Adverse Possession in South Dakota: Twenty Years, or Ten If You Paid the Taxes
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · South Dakota · Last updated October 5, 2026
Adverse possession is the rule that converts long, open occupation of another person's land into legal ownership once every statutory requirement has been met for the full period. South Dakota runs that period at twenty years. No action to recover real property is maintained unless the plaintiff, an ancestor, predecessor or grantor was seized or possessed of the premises within twenty years before the action (SDCL 15-3-1), and an occupier is deemed to hold under and in subordination to the legal title until twenty years of adverse possession is shown (SDCL 15-3-7). Taxes are nowhere in that route. Where taxes matter in South Dakota is as a separate, shorter route. A person in actual possession under claim and color of title made in good faith, who has continued ten successive years in that possession and during that time paid all taxes legally assessed on the land, is held and adjudged the legal owner to the extent and according to the purport of the paper title (SDCL 15-3-15). For vacant and unoccupied land the possession requirement falls away: color of title made in good faith plus all taxes legally assessed for ten successive years is enough (SDCL 15-3-16). Neither tax route extends to school lands, lands belonging to the United States or this state, religious or charitable societies, or lands held for a public purpose (SDCL 15-3-17). Adjacent landowners in an unincorporated area may also agree to waive the whole chapter through a partition fence agreement (SDCL 15-3-20). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
Find out where you stand in South Dakota
Which side of the boundary question are you on?
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How long does adverse possession take in South Dakota?
Twenty years on the ordinary route. No action for the recovery of real property is maintained unless the plaintiff or a predecessor was seized or possessed of the premises within twenty years before the action (SDCL 15-3-1), and occupation by another is deemed subordinate to the legal title until twenty years of adverse possession is shown (SDCL 15-3-7).
How do property taxes change the South Dakota clock?
They cut it in half under conditions. A person in actual possession under claim and color of title made in good faith who continues ten successive years in that possession and pays all taxes legally assessed during that time is held and adjudged the legal owner to the extent and according to the purport of the paper title (SDCL 15-3-15).
Can South Dakota land be acquired without ever occupying it?
One section allows exactly that. Where a person having a color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land has paid all taxes legally assessed on it for ten successive years, that person is deemed and adjudged the legal owner to the extent and according to the purport of the paper title (SDCL 15-3-16).
Which South Dakota land is excluded from the ten year tax route?
Four categories. The provisions of sections 15-3-15 and 15-3-16 do not extend to school lands, or to lands belonging to the United States or this state, or to religious or charitable societies, or to lands held for a public purpose (SDCL 15-3-17). The sections also do not run against a titleholder under a disability (15-3-18).
South Dakota adverse possession at a glance
Adverse possession lets a long term occupier of land belonging to someone else end up owning it, once every statutory requirement has been met for the full statutory period. South Dakota puts the ordinary period at twenty years (SDCL 15-3-1), with the record title holder presumed in possession and the occupier presumed subordinate until those twenty years are shown (SDCL 15-3-7). The twenty year route says nothing about taxes. Tax payment is instead its own shorter route: ten successive years of possession under claim and color of title made in good faith, with all taxes legally assessed paid during that time, vests title to the extent of the paper title (SDCL 15-3-15), and on vacant and unoccupied land the taxes alone can do it (SDCL 15-3-16). South Dakota also lets rural neighbours waive the chapter by partition fence agreement (SDCL 15-3-20).
A Hand County pasture nobody walked on, carried by ten years of tax receipts
Take twelve acres of unfenced native pasture in Hand County that nobody has grazed since the 1990s. A 2012 probate distribution handed an heir a deed whose description reaches across the section line and takes in that pasture, and from 2013 through 2023 the heir paid every tax bill the county treasurer issued on it while never setting foot there. The ordinary route would need twenty years of possession (SDCL 15-3-1), which the heir plainly does not have. The vacant land section asks something different: color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land, plus all taxes legally assessed paid for ten successive years, to be deemed the legal owner to the extent of the paper title (SDCL 15-3-16). Had the pasture been school land or held for a public purpose, section 15-3-17 would remove the route entirely.
Relevant Laws
SDCL 15-3-1 (twenty year requirement)
Provides that no action for the recovery of real property, or for the recovery of the possession of it, shall be maintained unless it appears that the plaintiff, his ancestor, predecessor, or grantor was seized or possessed of the premises in question within twenty years before the commencement of the action.
SDCL 15-3-7 (presumption from legal title)
Provides that the person establishing a legal title to the premises is presumed to have been possessed of them within the time required by law, and that occupation by any other person is deemed to have been under and in subordination to the legal title unless the premises have been held and possessed adversely to that legal title for twenty years before the action began.
SDCL 15-3-10 and 15-3-11 (claims founded on a written instrument or judgment)
Provide that twenty years of continued occupation and possession under a claim of title founded on a written instrument, decree or judgment makes the premises included in it held adversely, except that in a tract divided into lots possession of one lot is not possession of another; and list four qualifying cases, usual cultivation or improvement, a substantial inclosure, unenclosed land used for fuel or fencing timber for husbandry or the ordinary use of the occupant, and a partly improved known farm or single lot.
SDCL 15-3-12 and 15-3-13 (claims without a written instrument)
Provide that where there has been actual continued occupation under a claim of title exclusive of any other right but not founded on a written instrument, judgment or decree, the premises so actually occupied and no other are deemed held adversely; and that land is deemed possessed and occupied in the following cases only, where it has been protected by a substantial inclosure, or where it has been usually cultivated or improved.
SDCL 15-3-15 (ten years of possession plus taxes under color of title)
Provides that every person in the actual possession of lands or tenements under claim and color of title made in good faith, who has continued ten successive years in that possession and during that time paid all taxes legally assessed on the land, shall be held and adjudged to be the legal owner to the extent and according to the purport of his paper title, and lets a successor by purchase, devise or descent continue the possession and tax payments to complete the ten years.
SDCL 15-3-16 (ten years of taxes on vacant and unoccupied land)
Provides that whenever a person having a color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land has paid all taxes legally assessed on it for ten successive years, that person shall be deemed and adjudged the legal owner of the vacant and unoccupied land to the extent and according to the purport of his paper title, with the same provision for successors completing the ten years of tax payments.
SDCL 15-3-17 and 15-3-18 (limits on the tax routes)
Provide that sections 15-3-15 and 15-3-16 do not extend to school lands, or to lands belonging to the United States or this state, or to religious or charitable societies, or to lands held for a public purpose; and that they do not extend to lands to which there is an adverse title whose holder, at the expiration of the ten years, is under twenty-one, mentally ill, or imprisoned for a term less than life, provided that person sues within three years after the disability is removed.
SDCL 15-3-8 and 15-3-14 (landlord and tenant, and disability)
Provide that where the relation of landlord and tenant has existed, the tenant's possession is deemed the landlord's until twenty years from the termination of the tenancy, or twenty years from the last payment of rent where there was no written lease; and that the time during which a person entitled to sue was under twenty-one, mentally ill, or imprisoned for a term less than life does not count, with the action available within ten years after the disability ceases.
SDCL 15-3-20, 15-3-21 and 15-3-22 (partition fence agreements and consequences)
Added by SL 2018, ch 125. Let adjacent landowners in an unincorporated area agree to waive the provisions of the chapter and supply an optional partition fence agreement form; make the adjacent landowner who acquires ownership on a judicial determination immediately liable for all future real estate taxes, with the previous owner able to petition a circuit court to determine the precise acreage transferred and the court able to assess reasonable costs including surveying; and provide that no agreement or judicial determination of adverse possession shall affect existing utility lines.
SDCL 15-3-3 and 15-3-4 (entry, and suits by the state)
Provide that no entry upon real estate is deemed sufficient or valid as a claim unless an action is commenced within one year after the entry and within twenty years from when the right to make the entry descended or accrued; and that the state will not sue over real property by reason of its own right or title unless that right accrued within forty years, or the state or those from whom it claims received the rents and profits within forty years.
SDCL 21-41-1 and 21-41-11 (quiet title)
Allow an action by any person having or claiming an estate, interest, lien or encumbrance in real property, whether in or out of possession and whether the property is vacant or occupied, against named and record claimants, the personal representatives, heirs, devisees, legatees and creditors of deceased claimants whether known or unknown, and generally all persons unknown; and require the complaint to state in general terms only that the plaintiff claims title in fee, describe the property with sufficient certainty for an officer on execution to identify it, and call on the defendants to set forth all their adverse claims.
South Dakota Unified Judicial System: court structure
The South Dakota Unified Judicial System explains that circuit courts are the state's trial courts and handle criminal and civil cases, that magistrate courts assist the circuit courts and handle misdemeanour criminal cases and minor civil cases, and that the Supreme Court is the state's highest court.
Regional Variances
South Dakota adverse possession rules at a glance
Ordinary statutory period
Twenty years. No action to recover real property is maintained unless the plaintiff or a predecessor was seized or possessed within twenty years before the action (SDCL 15-3-1), and the same figure governs the presumption in 15-3-7 and the written instrument route in 15-3-10.
Property taxes
A period shortener, not an element. The twenty year provisions never mention taxes. Ten successive years of paying all taxes legally assessed, with claim and color of title made in good faith, vests title under SDCL 15-3-15.
Vacant land route
Color of title made in good faith to vacant and unoccupied land plus all taxes legally assessed paid for ten successive years is enough, with no possession requirement at all (SDCL 15-3-16). Successors by purchase, devise or descent may complete the ten years.
Qualifying possession without paper
Two cases only, a substantial inclosure, or usual cultivation or improvement (SDCL 15-3-13), and only the premises actually occupied, and no other, are held adversely (15-3-12).
Color of title
On its own it does not shorten the twenty years. It widens qualifying use to four cases and reaches the premises the instrument includes, subject to the lots exception (SDCL 15-3-10 and 15-3-11). Paired with ten years of tax payments it becomes the short route.
Acreage cap
None. The only acreage reference in the chapter is the post judgment petition to determine the precise acreage for transferring real property tax responsibility (SDCL 15-3-21).
Land excluded from the tax routes
School lands, lands belonging to the United States or this state, religious or charitable societies, and lands held for a public purpose (SDCL 15-3-17). The tax routes also do not run against a titleholder under a disability (15-3-18).
Publicly owned land on the twenty year route
The chapter's express public land exclusion is written against the two tax sections only. Separately, the state will not sue over real property by reason of its own right or title unless that right accrued within forty years, or it received the rents and profits within forty years (SDCL 15-3-4), which limits the state's own suits rather than creating a route to state land.
Contracting out
Adjacent landowners in an unincorporated area may agree to waive the provisions of the chapter, using the statutory partition fence agreement form if they wish (SDCL 15-3-20).
Consequences of a judgment
The acquiring adjacent landowner becomes immediately liable for all future real estate taxes on the property, and the previous owner may petition a circuit court to fix the acreage transferred (SDCL 15-3-21). No agreement or determination affects existing utility lines (15-3-22).
Perfecting title
A quiet title action under SDCL 21-41-1, available whether the claimant is in or out of possession and whether the land is vacant or occupied, pleaded in the general terms section 21-41-11 allows, in the circuit court.
Frequently Asked Questions
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