Florida Form DR-452: Filing an Adverse Possession Claim

Florida Form DR-452 is the one-page notarized return you file with your county property appraiser to declare an adverse possession claim on real property when you have no deed or other written instrument backing you up. Its full title is “Return of Real Property in Attempt to Establish Adverse Possession Without Color of Title,” and the form itself states in bold that filing it gives you no legal interest in the property. What it does is start the seven-year clock under Florida Statute 95.18 and put the county and the owner of record on notice that you are claiming the land.¹

Before You File: Possession Requirements

You have to already be in actual, continued possession of the property. Florida recognizes two ways to show it, and the form makes you check at least one: the property is protected by a substantial enclosure, or it has been cultivated, maintained, or improved in a usual manner.¹ A fence, a maintained garden, regular mowing, or structural improvements all count. Visiting the property or storing things on it does not.

Your possession also has to be exclusive, meaning you are not sharing control with the owner or the public, and hostile, meaning you are using the land as your own without the owner’s permission. If the owner let you use it, you are a licensee, and the DR-452 does nothing for you.

What Goes on the Form

You can download the form from the Florida Department of Revenue’s website or pick one up at your county property appraiser’s office.² It is short, but every field carries weight.

Claimant name and mailing address, where tax notices and correspondence should go.
A phone number for the property appraiser’s office.
The parcel ID. The form says “if available,” so it is not strictly required, but including it avoids processing delays. You can find it on the county property appraiser’s website by searching the address.
A checkbox if your claim covers only part of the parcel. Claiming a portion triggers a separate valuation process under Section 95.18(5).
The date you are submitting the form.
The date you entered into possession. This is the one that sets your deadlines and starts the seven-year clock, so get it right.
A full legal description of the property, not just the street address. Prior deeds, surveys, or county public records are where to look. For a partial parcel, you may need a surveyor to draft a description of the specific area.
The type of possession: substantial enclosure, cultivated/maintained/improved, or both.
A written description of your use. Specifics help. “Mowed and maintained the lawn, repaired the fence along the south boundary, and planted a vegetable garden” is far better than “general maintenance.”
The dates of any tax and lien payments you have made on the property.

At the bottom is a notarized attestation. You sign under penalty of perjury that the return is true and that you understand the form creates no enforceable legal interest in the property.³ A notary public has to witness your signature and seal it. Florida caps notary fees at $10 per act, so this step is cheap.⁴

Deadlines That Control the Filing

Two hard deadlines sit between you and a valid return.¹

Within one year of entering possession, pay every outstanding property tax and matured special improvement lien on the property.
Within 30 days of making those payments, submit the completed, notarized DR-452 to the property appraiser in the county where the land sits.

Miss either one and the property appraiser has grounds to reject the return. The statute requires refusal of any return that does not comply, and your seven-year clock never starts. There is no late filing.

Where and How to Submit

Deliver the notarized form to the property appraiser’s office in the county where the property is located. In person is cleanest: the form includes a section the property appraiser signs and dates confirming receipt, and you walk out with a signed copy.² If you mail it, use certified mail for proof of delivery. Keep your signed copy. You will need it if your claim is ever challenged.

Keeping the Claim Alive: Annual Taxes and the Owner’s Priority

Paying property taxes is the structural piece of an adverse possession claim, not a formality. Florida treats your willingness to pay the government’s assessments as the primary evidence that you are treating the land as your own.

After the initial catch-up payment, you have to keep paying every annual tax assessment for the rest of the seven-year period.¹ Payments go to the county tax collector and should be made under the parcel identification number.

The owner of record can beat you to it. Under Section 197.3335, if the owner pays the annual tax assessment before April 1 following the year the tax was assessed, the owner’s payment takes priority and the tax collector refunds yours within 60 days.⁵ When that happens, the property appraiser can remove your claim from the records. An attentive owner who just keeps paying the taxes can block the claim indefinitely without ever going to court.

Once the property appraiser accepts your return, the office mails a copy to the owner of record by regular mail at the address on the appraiser’s records.⁶ The notice explains the April 1 tax-payment priority. A notation is added to the legal description on the tax roll, and your name appears alongside the owner’s for tracking purposes. The return becomes a public record.

How the Owner Can Wipe Out Your Claim

The property appraiser must remove an adverse possession claim from the records in any of four situations:¹

You notify the property appraiser in writing that you are withdrawing.
The owner obtains a court order establishing title in their name, entered after the date your return was submitted.
You record a deed transferring title of the claimed property back to the owner.
The owner or the tax collector gives the property appraiser a receipt showing the owner paid the annual tax assessment during the period of your claim.

The last one is how most claims die. The owner does not need a lawyer or a courtroom. Paying the taxes and showing the receipt is enough. This is why adverse possession without color of title succeeds almost exclusively against truly absent or disinterested owners.

Criminal Risk if the Property Is Residential

The DR-452 prints a warning most claimants skim past. If you occupy or try to occupy a residential structure solely by claiming adverse possession before you have filed the return, you commit trespassing under Florida Statute 810.08.² Filing first is not blanket immunity, but occupying a home without filing exposes you to prosecution as an ordinary trespasser. The form also warns that offering such a property for lease to someone else while claiming adverse possession is theft under Florida Statute 812.014. If your claim involves a house or apartment, file the DR-452 and pay the outstanding taxes before you set foot inside.

What the Form Doesn’t Do

Filing the DR-452, paying every tax bill for seven years, and keeping the enclosure or improvements in place does not make you the owner. The form says so plainly. To turn adverse possession into recognized title, you have to file a quiet title action in the circuit court of the county where the property sits, and you cannot file it before the full seven years have run.¹ In that lawsuit you prove the possession was actual, continuous, exclusive, open, and hostile, that taxes were paid every year, that the return was filed on time, and that the property was enclosed or improved. If the court is satisfied, it enters a final judgment establishing your title and extinguishing the prior owner’s claim. Hold onto every tax receipt, your signed copy of the DR-452, dated photographs of your improvements and enclosures, and anything proving when you entered possession. Gaps in that paperwork are where most claims fall apart.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 95.18 – Real Property Actions; Adverse Possession Without Color of Title
2
Florida Department of Revenue. DR-452 Florida Adverse Possession Claim Form
3
Florida Department of Revenue. DR-452 Return of Real Property in Attempt to Establish Adverse Possession Without Color of Title
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 197.3335 – Tax Payments When Property Is Subject to Adverse Possession; Refunds
6
Florida Senate. Florida Code 95.18 – Real Property Actions; Adverse Possession Without Color of Title