The Essence of Acquisitive Prescription
Acquisitive prescription is a situation in which a natural or legal person, who is not the owner of a thing, but has acquired it in good faith and has possessed it lawfully, openly, continuously, and as their own, for at least ten years in the case of immovable property, or at least three years in the case of movable property, during which the owner had the legal possibility to exercise their right to the property but never did so, acquires ownership rights to that property.
Acquisitive prescription is a primary method of acquiring ownership rights to property. In acquiring ownership rights through acquisitive prescription, there is no intention of one person to transfer the property to another person – the acquirer – nor is there any succession of rights.
Main characteristics of acquisitive prescription:
- Good faith acquisition of the property,
- Uninterrupted possession over a long period, often equated with the limitation period for the protection of infringed ownership rights,
- The owner’s legal possibility to use the property but voluntary non-exercise of this right during that period,
- Confirmation of the fact of acquisitive prescription by judicial procedure.
Acquisitive Prescription – Additional Conditions and Limitations
Under acquisitive prescription, a person may acquire ownership only of those things that may be objects of private ownership rights. Conversely, ownership cannot be acquired through acquisitive prescription if the thing has been taken secretly or by force, regardless of whether the person seeks to acquire it in such a way personally or through others. Ownership rights also cannot be acquired by acquisitive prescription over property belonging to the state or a municipality, or over property registered in the name of another person (who is not the possessor).
A person acquiring ownership by acquisitive prescription must be not only a good-faith acquirer, meaning that at the moment of taking possession they had reasonable grounds to believe that no one else had a superior right to the thing, but must also remain a good-faith possessor throughout the entire period of acquisitive prescription, and at the moment of acquiring ownership must not be aware of any obstacles that would prevent them from acquiring the property, if such obstacles exist. The dishonest acquisition or possession of a part of a thing does not prevent the possessor from acquiring by prescription other parts that were acquired and possessed in good faith. If possession rights are acquired through an agent, the requirement of good faith applies both to the agent and to the principal.
Possession of a thing is considered uninterrupted when the person has possessed it continuously from the moment of acquiring possession rights until acquiring ownership rights through acquisitive prescription. If during the acquisitive prescription period possession passed successively to several persons, each of whom possessed the thing in good faith, lawfully, openly, and continuously for the required period, and the owner had the legal possibility to exercise their right to the thing but never did so, the periods of possession are counted together. Acquisitive prescription is not interrupted by loss of possession without the will of the possessor if possession is recovered within one year. If the owner of a thing for which the acquisitive prescription period is running had no legal possibility to exercise their right to the thing, the calculation of the acquisitive prescription period is suspended for as long as the obstacle exists.