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| - Investigation: Misleading claims about property takeover in US spread on Chinese internet
Chris Wat Wing-yin, a well-known talk show host and political commentator in Hong Kong, claimed on a TVB political talk show on July 5 that a squatter needs 30 days to take over the legal ownership of a house in the U.S. state of New York.
In an episode of “Speaking Up” (“有理說得清” in Chinese), Wat discussed the issues surrounding squatters’ rights and the legal doctrine of “adverse possession” in the United States.
A “squatter” is “a person who is living in a building or on land without permission and without paying rent,” according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary.
Adverse possession refers to the situation in which a person who does not have legal ownership of a land or a property acquires ownership through long-term occupation of the land or property without permission.
In the show, Wat said: “For example, in New York state, as long as a squatter stays in a house for 30 days, they can obtain squatter’s rights, allowing them to continue living there. It will be extremely difficult for the homeowner to evict them” (“舉個例紐約州，只要佔屋者在一間屋逗留滿30日，就可以獲得佔屋權利，你就可以一直住下去，屋主要將你驅逐極為困難”).
But throughout the two-minute monologue, she did not differentiate squatters’ rights from adverse possession. For example, at the end of the episode, she said that “in New York, adverse possession can be achieved after 30 days” (“像紐約那樣，30天就可以逆權侵佔”).
Squatters’ rights do not guarantee adverse possession, contrary to what Wat said. Adverse possession is much more challenging to achieve than simply gaining squatters’ rights.
Squatters’ rights do include the possibility of claiming ownership later, but only if the squatter meets all the requirements for adverse possession over an extended period.
The show’s broadcast was also uploaded on TVB’s official YouTube channel, which has more than 50,000 views and 4,300 likes.
Annie Lab reached out to TVB multiple times and asked for clarification but did not get any reply by the time of publication.
Similar claims on social media
Similar claims about adverse possession in the U.S. also circulated on Chinese-language social media.
For example, Annie Lab found a video on Xiaohongshu, a popular short video platform, claiming that in the United States, a person who lives in an abandoned house for five years and pays for their electricity and water bills will gain ownership of the house.
The Xiaohongshu clip, which received more than 10,000 likes, was also reposted on TikTok.
The 25-second video, posted in late June, shows a deserted house, allegedly near downtown Atlanta, the state capital of Georgia, and encourages the viewers to occupy the house, purportedly valued at around US$600,000.
The issue of squatter’s rights circulated in Chinese after it became a hot topic among American conservatives earlier this year when viral conflicts sparked Republican lawmakers proposing anti-squatting legislations across the country, including New York state.
The bills, which got bipartisan support, were slammed by critics who called squatting “an extremely rare issue” and the political moves “a manufactured crisis.”
Adverse possession requirements in the United States
Both the TVB show host and the Xiaohongshu influencer incorrectly described the U.S. law regarding adverse possession.
U.S. lawyers with knowledge of property law told Annie Lab that the requirements for adverse possession are substantially different from state to state and often complicated.
According to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School, adverse possession must meet five conditions: continuous, hostile, open and notorious, actual, and exclusive. It also explains that the duration of property occupation varies between states.
However, “a judge might have his own opinion about the rules,” said Paul Golden, a New York City-based lawyer and author of the book “Litigating Adverse Possession Cases: Pirates v. Zombies.” “The law on adverse possession is complicated,” he added.
New York state recognises a person residing in a property for more than 30 days as a tenant, thus giving them tenants’ rights. The property owner would need the court to evict the tenant.
In April this year, New York state’s property law was changed, which now stipulates “a tenant should not include a squatter.” It ends the rights of squatters to be legally recognized as tenants even after they live in a property longer than 30 days.
The new law makes it “explicit that a landowner does not need to go to court to evict a squatter” because it indicates a squatter would not be regarded as a “true tenant,” Golden told Annie Lab.
“You can call the police, and ask the police to remove a squatter,” he said.
Meanwhile, New York state’s adverse possession law stipulates that a person living in a property without the consent of the owner can claim ownership if they live in the premises for 10 consecutive years.
‘Five years plus paying utility bills’ is not enough
Emily Doskow, a California-based lawyer who has written about adverse possession laws in different states, told Annie Lab that it was “misleading and arguably inaccurate” to claim living five years in the property and paying utility bills would be enough for adverse possession, as alleged in the Xiaohongshu and TikTok video.
Doskow directed Annie Lab to her online article, “State-by-State Rules for Adverse Possession,” which lists the number of years required for continuous possession of a property.
There are states that require a minimum of five years of continuous possession, but they also demand other additional conditions.
For example, in California and Montana, the adverse possessor must also pay all taxes levied on the property in a timely manner during the five-year period to fulfill the requirement to make a potential claim.
Among the 42 states that allow adverse possession claims without any other conditions besides occupying the premises, 14 of them require 10 years, 10 states need 15-18 years, while 16 states demand 20-21 years. Louisiana and New Jersey require 30 years.
Utility bill payments are not mentioned in Doskow’s list.
Golden told Annie Lab that most successful adverse possession cases are actually about “taking over space which has no structure on it.” Most house owners would not wait for years to take the occupied property back, he added.
Clips of ‘abandoned house’
Annie Lab also tracked down two clips of “the abandoned house” featured in the Xiaohongshu and TikTok video, and found neither of them is in Georgia.
Through a reverse image search, we found that the video features a building nicknamed “Witch’s Hat House,” located in Senecaville, Guernsey county, Ohio. A website about abandoned sites in the U.S. shows this property.
Images of the house can also be found on Flickr and YouTube.
The glass windows and the doors shown in the video belong to the Dunnington Mansion, also known as Poplar Hill, a derelict Victorian mansion in Farmville, Virginia. The clip corresponds with some photos posted on the Dunnington Mansion Foundation’s Facebook page, such as here and here.
Social media users also posted similar photos of the mansion on Instagram and Reddit.
According to the foundation’s website, the mansion is open for guided tours and available for rent for photography shoots, music and film productions.
Local newspaper The Farmville Herald reported that Manor Development, the owner of the Dunnington Mansion, has put up the manor and the surrounding property for sale.
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