A squatter cannot gain title quickly in New Jersey. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-30, thirty years of actual, continuous possession of real estate vests title in the possessor, and sixty years is required for woodlands or uncultivated tracts. The possession must be open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and uninterrupted, and time can be tacked across successive occupiers.
New Jersey's adverse-possession period is among the nation's longest. N.J.S.A. 2A:14-30 provides that thirty years' actual possession of any real estate, excepting woodlands or uncultivated tracts, and sixty years' actual possession of woodlands or uncultivated tracts, "uninterruptedly continued by occupancy, descent, conveyance or otherwise," vests a full and complete title in the possessor and bars the prior owner's claim. A related limitations statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:14-31, bars recovery of real estate after 60 years regardless. Courts require the possession to be actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile for the full term; a predecessor's qualifying possession may be "tacked" to a successor's to total the years.
No specific statutory penalty. A squatter without the full statutory period has no possessory right and is a trespasser subject to ejectment; a record owner who proves up adverse possession under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-30 may quiet title against competing claims.
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