Yes, in Massachusetts you can gain title to a neighbor’s land by using it as your own, without permission, for twenty years, and you can gain a right to keep using a path across it. In this case the Appeals Court affirmed a Land Court judgment giving homeowners title to part of a wooded lot they had folded into their backyard, plus an easement over a trail to a pond. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
The homeowners bought their house in Hingham in 1997. Next door was a wooded lot. Over the following twenty-two years they fenced part of it for their dog, planted and mowed a lawn, trimmed and removed trees, stacked firewood, built a water feature and later a chicken coop, made a pet cemetery, held parties, and cut and maintained a trail through the woods to the pond. A company bought the wooded lot in December 2019, conflict started almost at once, and the homeowners sued that same month. After trial, the judge allowed them to amend their complaint to add a claim for an easement over the trail, and the company appealed.
What the court decided
The Appeals Court affirmed in Lewiecki v. Pepper Grove, LLC, No. 23-P-1110 (Mass. App. Ct. January 7, 2025) (Rule 23.0 decision). It ruled on three points.
Adverse possession. To gain title, you must prove use that is actual, open, notorious, exclusive and adverse, without the owner’s permission, for twenty years. Lawrence v. Concord, 439 Mass. 416 (2003). The company argued that many of the homeowners’ activities, like the fence and the fire pit, did not last the full twenty years. The court disagreed. Citing Mancini v. Spagtacular, LLC, 95 Mass. App. Ct. 836 (2019), it explained that family use of a yard naturally rises and falls over the years. The real question is whether the claimant kept dominion and control over the land for the whole period. The judge had walked the land, found most of the area clearly different from the untended woods around it, and rejected the claim for two pieces that looked like ordinary woodland. Those findings were not clearly wrong.
The wooded section. The company argued that the part with trees was woodland, which must be fenced or cultivated to be taken by adverse possession. The court said the rule for wild land is just a way of asking whether the owner was put on notice. Here the judge found this section was distinct from the nearby woods, and the use was pronounced enough.
The trail easement. A prescriptive easement under G.L. c. 187, § 2, requires use that is open, notorious, adverse and continuous for at least twenty years. Exclusive use is not required. Boothroyd v. Bogartz, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 40 (2007). The trail was a distinct path, still visible at the view, and the family had walked dogs and carried a canoe over it to the pond for over twenty years. A neighbor had seen them use it often.
The late amendment. A judge may allow a complaint to be amended to match the evidence, even after trial, unless the other side shows serious prejudice. St. Clair v. Trustees of Boston Univ., 25 Mass. App. Ct. 662 (1988). The trails were part of the view, the testimony and both sides’ post-trial briefs, so the company was on notice that the trail was in dispute.
What this means for you
If you have treated a strip of a neighbor’s land as part of your yard for decades, you may own it. You do not need to show the same activity every single year. Courts look at the whole picture: lawns, plantings, structures, fences, maintenance and family use over time. What hurts a claim is land that looks no different from the wild woods next to it.
If you are the owner of the land, the lesson runs the other way. A neighbor’s quiet, long use of your property can ripen into ownership or a permanent right of way. In this case, the company bought the lot after more than twenty years of the neighbors’ use had already passed.
The case also shows that how a trial goes matters. If the evidence and arguments cover an issue, a court may let the pleadings catch up to it afterward.
What to do now
- Gather proof of your use by year: photos, receipts for plantings, fencing or structures, and the names of neighbors who saw it.
- Get a survey that marks exactly which area you used and which path you walked. Courts award only what the evidence defines.
- Keep maintaining the area and path in the same way, and keep records of when any dispute began.
- If you own the land, act before twenty years run. The use must be without the owner’s consent, so the terms on which a neighbor uses your land matter.
- Talk to a lawyer before you remove a neighbor’s fence, coop or trail markers.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. These cases move on short deadlines.
