Real Estate Purchases: A word of Advice on Property Rights

BUYER BEWARE of the "adverse possessor" -Commonly known as squatters rights or "claim jumping" in the west, this is still alive and well even in today's high tech world. You may be negotiating to purchase property or may just have purchased one. If you haven't personally inspected every acre (and every building) you could be in for a surprise. Even your own real estate broker and the seller might not know the problem is there.Every state has its version, but in Montana it is Montana Code 70-19-401 through 70-19-421, if a person has paid the property taxes on the land and has occupied even a part of it for only 5 years, he might claim possession "adverse" to your ownership. You may never get him evicted and he may start a quiet title court case to take your land from you. Not just in rural abandoned properties, I watched this happen even in a well trafficked residential section of Los Angeles in a residence thought to be abandoned and purchased with relatively little inspection.