Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Re: Abandonment Laws

Sec 8.01-236 of the Code of Virginia

is the statute which prescribes the time period (15 years) in Virginia required to acquire title to land in the Commonwealth by adverse possession.

A seminal case on the issue can be found in the Virginia Reports entitled Calhoun v. Woods, 246 Va. at pg. 45(1993), which describes in some detail

what actions on the part of the adverse claimant are necessary under Virginia law to acquire land by adverse possession, e.g., the possession must be open, notorious, visible, continuous, hostile and adverse to the claim of the record owner, under claim of right etc.