Senate File 2212

                                       SENATE FILE       
                                       BY  COMMITTEE ON NATURAL
                                           RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

                                       (SUCCESSOR TO SSB 3115)


    Passed Senate, Date               Passed House,  Date             
    Vote:  Ayes        Nays           Vote:  Ayes        Nays         
                 Approved                            

                                      A BILL FOR

  1 An Act abolishing the doctrine of adverse possession of real
  2    property.
  3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
  4 TLSB 6579SV 80
  5 rh/pj/5

PAG LIN

  1  1    Section 1.  Section 306A.5, unnumbered paragraph 2, Code
  1  2 2003, is amended by striking the unnumbered paragraph.
  1  3    Sec. 2.  Section 448.16, unnumbered paragraph 2, Code 2003,
  1  4 is amended to read as follows:
  1  5    At the expiration of the period of one hundred twenty days,
  1  6 if no such claim has been filed, all persons shall thereafter
  1  7 be forever barred and estopped from having or claiming any
  1  8 right, title, or interest in the parcel adverse to the tax
  1  9 title or purported tax title, and no action shall thereafter
  1 10 be brought to recover the parcel, and the then tax=title owner
  1 11 or owner of the purported tax title shall also have acquired
  1 12 title to the parcel by adverse possession.
  1 13    Sec. 3.  Section 557.1, Code 2003, is amended to read as
  1 14 follows:
  1 15    557.1  WHO DEEMED SEIZED.
  1 16    All persons owning real estate not held by an adverse
  1 17 possession shall be deemed to be seized and possessed of the
  1 18 same.
  1 19    Sec. 4.  NEW SECTION.  557.5A  ADVERSE POSSESSION
  1 20 ABOLISHED.
  1 21    The common law doctrine of adverse possession is hereby
  1 22 abolished and is declared not to be a part of the law of this
  1 23 state.
  1 24    Sec. 5.  Section 589.24, Code 2003, is amended to read as
  1 25 follows:
  1 26    589.24  DEFECTIVE INSTRUMENTS.
  1 27    A deed of conveyance, or other instrument purporting to
  1 28 convey real estate within the state, where the deed or
  1 29 instrument has been recorded in the office of the recorder of
  1 30 any county in which the real estate is situated, and the deed
  1 31 or instrument was executed by a county treasurer under a tax
  1 32 sale, a sheriff under execution sale, or by a resident or
  1 33 foreign executor, administrator, referee, receiver, trustee,
  1 34 guardian, commissioner, individual, copartnership,
  1 35 association, or corporation, and was executed and recorded
  2  1 more than ten years earlier, and if the grantee named in the
  2  2 deed or conveyance, or other instrument, or the grantee's
  2  3 heirs or devisees, by direct line of title or conveyance have
  2  4 been in the actual, open, adverse possession of the premises
  2  5 since that date, is legalized, valid, and binding,
  2  6 notwithstanding defects in the execution of the deed or
  2  7 instrument.
  2  8    Sec. 6.  Section 614.32, subsection 3, Code 2003, is
  2  9 amended by striking the subsection.
  2 10    Sec. 7.  Sections 557.5 and 564.1, Code 2003, are repealed.
  2 11                           EXPLANATION
  2 12    This bill eliminates the statutory and common law doctrine
  2 13 of adverse possession of real property in Iowa.  The doctrine
  2 14 of adverse possession allows a person who does not have title
  2 15 to or the right to use certain real estate to claim title to
  2 16 or the right to use the real estate by occupying the property
  2 17 in a hostile, actual, open, exclusive, and continuous manner
  2 18 for at least 10 years.
  2 19 LSB 6579SV 80
  2 20 rh/pj/5