Also known as:tacking possession · tack possession · tacking · adverse possession tacking
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
in property law
The combination of successive periods of adverse possession or prescriptive use by different parties to satisfy the statutory limitations period. Privity of estate between the parties is required for the periods to be added together. Tacking is permitted when successive possessors act under a good-faith claim of right arising from a mistaken boundary.
Sources & Authorities
How it applies
Common Examples
2
Mistaken Boundary Tacking on Farm Strip
Travis Tate's family began farming a narrow strip of adjoining land in the 1960s after a city survey stake led them to believe it belonged to their property. Successive generations continued planting crops, grazing cattle, and maintaining a tool shed on the strip without interruption. When Tessa Takahashi later acquired the true title and objected, the court allowed the family's combined decades of use to satisfy the statutory period because each generation had acted under the same good-faith mistaken belief.
Stock Acquisition Continues Trench Use
Blue Logic installed and maintained an unpermitted fiber-optic trench across Anne's lot beginning in 1998. In 2008 Bay Software acquired Blue Logic by stock purchase, retained the same employees, and continued identical maintenance and use of the trench without interruption or new permission. Because the acquisition transferred all business assets and rights and operations remained seamless, the periods combined to meet the twenty-year requirement for a prescriptive easement.
Put it into practice
Test Yourself
6
Practice Questions1
· 1 primary source
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Cases
Hornbooks
Common questions
Frequently Asked
4
What relationship between successive possessors is required before their periods may be tacked?+
Privity of estate is required. This exists when possession is transferred from one adverse possessor to the next, allowing the later party to step into the position of the earlier one with respect to the claim of right.
Supporting sources
Does a good-faith mistaken boundary allow tacking of successive periods?+
Yes. When each possessor uses the land under a good-faith belief it belongs to them because of a mistaken boundary, the periods may be added to satisfy the statutory requirement.
Supporting sources
Can tacking occur when a business is acquired by stock purchase and operations continue without change?+
Yes. The stock purchase that transfers all assets and rights used in the business, together with retention of the same personnel and identical use, establishes the privity needed to combine the periods.
Supporting sources
Does an unadjudicated trespass suit or temporary access agreement prevent tacking?+
No. A suit that is filed but not pursued to judgment and a strictly temporary agreement that expires without renewal do not interrupt continuity when the adverse use resumes in the same manner.
Supporting sources
ContractsContract content and meaning · Parol evidenceUBEFoundational