunity to Consult with You on Your Adverse Possession or Prescriptive Easement Matter

Our adverse possession and prescriptive easement attorneys at McFerran Law always have slots open in their daily schedule to meet with clients on new real estate matters. In many cases that one initial consultation can address all the needs of a client on a particular real estate, business, probate or tax deferred exchange matter.

We do not provide free consultations (except in the 1031 tax deferred exchange practice area). We pride ourselves that a single initial one-hour consultation will provide most clients all the information they need to move forward with their legal matter. We don’t have to research, investigate or learn about real estate law matters. Our attorneys can answer on the spot in that initial consultation most real estate questions you may have as they have over 35 years of experience. They only do real estate and matters related to real estate!

McFerran Law has a Special $150 New Matter Consultation Rate

Our adverse possession and prescriptive easement attorneys can meet with you by phone, Zoom or in our office for an up to a one-hour time period to go over, in detail, your legal matter and generally provide you valuable legal information to assist you in your individual situation. If your matter will require additional services, your attorney will generally be able to provide you an estimate for such services as well.

It is Easy to Set Up an Initial Consultation with McFerran Law

Just call our offices at (253) 471-1200; or email us on our contact page, or text us at (253) 405-7637 and we will schedule a one-hour consultation for you. You will not need to wait weeks or longer to meet with one of our attorneys as we block out a number of appointment options daily. We know that being quickly responsive to your real estate needs is important to you.