Q: The father let his son move back home in 1989 but the son was disturbed and abusive so the father started staying with someone else over 21 years ago. The father has clear title and has paid for all utilities and maintenance and kept getting his mail at the house. His son was welcomed as a guest until 2014 when it was discovered that he had filled the house with a hoard. The father wanted to use his house because it was very close to the hospital where he was getting treatments. In 2014 the father gave the son over a year to correct the code violations or move out in 2015. Now the son is claiming the house should be his and changed the locks.

A: The son can claim anything he wants but my guess is he won’t find a lawyer to challenge father’s title to the house. There is old common law that if a person uses another person’s real estate, as his own, notoriously, to the exclusion of the other person, he can claim it by the doctrine of adverse possession. It is a novel procedure and I have never seen it enforced. If the father has paid all utilities and maintenance for all of these years, the son has hardly used the property to the exclusion of the father. I think the father can evict the son. The father may want to consult with a real estate attorney and give son proper notice to vacate.