Maryland requires 20 years of adverse possession before a squatter can claim land. Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-103, an owner must file to recover possession or enter the land within 20 years after the cause of action accrues, after which open, continuous, hostile possession can ripen into title.
Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-103 sets the limitations period: "Within 20 years from the date the cause of action accrues, a person shall: (1) File an action for recovery of possession of a corporeal freehold or leasehold estate in land; or (2) Enter on the land." Because the true owner's right to eject is barred after 20 years, possession that is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous for the full 20-year period can ripen into title by adverse possession. The statute also preserves the common-law doctrine of prescription for incorporeal interests acquired by adverse use and cross-references Real Property §§ 6-103 and 8-107. The remaining adverse-possession elements come from Maryland case law rather than a single statute.
No statutory penalty; adverse possession is a civil limitations and quiet-title matter resolved between the record owner and the possessor in court (Cts & Jud. Proc. § 5-103).
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Glen Burnie, MD
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