Adverse Possession in Maryland: The Twenty Year Duty on the Record Owner
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Maryland · Last updated October 5, 2026
Maryland writes the rule as a deadline on the record owner rather than as a prize for the occupant. Adverse possession is the doctrine under which a person who openly occupies land belonging to someone else becomes its legal owner once every requirement has been satisfied for the full statutory period. The Maryland statute puts it this way: within 20 years from the date the cause of action accrues, a person shall file an action for recovery of possession of a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land, or enter on the land (Md. Code, Cts. and Jud. Proc. 5-103(a)). Miss both and the remedy is gone. Maryland's element list comes from its reported decisions, not the Code: possession for the statutory period of 20 years that is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, under claim of title or ownership, and continuous or uninterrupted, with the burden on the claimant (Senez v. Collins, quoting White v. Pines Cmty. Improvement Ass'n, 403 Md. 13). Hostility is measured by the claimant's objective manifestation of adverse use rather than subjective intent, and it pertains to the land rather than to how the neighbours got along. No Maryland statute asks the occupant to pay property taxes. The same section preserves two other periods: seven years on a breach of a condition subsequent or the end of a fee simple determinable, where possession is adverse and hostile by statute (Real Prop. 6-103), and twenty years of non-demand that conclusively extinguishes a ground rent (Real Prop. 8-107). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
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How long does adverse possession take in Maryland?
Twenty years. Within 20 years from the date the cause of action accrues, a person shall file an action for recovery of possession of a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land, or enter on the land (Md. Code, Cts. and Jud. Proc. 5-103(a)). Maryland frames the period as a deadline on the record owner.
Do you have to pay the property taxes to claim adverse possession in Maryland?
No. Searching the complete Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article and the complete Real Property Article returns no tax payment requirement attached to a possession claim. Paying the taxes is neither an element of a Maryland claim nor a way to shorten the twenty year period.
Which elements does a Maryland adverse possession claim require?
Possession for the statutory period of twenty years that is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, under claim of title or ownership, and continuous or uninterrupted. The burden of proving title by adverse possession rests on the claimant (Senez v. Collins, quoting White v. Pines Cmty. Improvement Ass'n, 403 Md. 13).
Does getting along with the neighbour destroy hostility in Maryland?
Maryland's Court of Special Appeals held that a court errs in equating cooperative relations between landowners with a failure to establish hostility, because the element of hostility pertains to the land (Senez v. Collins). The inquiry rests on the claimant's objective manifestation of adverse use.
Maryland adverse possession at a glance
Adverse possession is the rule that turns long, open occupation of someone else's land into ownership once every requirement has been met for the whole statutory period. Maryland states that period as a duty on the record owner: within 20 years of accrual, file an action for recovery of possession of a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land, or enter on the land (Cts. and Jud. Proc. 5-103(a)). The same section then preserves three other things, which is what makes Maryland distinctive. Common law prescription for incorporeal interests is untouched (5-103(b)(1)). A seven year clock applies to a breach of a condition subsequent or the end of a fee simple determinable, and possession afterwards is adverse and hostile by statute (Real Prop. 6-103). And twenty years without demand or payment conclusively extinguishes a ground rent (Real Prop. 8-107).
A Baltimore rowhouse ground rent nobody has collected since 2003
Take a Patterson Park rowhouse subject to a sixty dollar annual ground rent reserved in a ninety nine year renewable lease. The settlement sheet named it, but no bill ever arrived, nobody paid, and no demand was made after 2003. By 2026 that is twenty three consecutive years. Maryland's rule is conclusive: where there is no demand or payment for more than twenty consecutive years of any specific rent reserved out of a particular property under any form of lease, the rent conclusively is presumed extinguished, the landlord may not set up any claim for the rent or to the reversion, and may not institute any suit to recover the rent or the property (Real Prop. 8-107). The one exception is a landlord under a legal disability, who gets two years after it is removed. Whether these facts meet the statute is a question for the circuit court.
Relevant Laws
Md. Code, Cts. and Jud. Proc. 5-103 (twenty year period)
Provides that within 20 years from the date the cause of action accrues a person shall file an action for recovery of possession of a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land, or enter on the land. Subsection (b) provides that the section does not affect the common law doctrine of prescription for incorporeal interests created by adverse use, and does not affect the periods of limitations in Real Property 6-103 or 8-107.
Md. Code, Real Prop. 6-103 (seven years; condition subsequent and fee simple determinable)
Provides that no person may commence an action for the recovery of land, nor make an entry on it, by reason of a breach of a condition subsequent or the termination of a fee simple determinable estate, unless within seven years after the breach or termination, and that possession of land after the breach or termination is adverse and hostile from the first breach or from the terminating event.
Md. Code, Real Prop. 8-107 (ground rent extinguished by twenty years of non-demand)
Provides that where there is no demand or payment for more than 20 consecutive years of any specific rent reserved out of a particular property under any form of lease, the rent conclusively is presumed extinguished, the landlord may not set up any claim for the rent or to the reversion, and may not institute any suit to recover the rent or the property, except that a landlord under a legal disability has two years after its removal.
Md. Code, Real Prop. 14-108 (suit to quiet title)
Allows a person in actual peaceable possession of property, or in constructive and peaceable possession if the property is vacant and unoccupied, either under colour of title or claim of right by reason of that person's or a predecessor's adverse possession for the statutory period, to maintain a suit under Subtitle 6 in the circuit court for the county where the property or any part of it is located to quiet or remove a cloud from the title or determine an adverse claim, and deems the proceeding in rem or quasi in rem on the stated conditions.
Md. Code, Real Prop. 14-606 (contents of the complaint)
Requires a verified complaint including the property's legal description and street address or common designation, the plaintiff's title and the basis of that title, the specific facts constituting the adverse possession where the title is based on adverse possession, the adverse claims against which a determination is sought, and a prayer for determination.
Md. Code, Real Prop. 14-602 and 14-603 (scope of the subtitle and the court's reach)
Section 14-602 provides that an action may be brought under the subtitle to establish title against adverse claims to property, including claims described in Real Property 14-108. Section 14-603 provides that the court is deemed to have obtained possession and control of the property for the purposes of the action, and does not limit the court's authority to grant proper equitable relief.
Senez v. Collins, Md. Court of Special Appeals No. 111, September Term 2007 (the elements)
Reported opinion published by the Maryland Judiciary. It states that to establish title by adverse possession the claimant must show possession for the statutory period of 20 years that is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, under claim of title or ownership, and continuous or uninterrupted, quoting White v. Pines Community Improvement Association, 403 Md. 13, 36 (2008); places the burden on the claimant; measures the elements by objective manifestation of adverse use rather than subjective intent; holds that the element of hostility pertains to the land rather than to cooperative relations between landowners; and sets the standard for an owner's re-entry.
Regional Variances
Maryland adverse possession rules at a glance
Statutory period
Twenty years, written as a duty on the record owner. Within 20 years from accrual a person shall file an action for recovery of possession of a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land, or enter on the land (Cts. and Jud. Proc. 5-103(a)).
Property taxes
Irrelevant. A full text search of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article and the Real Property Article returns no tax payment requirement attached to a possession claim. Taxes are neither an element nor a shortcut.
Elements
From the reported decisions rather than the Code: actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, under claim of title or ownership, and continuous or uninterrupted for twenty years, with the burden on the claimant (Senez v. Collins, quoting White v. Pines Cmty. Improvement Ass'n, 403 Md. 13).
How hostility is tested
By the claimant's objective manifestation of adverse use rather than subjective intent, and the element pertains to the land, so cooperative relations between neighbours do not by themselves defeat it (Senez v. Collins).
Colour of title
Does not shorten the period. It appears once in the two relevant articles, in Real Prop. 14-108, as one of two alternative footings for a quiet title suit alongside claim of right by reason of adverse possession.
Acreage cap
None. No acreage figure attaches to a possession claim in either article. The statute limits the estate instead, to a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land.
Seven year period
Preserved separately. A breach of a condition subsequent or the termination of a fee simple determinable runs seven years, and possession afterwards is adverse and hostile by statute (Real Prop. 6-103).
Ground rents
Twenty consecutive years without demand or payment conclusively extinguishes the rent and bars any claim to the rent or the reversion, subject to a two year allowance after a landlord's legal disability is removed (Real Prop. 8-107).
Easements and rights of way
Left to common law. Section 5-103 does not affect the common law doctrine of prescription as it applies to the creation of incorporeal interests in land by adverse use (Cts. and Jud. Proc. 5-103(b)(1)), and supplies no period for them.
Owner's re-entry
Must be substantial. Merely going upon the land is not enough; the owner must assert a claim or perform an act reinstating possession, and the entry must equal in dignity and character that required to initiate an adverse possession (Senez v. Collins).
Government owned land
Maryland's statutes do not address it. The phrase adverse possession does not appear in the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article at all, and appears in the Real Property Article only in the quiet title provisions. This page states no rule either way, and attorney review is available.
Perfecting title
A verified quiet title complaint under Real Property Title 14, Subtitle 6, filed in the circuit court for the county where the property or any part of it is located, pleading the specific facts constituting the adverse possession (Real Prop. 14-108, 14-606).
Frequently Asked Questions
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