Adverse Possession Claims in Texas: What Property Owners Should Know

What adverse possession is, in the statute's words

Texas does not have a single adverse possession statute. It has a set of limitations periods in Chapter 16 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code that bar the true owner's suit to recover land after a stated number of years of adverse possession, and a provision, § 16.030, that converts the bar into title. Section 16.021 supplies the definitions. Adverse possession means an actual and visible appropriation of real property, commenced and continued under a claim of right that is inconsistent with and is hostile to the claim of another person. Peaceable possession means possession that is continuous and is not interrupted by an adverse suit to recover the property. Color of title means a chain of transfers to the possessor that is irregular only because of a recording defect or similar flaw, and title means a regular chain from the sovereign.

Every period below requires peaceable and adverse possession in that sense. Courts add the familiar gloss: the possession must be actual, visible, continuous, exclusive and hostile, and the claimant's use must be of a kind that gives the owner notice that someone is claiming the land as theirs. Casual or occasional use, shared use, or use with the owner's permission never qualifies.

The four limitations periods

The ten-year statute is the one most neighbor disputes involve, because it requires no paperwork, only a decade of qualifying use. The five-year statute is faster but demands a registered deed and tax payments, and since a 2021 amendment it excludes quitclaim deeds and forged instruments. The three-year statute is rare in practice because a claimant with real title or color of title usually does not need adverse possession. The 25-year statutes exist to settle very old claims and to override the tolling that a minor or incapacitated owner would otherwise receive under § 16.022.

A bill introduced in the 2025 legislative session would have changed the three-year and 25-year provisions. It did not pass, so the periods above are the law as of 2026.

How these claims arise on commercial property

• A fence, retaining wall or parking lot was built a few feet over the line decades ago and both owners treated it as the boundary.
• A neighboring business has paved and used a strip for loading or parking for many years without objection.
• A building encroaches onto an adjoining lot and the encroachment was never addressed in a sale.
• A family or business has occupied land under an unrecorded or defective deed and paid the taxes for years.
• Rural land outside Dallas-Fort Worth, now in the path of development, has been grazed or farmed by a neighbor under a fence line that does not match the deeds.

In each case the first question is whether the use was hostile or permissive. A written license, a handshake agreement to let the neighbor park there, or an acknowledgment that the land belongs to the record owner defeats the claim no matter how long the use continued. The second question is exclusivity: a strip both owners used is not held exclusively by either.

How an owner stops the clock

Peaceable possession ends when the owner files a suit to recover the property. Under § 16.021(3) possession is peaceable only if it is continuous and not interrupted by an adverse suit, so a trespass to try title action filed before the period runs stops the claimant from completing it. A letter demanding that the neighbor remove the fence does not by itself interrupt possession; a suit does. Short of a suit, an owner can defeat hostility by granting written permission (which converts the use into a license), can re-enter and reassert control, or can resolve the line by a recorded boundary agreement. The remedy for an encroachment already in place is usually a trespass to try title action or, if the only issue is the line, a declaratory judgment, as explained in boundary and easement disputes between property owners.

How a possessor proves the claim

A claimant asserting title by limitations files a trespass to try title action and pleads the specific limitations statute. The evidence is concrete: dated photographs and aerial images showing the fence or improvement over the full period; testimony about continuous use; receipts for fencing, paving or maintenance; tax records under the five-year statute; and the recorded deed under the five- and 25-year statutes. The claimant must also show the claim was hostile for the entire period, which means showing there was no permission and no acknowledgment of the record owner's title. Under the ten-year statute with no deed, the claim is limited to 160 acres unless more land was actually enclosed, and the enclosure must be the claimant's; a fence built by someone else for another purpose (a casual fence) does not establish the boundaries of the claim.

Once the owner's action is barred, § 16.030(a) provides that the possessor has full title, precluding all claims. In practice the possessor still needs a judgment to make that title marketable, which is why these cases are brought even when the possessor is confident the period has run. Clearing the record is covered in quiet title actions in Texas.

Example

Suppose two industrial lots in Grand Prairie share a line. In 2009 the owner of Lot A paved a 12-foot strip of Lot B along the line and used it as a truck apron, fenced the far edge, and has maintained and used it every working day since. Lot B's owner never objected and never gave written permission; the strip was simply assumed to be part of Lot A. In 2026 Lot B is sold and the buyer's survey shows the encroachment. The buyer demands that Lot A remove the paving. Lot A's owner sues in trespass to try title claiming the strip under the ten-year statute, § 16.026. The evidence shows continuous, exclusive, visible use since 2009 under a claim of right, with no permission from Lot B's prior owner. The ten-year period ran in 2019, before the sale, so the buyer took Lot B subject to the completed claim. The court renders judgment that Lot A's owner holds title to the strip. Had Lot B's prior owner filed suit, or sent a written license letter that Lot A's owner accepted, before 2019, the result would have been the opposite.

Defenses the record owner raises

• Permission. Any evidence that the use was allowed, including a lease, license, email or testimony about an oral agreement.
• Lack of exclusivity. The owner or the public also used the area.
• Gaps in the period. A break in use, a change in possessors without privity, or an earlier suit that interrupted possession.
• Acknowledgment of title. A claimant who asked to buy the strip, or who signed a document recognizing the owner's title, undercuts hostility.
• Statutory defects. No registered deed or no tax payments under the five-year statute; a quitclaim or forged instrument; more than 160 acres with no deed and no enclosure.
• Disability tolling. Under § 16.022 the period does not run while the owner is under 18, of unsound mind or serving in the armed forces in wartime, except under the 25-year statutes.

When to involve a litigator

As soon as a survey shows an encroachment, on either side of the line. For the record owner, the choice between a lawsuit, a license and a boundary agreement has to be made before the period runs, and an owner who has recently bought the property may have very little time left on a clock that started under a previous owner. For the possessor, a claim that has ripened is still only as good as the judgment that confirms it, and a claim that has not yet ripened can be lost by one letter acknowledging the neighbor's title. Tina Wysk represents owners and claimants in adverse possession, boundary and title disputes in Dallas-Fort Worth; the firm's real estate litigation practice handles trespass to try title actions and the surveys and title work they require.