Maryland Adverse Possession / Squatters' Rights (Cts & Jud. Proc. § 5-103)

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).