How title transfers
Title is ownership itself: the bundle of rights a person holds in land, plus the evidence that proves it. A deed is the document that carries title from one person to another. This unit starts with the ways title can move, then looks at deeds, recording, liens, and the rights other people can hold in land.
Moving title from one owner to another is called alienation. It comes in two kinds.
Voluntary alienation
The owner chooses to transfer. The two common ways are:
- By deed during life. A sale or a gift. The owner (grantor) signs a deed to the new owner (grantee).
- By will at death. A will that leaves real property to someone is a devise. The person who receives it is the devisee, and the person who made the will is the testator. A will takes effect only at death, so the testator can change it at any time while alive.
Involuntary alienation
Title moves without the owner choosing it, usually by operation of law.
| Method | What happens |
|---|---|
| Descent (intestate succession) | The owner dies without a valid will. State law decides which heirs receive the property, usually a spouse and children first. |
| Escheat | The owner dies with no will and no heirs who can inherit. The property passes to the state. |
| Eminent domain | The government takes private property for a public use and must pay just compensation, generally based on fair market value. The court process is called condemnation. |
| Adverse possession | Someone who openly occupies another person's land long enough, under the conditions the law sets, can gain title. |
| Foreclosure or a court sale | A creditor forces a sale to collect a debt secured by the property. |
Adverse possession in general
Across the country, a possessor usually has to show that the possession was actual, open and notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous for the period the state sets. "Hostile" does not mean angry. It means without the owner's permission. A tenant who rents from the owner cannot claim adverse possession against that owner, because the tenant is there with permission.
Florida's two routes
In Florida, a suit to recover real property generally cannot be brought unless the claimant, or someone in the claimant's line of title, held or possessed the property within 7 years before the suit (95.12). The adverse possession statutes use the same 7-year period.
With color of title (95.16). The claimant entered under a written instrument, such as a defective deed, or under a court judgment or decree, and has been in continued possession for 7 years. For possession that began after 1945, the instrument must be recorded in the county where the land lies before the possession counts (95.16(1)). Under 95.16(2), land counts as possessed if it was usually cultivated or improved, protected by a substantial enclosure, or used for fuel, fencing timber, or the occupant's ordinary use.
Without color of title (95.18). The claimant has no written instrument but has been in actual continued possession for 7 years. Under 95.18(1), the claimant must also have:
- paid all outstanding taxes and matured installments of special improvement liens within 1 year after entering into possession;
- made a return of the property, with a proper legal description, to the county property appraiser within 30 days after paying those taxes; and
- kept paying the taxes for all the remaining years of the claim.
Under 95.18(2), the land must have been protected by a substantial enclosure, or cultivated, maintained, or improved in a usual manner.
Exam tip: both Florida routes take 7 years. The difference is paperwork. Color of title needs a recorded instrument; no color of title needs the tax payments and the return to the property appraiser.