Adverse Possession in Arkansas: Requirements, Taxes, and Time Limits

Adverse possession in Arkansas lets someone gain legal ownership of another person’s land, but only after clearing a demanding set of requirements: color of title, seven consecutive years of paying property taxes, and possession that is open, continuous, exclusive, and hostile to the record owner. Even after all of that, ownership does not transfer automatically. The claimant has to go to court and win a quiet title action before the county records catch up.

What a Claimant Has to Prove

Arkansas stacks two sets of requirements. The common-law elements have been part of the state’s property law for generations, and the legislature later layered statutory requirements on top. A claimant has to satisfy both.

The common-law side asks whether the possession was:

Open and notorious. Visible enough that a reasonable observer would see someone treating the land as their own. Fencing, mowing, gardening, farming, or building all qualify. Hidden use does not.
Hostile. Against the rights of the true owner. The claimant must act as though they genuinely believe the land is theirs, in good faith.
Exclusive. The claimant is the sole occupant. If the record owner is also using the land, exclusivity fails.
Continuous. No gaps. Two years on, four years off, one year back on does not count.

The statutory side then requires color of title and payment of ad valorem (property) taxes during the statutory period.¹ In plain terms, squatting for seven years is not enough. There has to be a paper trail: a document that at least appears to give you title, and receipts showing you paid the taxes.

Color of Title and Paying the Taxes

Color of title means a document that looks like it transfers ownership to you, even if the document is legally defective. A deed with a flawed legal description, a tax deed from an improper sale, or a will that was never properly probated can all serve. The document has to exist and has to purport to convey the property.

Arkansas law ties color of title directly to tax payments. For unimproved and unenclosed land, paying property taxes for at least seven consecutive years while holding color of title establishes constructive possession.² The claimant, and anyone they claim through, must have paid without a break. If the true owner also paid taxes during that window, or made a good-faith effort to pay taxes that the taxing authority misapplied, the claim fails.¹

Entities that are legally exempt from paying property taxes still have to meet every other requirement, including holding color of title for at least seven years and maintaining actual or constructive possession.¹

Seven Years or Fifteen Years

Which timeline applies depends on the type of land.

Unimproved and unenclosed land — 7 years. Hold color of title and pay the taxes for seven consecutive years.²
Wild and unimproved land — 15 years. Paying taxes for fifteen consecutive years creates a legal presumption of color of title, even without a deed or other written instrument. Wild land, by definition, has no improvements or fences signaling a claim, and the longer period makes up for that.³
Contiguous property — 7 years. A claimant who holds color of title to land next to the disputed parcel and pays taxes on that adjoining land for seven years can bring an adverse possession claim over the neighbor’s strip too.¹

The contiguous-property route catches most people off guard. A landowner who has been paying taxes on their own parcel for seven or more years and treating a neighbor’s adjacent strip as their own may have a viable claim without ever holding a deed to that strip.

Public Land Is Off Limits

No amount of time, tax payment, or good-faith belief creates an adverse possession claim over public land. Within cities and incorporated towns, no one can acquire title or possession rights to any street, alley, or public park through adverse possession, and local authorities keep full power to open or reopen those areas regardless of how long someone has occupied them.⁴ At the county level, a parallel statute extends the same protection to public roads, highways, and parks, and also covers land that a private landowner platted and dedicated to the public.⁵

Where Hostility Claims Fail

Hostility trips up more claims than any other element. In everyday language, “hostile” does not mean aggressive. It means the claimant treated the property as their own without permission from the true owner. Arkansas courts have generally required the claimant to show a genuine, good-faith belief in ownership. Someone who knows the land belongs to another and moves in anyway may not clear that bar.

This is also where Arkansas law gets murky. There has been longstanding confusion in the courts about whether an honest mistake — a neighbor who genuinely thought the fence was on the line — satisfies hostility. Some decisions have treated honest mistake as sufficient; others have been more demanding.

Courts also look at the quality of the possession itself. Occasional use, such as hunting on the land a few times a year, generally falls short. Farming a parcel for decades can establish the open, continuous, and exclusive control courts look for. Fencing, clearing, gardening, and building all strengthen a claim because they are visible to anyone paying attention.

When Boundary by Acquiescence Fits Better

Where two neighbors have treated a fence line, tree row, or other landmark as the property boundary for a long time, the dispute may be better suited to a claim of boundary by acquiescence rather than adverse possession. That doctrine asks for three things: a tacit agreement between the parties, recognition of the boundary for an extended period, and a fixed line that is definite and certain.

Boundary by acquiescence has become an increasingly popular route in Arkansas because it sidesteps the hardest parts of an adverse possession claim. It does not require proof of subjective intent, and it has fewer elements overall. For a neighbor who has respected a shared fence for decades but lacks color of title or a tax history on the disputed strip, this alternative may be the stronger path. It only applies to boundary disputes between adjacent landowners, though, not to claims over entirely separate parcels.

Filing a Quiet Title Action

Meeting the elements does not automatically transfer title. In Arkansas, the claimant has to go to court and file a quiet title action to get a judge to formally recognize the ownership change. Without that step, the county land records still show the original owner, and the claimant has no clean title to sell, mortgage, or insure.

Any person claiming to own wild or improved land, or land they are physically occupying, may petition the circuit court to confirm and quiet their title.⁶ The petition is filed in the circuit court of the county where the land sits and must describe the property and present facts showing a prima facie right to it.⁷

Before the court will act, the claimant has to search public records — land title records, county tax records, probate records, and Secretary of State business filings — to identify anyone who might have an interest in the land. Every identified person receives notice by certified mail, and the claimant also has to post a notice of the pending action on the property itself. If certified mail comes back undelivered, the statute requires a follow-up by regular mail.⁷

Quiet title actions are not quick or cheap. Between court filing fees, a professional land survey to establish exact boundaries, and attorney fees, claimants should expect meaningful upfront costs. Consulting a real estate attorney before filing is closer to a necessity than a suggestion.

How an Owner Blocks a Claim

If you own land in Arkansas and someone else is using it, staying engaged with the property is your best defense. Pay your property taxes every year without fail. Under the statute, if the record owner has also paid taxes during the claimed period, the adverse possession claim cannot succeed.¹

Beyond taxes, inspect the land regularly, especially vacant or rural parcels that are easy to overlook. If you find someone occupying your property, granting them written permission to be there destroys the hostility element, because permissive use is not adverse by definition. You can also file a trespass action or your own quiet title action to force the issue into court before the statutory period runs out. The worst outcome for a landowner is learning about an adverse possession claim only after the seven or fifteen years have already passed.