Thus if the owner re-enters the property in order to regain possession, this will be an interruption of the adverse possession. When this happens, the adverse possessor must start his occupancy from scratch . That is, their periods of ownership can be added together for purposes of meeting the statutory period. A, who owns Whiteacre, adversely possesses a small strip of the adjacent Blackacre, due to confusion about boundaries. He then abandons the property.
B then enters for another seven years.
The length of the holding period for adverse possession varies from state to state. It is usually 15 years or longer. If the true owner of property is under a disability , in nearly all states he is given extra time within which to bring an ejectment action. But he can apply for a judicial determination of adverse possession, and if he gets it, that determination can be recorded as if it were a deed.