Adverse Possession in Illinois: Which of the Clocks Is Yours, Twenty Years or Seven
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Illinois · Last updated October 5, 2026
Illinois runs more than one adverse possession clock, so the first question on any Illinois claim is which one you are on. Adverse possession is the rule that lets a person who openly occupies land they do not own become its legal owner once every requirement has been met for the full statutory period, and the general Illinois period is twenty years (735 ILCS 5/13-101). That twenty year section says nothing at all about property taxes. Taxes are instead the price of the shorter routes. A person in actual possession under claim and color of title made in good faith, who continues in possession for seven successive years and during that time pays all taxes legally assessed, shall be held and adjudged the legal owner to the extent and according to the purport of the paper title (735 ILCS 5/13-109). On empty ground Illinois goes further: color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land, plus payment of all taxes legally assessed for seven successive years, is written as enough by itself (735 ILCS 5/13-110). A different seven year route turns on actual residence plus a connected title deductible of record from the State, a tax sale officer, a sheriff or a court, and states no tax requirement at all (735 ILCS 5/13-107). The elements are not in the statute. Illinois courts require twenty years' concurrent existence of five elements, continuous, hostile or adverse, actual, open, notorious and exclusive possession, under claim of title inconsistent with the true owner's (Hoch v. Boehme, 2013 IL App (2d) 120664). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
Find out where you stand in Illinois
Which side of the boundary question are you on?
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How long does adverse possession take in Illinois?
Twenty years on the general route. No person shall commence an action for the recovery of lands, nor make an entry on them, unless within 20 years after the right to bring the action or make the entry first accrued (735 ILCS 5/13-101). Shorter statutory routes of seven years also exist.
Do you have to pay the property taxes to claim adverse possession in Illinois?
Not on the twenty year route, which says nothing about taxes (735 ILCS 5/13-101). Payment of all taxes legally assessed for seven successive years is what buys the shorter route, and only alongside claim and color of title made in good faith (735 ILCS 5/13-109 and 13-110).
Can vacant Illinois land be claimed without ever occupying it?
The vacant land section is written that way. Whenever a person having color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land pays all taxes legally assessed on it for seven successive years, that person shall be deemed and adjudged the legal owner to the extent of the paper title (735 ILCS 5/13-110).
Which elements must an Illinois adverse possession claim prove?
Illinois courts require twenty years' concurrent existence of five elements: continuous, hostile or adverse, actual, open, notorious and exclusive possession of the premises, under claim of title inconsistent with that of the true owner (Hoch v. Boehme, 2013 IL App (2d) 120664, quoting Joiner v. Janssen).
Illinois adverse possession at a glance
Adverse possession lets a person who openly occupies land belonging to someone else become its owner once every requirement has been satisfied for the full statutory period. Illinois sets the general period at twenty years and imposes no tax condition on it (735 ILCS 5/13-101). What makes Illinois unusual is the set of shorter statutory routes stacked underneath that number. Seven successive years of actual possession under claim and color of title made in good faith, with all taxes legally assessed paid, is written to make the claimant the legal owner to the extent of the paper title (735 ILCS 5/13-109). For vacant and unoccupied land, good faith color of title plus seven years of tax payments stands alone (735 ILCS 5/13-110). Both of those routes stop at land held for any public purpose (735 ILCS 5/13-111).
A downstate vacant woodlot where one tax bill undoes seven years
Someone buys a quitclaim deed to twelve wooded acres in a downstate Illinois county, land nobody has lived on or fenced in decades, and pays the tax bill faithfully every year from 2019. On the face of the vacant land section that is the whole claim: color of title made in good faith, vacant and unoccupied ground, all taxes legally assessed paid for seven successive years (735 ILCS 5/13-110). Then the county ledger shows that in 2023 a grandchild of the record owner, holding a better paper title, paid that year's taxes. Illinois says a taxpayer in that position shall not be entitled to the benefit of the section. The twenty year route in 735 ILCS 5/13-101 does not turn on taxes, but it does turn on twenty concurrent years of possession, which an unoccupied woodlot has never had.
Relevant Laws
735 ILCS 5/13-101 (twenty years, recovery of land)
Provides that no person shall commence an action for the recovery of lands, nor make an entry on them, unless within 20 years after the right to bring the action or make the entry first accrued, or within 20 years after the claimant or those under whom the claimant claims acquired title or possession, except as provided in Sections 13-102 through 13-122.
735 ILCS 5/13-109 (payment of taxes with color of title, seven years)
Provides that every person in the actual possession of lands or tenements under claim and color of title made in good faith, who for 7 successive years continues in that possession and during that time pays all taxes legally assessed on the lands, shall be held and adjudged to be the legal owner to the extent and according to the purport of his or her paper title, with successors in possession entitled to the same benefit.
735 ILCS 5/13-110 (vacant land, payment of taxes with color of title)
Provides that whenever a person having color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land pays all taxes legally assessed on it for 7 successive years, that person shall be deemed and adjudged the legal owner to the extent of the paper title, but that the benefit is lost if a person having a better paper title pays the taxes for any one or more years of the term.
735 ILCS 5/13-107 and 13-108 (seven years with possession and record title)
Limits actions for the recovery of lands of which a person may be possessed by actual residence for 7 successive years under a connected title deductible of record from the State, the United States, a tax sale officer, a sheriff, a marshal or a court, to 7 years after possession is taken, and extends the same benefit to heirs, legatees and assigns.
735 ILCS 5/13-107.1 and 13-109.1 (two years after a judicial foreclosure sale)
Provide a two year limitation and a two year vesting route for a purchaser at a judicial foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee who takes possession under a court order, or a purchaser acquiring title from such a buyer, with the vesting route requiring payment of all taxes legally assessed during the two successive years of possession.
735 ILCS 5/13-111 (State, United States, school, seminary, religious and public purpose land)
Provides that Sections 13-109 and 13-110 shall not extend to lands or tenements owned by the United States or of Illinois, nor to school and seminary lands, nor to lands held for the use of religious societies, nor to lands held for any public purpose, and sets a three year post-disability window for an adverse titleholder under a listed disability.
735 ILCS 5/13-105 and 13-106 (computing the twenty years and when the right accrues)
Provide that where the right or title first accrued to an ancestor or predecessor the 20 years is computed from that time, and list when a right to make an entry or bring an action is deemed first to have accrued, including at the time of a wrongful ouster.
735 ILCS 5/13-112 and 13-113 (minors and persons under legal disability)
Allow a person who was a minor, under legal disability, imprisoned or absent from the United States in the service of the United States or Illinois when the right first accrued to make the entry or bring the action within 2 years after the disability is removed, with a parallel 2 year window for heirs.
735 ILCS 5/13-118 (forty year limitation on claims to real estate)
Bars an action based on a claim arising more than 40 years before it is commenced against a holder of record title shown by the record to have held a chain of title for at least 40 years, unless a verified statement was recorded, and provides that the record titleholder is not entitled to that protection if the real estate is in the adverse possession of another.
735 ILCS 5/2-103(b) (where a quiet title action is brought)
Provides that any action to quiet title to real estate, or to partition or recover possession of it or to foreclose a mortgage or other lien on it, must be brought in the county in which the real estate or some part of it is situated.
Hoch v. Boehme, 2013 IL App (2d) 120664 (Illinois Official Reports)
A published Illinois appellate opinion that identifies 735 ILCS 5/13-101 as the provision incorporating the common law doctrine of adverse possession, quotes the five element test requiring twenty years of concurrent existence, quotes 735 ILCS 5/13-110 in full, and applies the clear and convincing standard with all presumptions favoring the record titleholder.
Regional Variances
Illinois adverse possession rules at a glance
Statutory period
Twenty years on the general route. No action for the recovery of lands may be commenced, nor entry made, unless within 20 years after the right first accrued (735 ILCS 5/13-101), with the 20 years computed from when the right first accrued to an ancestor or predecessor (735 ILCS 5/13-105).
Property taxes
A period-shortener, not an element. Section 13-101 imposes no tax condition. Payment of all taxes legally assessed for 7 successive years is what unlocks the shorter routes, and only together with claim and color of title made in good faith (735 ILCS 5/13-109 and 13-110).
Color of title
Shortens the period to 7 years. With actual possession, 7 successive years plus all taxes paid makes the claimant the legal owner to the extent of the paper title (735 ILCS 5/13-109). The color of title must have been made in good faith.
Vacant and unoccupied land
Distinctive to Illinois. Color of title made in good faith plus payment of all taxes legally assessed for 7 successive years is written as sufficient on vacant and unoccupied land, with no possession element stated (735 ILCS 5/13-110).
Record title plus actual residence
A further 7 year route that states no tax requirement. It applies to a person possessed by actual residence for 7 successive years under a connected title deductible of record from the State, the United States, a tax sale officer, a sheriff, a marshal or a court (735 ILCS 5/13-107).
Judicial foreclosure purchasers
Two successive years, for a purchaser at a judicial foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee who took possession under a court order, or someone acquiring title from such a buyer (735 ILCS 5/13-107.1 and 13-109.1).
Elements
Not listed in the statute. Illinois courts require twenty years' concurrent existence of five elements, continuous, hostile or adverse, actual, open, notorious and exclusive possession of the premises, under claim of title inconsistent with that of the true owner (Hoch v. Boehme, 2013 IL App (2d) 120664).
Standard of proof
Clear and convincing evidence of each element, with all presumptions made in favor of the record titleholder and no proof by inference or implication (Hoch v. Boehme, 2013 IL App (2d) 120664). The standard comes from Illinois decisions rather than from the Code of Civil Procedure.
Acreage cap
None. Article XIII, Part 1 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, sections 13-101 through 13-122, imposes no acreage or parcel-size limit. The color of title routes are instead bounded by the extent and purport of the paper title.
Public and institutional land
Sections 13-109 and 13-110 shall not extend to lands owned by the United States or of Illinois, nor to school and seminary lands, nor to lands held for the use of religious societies, nor to lands held for any public purpose (735 ILCS 5/13-111). Section 13-101 states no equivalent carve-out in its own text.
Perfecting title
The color of title sections speak of the claimant being held and adjudged the legal owner (735 ILCS 5/13-109, 13-110). An action to quiet title must be brought in the county where the real estate or some part of it is situated (735 ILCS 5/2-103(b)).
Frequently Asked Questions
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