[Legislativecommittee1] Draft testimony - HB 2140

[Holland, Sean]

Here's a draft of my testimony for tomorrow.

Good morning Chair Taylor, Ranking Member Walsh, and members of the committee.  My name is Sean Holland. I am speaking for the Washington Land Title Association in opposition to House Bill 2140.
Adverse possession of real property is a legal doctrine that goes back centuries.  The concept has been fundamental to Washington law since territorial days.  This bill would upend over a century of Washington law and only lead to a host of new problems.
Almost exactly 40 years ago, on January 26, 1984, the Washington Supreme Court decided Chaplin v. Sanders, one of the most significant adverse possession decisions in Washington legal history.  The case stated that the most important reason for the doctrine was to quiet titles.
A secure, insurable, title combines multiple elements.  First, is ownership appearing in the record title, usually by deed.  Second, is possession.  When a seller gives a buyer of land a statutory warranty deed, RCW 64.04.030 provides that the seller's warranties include "quiet and peaceable possession" of the property.  When there is a mismatch between deed lines and lines of occupation existing over many years, the doctrine of adverse possession provides a way to bring them back into alignment by quieting title along the lines of occupation.
House Bill 2140 eliminates possession of property as an element of ownership.  The bill elevates the boundary lines described in a deed, lines that only a surveyor can locate, over the lines of actual occupation apparent to all:  a fence, a wall, a hedge, a barn or a house.
This bill says that lines of occupation do not matter.  But that makes no sense.  Suppose someone buys a property with a house and their deed says it's 100 feet north to south.  But anyone visiting the property can see there's a fence at about the 60 foot mark and another house just beyond the fence.  Would any rational buyer think they are getting ownership of the neighbors' house?  That's what HB 2140 would do.
I have been a lawyer for over 30 years.  In my experience, where the lines of occupation do not match survey lines, that usually comes as surprise to the owners on both sides and is unsuspected until someone gets a survey.  And I have never seen a situation where someone intentionally set out to adversely possess another's property.
Passing this bill could result in homeowners having to remove their fences, tear up their landscaping, and even move or demolish their homes.  That's not an exaggeration.  I have run into situations where every house on a block or around a lake was on top of a boundary line, not safely between them.  Adverse possession provides a way to protect the way people live, not lines in deeds that only a surveyor can locate.
When a legal doctrine has served Washington well for over a century, it should not simply be dispensed with in a way that creates new winners and losers.  Reforms to Washington's adverse possession law may be desirable.  That would require the involvement of stakeholders.  When Washington undertook substantial revisions to its deed of trust act and the law pertaining to condominiums and other common interest communities, it did so only after a multi-year process involving stakeholders.  If the legislature wants to reform the law of adverse possession, it should adopt the same approach.


Sean Holland
VP | Underwriting Counsel
Washington & Montana
Fidelity National Title Group
701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2700
Seattle, Washington 98104
Mobile:  206-308-6823
Sean.Holland at fnf.com<mailto:Sean.Holland at fnf.com>


________________________________
NOTICE: The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, you are hereby notified to: (i) delete the message and all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute or use the message in any manner; and (iii) notify the sender immediately.




This message was secured by Zix(R).
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.washingtonlandtitle.com/pipermail/legislativecommittee1/attachments/20240123/0a9c4497/attachment.html>