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ENGROSSED
SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6323
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Passed
Legislature - 1998 Regular Session
State
of Washington 55th Legislature 1998 Regular Session
By
Read
first time 02/06/98.
Clarifying the law of adverse possession affecting forest
land.
AN
ACT Relating to adverse possession affecting forest land; and adding a new
section to chapter 7.28 RCW.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 1. A
new section is added to chapter 7.28 RCW to read as follows:
(1)
In any action seeking to establish an adverse claimant as the legal owner of a
fee or other interest in forest land based on a claim of adverse possession,
and in any defense to an action brought by the holder of record title for
recovery of title to or possession of a fee or other interest in forest land
where such defense is based on a claim of adverse possession, the adverse
claimant shall not be deemed to have established open and notorious possession
of the forest lands at issue unless, as a minimum requirement, the adverse
claimant establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the adverse claimant
has made or erected substantial improvements, which improvements have remained
entirely or partially on such lands for at least ten years. If the interests
of justice so require, the making, erecting, and continuous presence of
substantial improvements on the lands at issue, in the absence of additional
acts by the adverse claimant, may be found insufficient to establish open and
notorious possession.
(2)
This section shall not apply to any adverse claimant who establishes by clear
and convincing evidence that the adverse claimant occupied the lands at issue
and made continuous use thereof for at least ten years in good faith reliance
on location stakes or other boundary markers set by a registered land surveyor
purporting to establish the boundaries of property to which the adverse
claimant has record title.
(3)
For purposes of this section:
(a)
"Adverse claimant" means any person, other than the holder of record
title, occupying the lands at issue together with any prior occupants of the
land in privity with such person by purchase, devise, or decent;
(b)
"Claim of adverse possession" does not include a claim asserted under
RCW 7.28.050, 7.28.070, or 7.28.080;
(c)
"Forest land" has the meaning given in RCW 84.33.100; and
(d)
"Substantial improvement" means a permanent or semipermanent
structure or enclosure for which the costs of construction exceeded fifty
thousand dollars.
(4)
This section shall not apply to any adverse claimant who, before the effective
date of this act, acquired title to the lands in question by adverse possession
under the law then in effect.
(5)
This section shall not apply to any adverse claimant who seeks to assert a
claim or defense of adverse possession in an action against any person who, at
the time such action is commenced, owns less than twenty acres of forest land
in the state of Washington.
Passed the Senate February 17, 1998.
Passed the House March 3, 1998.
Approved by the Governor
March 18, 1998.
Filed
in Office of Secretary of State March 18, 1998.
