Adverse Possession in Tennessee: Four Seven Year Sections and a Twenty Year Tax Bar
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Tennessee · Last updated October 5, 2026
Tennessee writes the number seven into four separate sections of its chapter on the limitation of real actions, and each one does a different job. Adverse possession is the rule that lets someone who openly occupies land they do not own become its legal owner after a set number of years, once every requirement has been met for the whole stretch. Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-101 vests a good and indefeasible title in fee after seven years' adverse possession of land covered by the state grants that section names, held under a conveyance, devise, grant or other assurance of title purporting to convey an estate in fee, and refuses to vest anything unless that instrument was recorded for the full seven years. Section 28-2-102 forever bars a record claimant who neglects for seven years to act against a possessor holding under a recorded assurance of title. Section 28-2-103 allows no action for the recovery of land but within seven years after the right of action accrued, and holds the claim to the adverse holder's actual possession until the muniment of title is duly recorded. Section 28-2-105 gives an absolute and indefeasible title where seven years of possession meet an instrument of record for thirty years or more, and 28-2-106 adds that where land is so held, not even the state of Tennessee may sustain an action to recover it. Alongside all of that, the Tennessee Supreme Court holds that twenty years of uninterrupted and continuous possession presumes a grant or deed, with no color of title required (Cumulus Broadcasting, Inc. v. Shim, 226 S.W.3d 366 (Tenn. 2007)). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
Find out where you stand in Tennessee
Which side of the boundary question are you on?
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How long does adverse possession take in Tennessee?
Seven years under the statutes. Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-103 allows no action for the recovery of land but within seven years after the right of action accrued, and 28-2-101 vests a title in fee after seven years held under a recorded assurance of title. Tennessee common law separately presumes a grant after twenty years.
Do you have to pay the property taxes to claim adverse possession in Tennessee?
No. The word tax appears nowhere in Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-101, 28-2-102, 28-2-103 or 28-2-105. Taxes matter a different way. Section 28-2-110 forever bars any action to recover land where the claimant's chain failed to have it assessed and to pay state and county taxes for more than twenty years.
How much land does a recorded deed reach in a Tennessee adverse possession case?
It can reach the whole described boundary. Tennessee holds that 28-2-102 gives protection as to the entire boundary as described where there is assurance of title and seven years possession, while 28-2-103, which does not involve color of title, protects the adverse holder only as to the portion of land in actual possession.
Can land owned by the state be taken by adverse possession in Tennessee?
Tennessee has no single blanket bar. Tenn. Code Ann. 28-1-113 provides that the limitation of actions title does not apply to actions brought by the state of Tennessee unless otherwise expressly provided, and 28-2-104 removes lands reserved for the use of schools from sections 28-2-101 through 28-2-103.
Tennessee 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 period. Tennessee sets that period at seven years, then spreads it across four sections that do four different things and conditions the strongest of them on recording. Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-101 vests a good and indefeasible title in fee only where the assurance of title was recorded in the register's office for the full seven years. Section 28-2-102 bars the record claimant. Section 28-2-103 holds a claim without a recorded muniment to the ground actually possessed. Section 28-2-105 turns seven years of possession plus an instrument of record for thirty years into an absolute title. Above all of that sits a judicial twenty year route needing no deed, and the twenty year tax bar in 28-2-110.
A Hawkins County hay field where the recording date carries the claim
Take a forty acre tract bought near Rogersville in 2012, its deed calls running about thirty feet past the true line and taking in a strip of the adjoining hay field that has been cut and baled every summer since. The deed went to the register's office the week of closing and has stayed there. That is exactly what the 28-2-101 route asks for: seven years' adverse possession held under an assurance of title purporting to convey an estate in fee, with the instrument recorded for the full seven years. Because the assurance describes the strip, Tennessee treats 28-2-102 as protection as to the entire boundary as described rather than only the mown ground. Whether these facts satisfy the statute is a question for the chancery court.
Relevant Laws
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-101 (seven years with a recorded assurance of title)
Provides that a person having seven years' adverse possession of lands granted by this state, or by the other grantor state the section names, holding by conveyance, devise, grant or other assurance of title purporting to convey an estate in fee, without a claim commenced and effectually prosecuted in that time, is vested with a good and indefeasible title in fee to the land described in the assurance, and that no title vests unless the assurance was recorded in the register's office for the full seven years.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-102 (action barred after seven years)
Provides that a person, and those claiming under that person, neglecting for the term of seven years to avail themselves of the benefit of any title, legal or equitable, by an action effectually prosecuted against the person in possession under recorded assurance of title as in 28-2-101, are forever barred.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-103 (seven years from accrual and the extent of possession)
Provides that no person shall have any action for the recovery of lands but within seven years after the right of action accrued, and that no possession is deemed to extend beyond the actual possession of an adverse holder until the muniment of title under which the holder claims is duly recorded in the county where the lands are located.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-104 (school lands)
Provides that sections 28-2-101 through 28-2-103 do not apply to lands, tenements or hereditaments reserved for the use of schools.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-105 and 28-2-106 (seven years plus a thirty year recording)
Section 28-2-105 vests an absolute and indefeasible title where a person and those through whom that person claims have been in adverse possession for seven years under a conveyance, devise, grant, decree of a court of record or other assurance of title purporting to convey an estate in fee that has been recorded, or entered on the court minutes, for thirty years or more. Section 28-2-106 provides that where land is so held, no person, whether upon disability or not, nor the state of Tennessee, shall commence or sustain an action for the recovery of it.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-108 (subordinate possession not adverse)
Provides that possession is not adverse within the meaning of the chapter, as to a person claiming a right or interest in the land, when taken and continued under a title bond, mortgage or other instrument acknowledging that right or interest, or when taken and continued in subordination to the right or interest of another.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-109 (presumption of ownership from twenty years of tax payment)
Provides that a person who has paid, or who and those through whom that person claims have paid, the state and county taxes on land for more than twenty years continuously before a question about it arises in any Tennessee court, and who has had recorded title for that same period of more than twenty years, is presumed prima facie to be the legal owner.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-110 (action barred by nonpayment of taxes)
Provides that a person having a claim to land subject to assessment for state and county taxes, who and those through whom that person claims failed to have it assessed and to pay any state and county taxes on it for more than twenty years, is forever barred from bringing any action to recover the land or its rents and profits, with exceptions for persons under eighteen or adjudicated incompetent and for actions contesting the lapse of a mineral interest.
Tenn. Code Ann. 28-1-113 (actions by the state)
Provides that the limitation of actions title does not apply to actions brought by the state of Tennessee unless otherwise expressly provided.
Tenn. Code Ann. 16-11-106 and 16-11-114 (chancery jurisdiction and venue)
Section 16-11-106 gives the chancery court jurisdiction over all cases in which the boundary line of adjoining or contiguous tracts is one, or the only, question at issue, and provides that a complete deraignment of title from a state grant or common source is not required as it is in ejectment. Section 16-11-114 requires bills seeking to divest or clear the title to land to be filed in the county in which the land, or a material part of it, lies.
Tenn. Code Ann. 29-29-101 (suits to quiet, perfect or adjudge title)
Describes the proceeding as a suit in equity brought under a court's general equity jurisdiction to quiet, perfect, or adjudge the title to real estate, or to remove clouds from the title, and allows persons not in being to be made defendants by general words of description.
Cumulus Broadcasting, Inc. v. Shim, 226 S.W.3d 366 (Tenn. 2007)
The Tennessee Supreme Court sets out the twenty year common law route, stating that common law adverse possession rests on the proposition that where one has remained in uninterrupted and continuous possession of land for twenty years a grant or deed will be presumed, that color of title is not required, that possession must have been exclusive, actual, adverse, continuous, open and notorious, and that the quality of the evidence must be clear and convincing. It also holds that the 28-2-110 bar does not apply to contiguous tracts where the area of dispute is not substantial and each owner paid taxes on their respective properties.
Regional Variances
Tennessee adverse possession rules at a glance
Statutory period
Seven years, in four sections with four effects. 28-2-101 vests a title in fee under a recorded assurance of title, 28-2-102 forever bars the neglecting record claimant, 28-2-103 allows no recovery action but within seven years after accrual, and 28-2-105 gives an absolute title where the instrument has been of record thirty years or more.
Common law period
Twenty years. The Tennessee Supreme Court states that common law adverse possession rests on the proposition that where one has remained in uninterrupted and continuous possession of land for twenty years, a grant or deed will be presumed, and that color of title is not required (Cumulus Broadcasting, Inc. v. Shim, 226 S.W.3d 366 (Tenn. 2007)).
Property taxes
Not an element and not a period shortener. The word tax does not appear in 28-2-101, 28-2-102, 28-2-103 or 28-2-105. Taxes operate through two separate twenty year rules instead: the 28-2-110 bar on suing after more than twenty years of non-assessment and nonpayment, and the 28-2-109 prima facie ownership presumption.
Elements
Exclusive, actual, adverse, continuous, open and notorious for the requisite period, proved by clear and convincing evidence. Section 28-2-108 adds a statutory negative: possession taken and continued under an instrument acknowledging another's right, or in subordination to it, is not adverse.
Color of title
Shortens nothing. It decides which section applies and how far the claim reaches. Tennessee treats 28-2-102 as protection as to the entire boundary as described, and 28-2-103, which does not involve color of title, as protecting only the portion in actual possession. The twenty year route needs no instrument.
Recording requirement
Load bearing. Section 28-2-101 vests no title unless the conveyance, devise, grant or other assurance of title was recorded in the register's office of the county or counties where the land lies during the full term of the seven years.
Acreage cap
None. Tenn. Code Ann. 28-2-101 through 28-2-112, the chapter governing the limitation of real actions, imposes no acreage limit on a claim.
Government owned land
No single blanket bar. Section 28-1-113 provides that the limitation of actions title does not apply to actions brought by the state of Tennessee unless otherwise expressly provided, 28-2-104 removes school lands from 28-2-101 through 28-2-103, and 28-2-106 expressly provides that where land is held as in 28-2-105 not even the state may sustain a recovery action.
Tacking
Allowed where there is no hiatus. Tennessee requires that the adverse possessor intended to and actually did turn over possession of the land, and intent may be shown by parol evidence or implied from circumstances.
Perfecting title
A suit in equity to quiet, perfect, or adjudge the title to real estate, or to remove clouds from the title (29-29-101), filed in the county where the land or a material part of it lies (16-11-114), with the chancery court holding jurisdiction where a boundary line is the only question (16-11-106).
Frequently Asked Questions
Other Tennessee guides
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