Can you acquire through use by encroaching on your neighbor's land?

The neighbor of a semi-detached plot on which he has parked his car for more than 30 years asks the court to declare for his benefit the acquisition by prescription of part of that plot.

The Court of Appeal dismissed his application on the grounds that it considered him to be acting in bad faith. Indeed, despite an amicable boundary delimiting the property of each in 1991, the neighbor continued to use this piece of land to settle his vehicle there as before. In order to be able to prescribe, it must be shown that there is continuous and uninterrupted possession, peaceful, public, unambiguous and as owner of real property for a period of 30 years. According to the Court of Appeal, the neighbor’s possession is ambiguous because he could not have been unaware that the vehicles were parked in part on the portion of land identified by the surveyor as not belonging to him.

The Court of Cassation annuls the appeal decision, holding that the boundary drawn between neighbors does not by itself imply their agreement to the ownership of the disputed parcels and is not sufficient to establish equivocal possession,