Q: Do I own an easement under California's adverse possession law?
I live in a house with an easement. A fence has been around the easement for some twenty-plus years. Although the HOA was supposed to maintain it, it has not. Five years ago, my wife and I purchased the house. The easement is inside our property line, we pay taxes on it, and it is fenced off. I have maintained it better than it has been in its entire existence, I believe. However, currently, we have an insane group of people on our board that want to control everything. They are threatening to tear down my fence and landscaping because I have no record of permission for the fence, and because they are supposed to have access to the easement for landscaping (the irony, ugh). Can I claim this thing as my property under California's adverse possession law?
A: To claim the property you must prove (1) that the property was openly and notoriously occupied and used for the purpose it was intended(2) that you paid taxes on the property. I suspect that an adverse possession claim would fail on the tax issue [it usually does unless someone has consulted an attorney with the strategy of adversely possessing].
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