REFERENCE TITLE: adverse possession; notice; market value

State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-third Legislature Second Regular Session 2018

HB 2519

Introduced by Representatives Kern: Boyer

 

AN ACT

 

amending section 12‑526, Arizona Revised Statutes; relating to adverse possession.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1.  Section 12-526, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE12-526.  Real property in adverse possession and use by possessor; ten year limitation; limit of area; fixing of boundaries under duly recorded memorandum of title; notice; burden of proof; fair market value

A.  A person who has a cause of action for recovery of any lands, tenements or hereditaments from a person having peaceable and adverse possession thereof of the property, cultivating, using and enjoying such  the property, shall commence an action therefor within ten years after the cause of action accrues, and not afterward.

B.  The peaceable and adverse possession referred to in subsection A of this section shall not embrace more than one hundred and sixty acres, including the improvements or the number of acres actually enclosed if less than one hundred and sixty acres is so enclosed, but when such adverse possession is taken and held under some written memorandum of title other than a deed which that fixes the boundaries of the possessor's claim and is duly recorded, such the possession shall be construed to be coextensive with the boundaries specified in such instrument the memorandum.

C.  The adverse possession of real property may commence only after the person who seeks the adverse possession provides a notice of the person's intent to adversely possess the real property to the owner of the parcel as shown on the current tax role and to any other party who has a legal or equitable interest in the real property recorded with the county recorder.

D.  In an action for adverse possession, the burden of proof is on the person who claims the adverse possession.  The court may award attorney fees and costs to a party who successfully defends against another person's claim of adverse possession.

E.  If the court grants possession of the property to the adverse possessor, the adverse possessor shall pay the fair market value of the property to the owner of the property.