BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1684
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 16, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mike Feuer, Chair
AB 1684 (Jeffries) - As Amended: March 11, 2010
PROPOSED CONSENT
SUBJECT : Adverse Possession: Payment of Taxes
KEY ISSUE : Should a person claiming title to land as an adverse
possessor be required to prove, by certified records of the
county tax collector, that he or she has paid all taxes levied
upon the property continuously throughout the required five year
period?
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print this bill is keyed
non-fiscal.
SYNOPSIS
This bill seeks to address the problem of persons who attempt to
acquire land by adverse possession by paying taxes on the land
even though they do not own or occupy that land. "Adverse
possession" permits a person to acquire title to land if the
person has "openly, continuously, and notoriously" occupied such
land for a prescribed statutory period and the rightful owner
has not exercised his or her right to remove the adverse
possessor during that period. California, like many other
states, requires additionally that the adverse possessor must
have paid all taxes levied upon the land during the five year
period that the adverse possessor openly and continuously
occupied the land. In recent years, a number of county tax
collectors have noted that modern-day land "speculators" are
attempting to make payments on mostly rural parcels of land in
hopes of building a claim for title to the land, even though the
speculator is not using or occupying the land in question. This
bill, which is sponsored by the California Association of County
Treasurers and Tax Collectors (CACTTC), addresses the situation
in which a speculator attempts to make a lump-sum tax payment on
a parcel with an outstanding tax obligation and then claims to
have continuously and openly occupied the land for the entire
five-year period. This bill would clarify that the adverse
possessor must make timely payments throughout the statutory
period and that this must be established by certified records of
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the county tax collector. There is no known opposition to this
bill.
SUMMARY : Provides that annual payment of taxes, which is
already a required element of adverse possession in California,
must be established by certified records of the county tax
collector and show that the taxes were paid continuously
throughout the five year statutory period. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Provides that for purposes of constituting an adverse
possession, in addition to meeting other prescribed elements,
the person claiming title as an adverse possessor, or the
person's predecessors and grantors, shall have timely paid all
state, county, or municipal taxes that have been levied and
assessed upon the land for such period of five years during
which the land has been occupied and claimed.
2)Specifies that payment of taxes, in the manner described
above, must be established by certified records of the county
tax collector.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides generally, in case law, that to establish a claim to
property by adverse possession, the claimant must prove all of
the following: (1) possession under claim of right or color of
title; (2) actual, open, and notorious occupation of premises
sufficient to give reasonable notice to the true owner; (3)
possession which is adverse to the true owner; (4) continuous
possession for at least five years; and (5) payment of all
taxes assessed and levied against the property during the
five-year period. (Mehdizadeh v. Mincer (1996) 46 Cal. App.
4th 1296.)
2)Provides that, for purposes of constituting adverse possession
by a person claiming title, not founded upon a written
instrument, judgment, or decree, land is deemed to have been
possessed and occupied where it has been (1) protected by
substantial enclosure and (2) usually cultivated or improved.
Provided, however, that in no case shall adverse possession be
considered established unless it is shown that the land has
been occupied and claimed for the period of five years
continuously, and the party or persons, their predecessors or
grantors, have paid all taxes, State, county, or municipal,
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which have been levied and assessed upon such land. (Code of
Civil Procedure Section 325.)
3)Provides a process by which a property owner of record may
instruct a tax collector, by written request, to refund a
replicated, or second, payment on a current property tax
assessment to the tendering party who is not the owner of
record. (Revenue & Taxation Code Section 2781.5.)
COMMENTS : This bill, like last year's AB 143 by the same
author, seeks to address the problem of persons attempting to
acquire land by adverse possession by paying taxes on land that
they do not own and that they have not occupied. Specifically,
this bill addresses a problem in which would-be adverse
possessors scan tax records for parcels of land with outstanding
tax obligations, make a lump-sum payment of taxes for the
previous five years, and then claim that they have occupied the
land for that five-year period. Last year's bill addressed the
problem of persons attempting to make payments prior to any
payment made by the owner of record, so that the claimant's
payment would take precedence over the payment of the true
owner. This bill addresses the problem of persons who attempt
to make post hoc payments on land with outstanding tax
obligations.
Background : The centuries-old common law doctrine of "adverse
possession" permits a person to acquire title to land if the
person has "openly, continuously, and notoriously" occupied land
for a prescribed statutory period and the rightful owner, who is
presumed to have notice of this occupation, has not exercised
his or her right to remove the adverse possessor during the
statutory period. Historically, this doctrine prevented land
owners from letting land sit idle while others were willing to
productively use and improve the land. Traditionally statutory
periods ran from 15 to 20 years, but California has adopted a
relatively short statutory period of five years. California
also imposes an additional statutory requirement that, in order
to prevail on the claim, the adverse possessor must have paid
all taxes assessed and levied upon the land during the five year
period.
In recent years, some county tax collectors have pointed out
that modern-day land "speculators" are attempting to make
payments on rural parcels of land in hopes of building a claim
for title to the land, even though they are not using or
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occupying the land in question. (See e.g. "Obscure Law That
Benefits Squatters Criticized," Riverside County
Press-Enterprise, June 22, 2007.) Last year's measure created a
mechanism by which a tax collector could return a redundant
payment to the payer who was not the owner of record.
(Previously the tax collector was required to return the payment
to the party that made the later payment, so that the adverse
possessor would be credited with paying the tax if his payment
arrived before the true owner's payment.) This bill, on the
other hand, addresses a situation in which a speculator attempts
to make a lump sum payment on a parcel with taxes due and then
attempts to claim that he or she has continuously and openly
occupied the land for the entire period. This bill would
clarify that the adverse possessor must establish, by certified
records of the county tax collector, that he or she made those
tax payments continuously throughout the required five year
period. There is no known opposition to this bill. Last year's
measure, which was signed by the Governor and chaptered,
received unanimous votes in all committee and floor votes in
both the Assembly and the Senate.
Prior Legislation . AB 143 (Ch. 95, Stats of 2009) created a
mechanism for a county tax collector to refund a replicated
property tax payment to a person who is not the property owner
but who has paid the property tax on the current assessment of
that property.
AB 1959 (Jeffries) 2007-08 legislative session was nearly
identical to AB 143, above. AB 1959 passed out of the Assembly,
was amended in the Senate, was returned for concurrence in the
Assembly, but was never taken up for concurrence before the
session ended.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors
(sponsor)
Opposition
None on file
AB 1684
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Analysis Prepared by : Thomas Clark / JUD. / (916) 319-2334