West Virginia Squatter's Rights and Adverse Possession

W. Va. Code § 55-2-1 sets the limitations period for recovering land: "No person shall make an entry on, or bring an action to recover, any land, but within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or to bring such action shall have first accrued." A squatter must therefore possess the land for a continuous ten years, and West Virginia case law requires that the possession be hostile, actual, open and notorious, exclusive, and continuous for the entire period before title can ripen. A residential tenant in possession under a lease is not adversely possessing, and a holdover or trespasser is removed through the wrongful-occupation petition in § 55-3A-1 or an ejectment action, not by waiting out any short period.

No specific statutory penalty. An owner who acts within ten years can recover the land and remove the occupant; failure to act for the full ten-year period may bar an action to recover and allow the possessor to claim title.