squatter's right

American  

noun

Law Informal.

1. a claim to real property, especially public land, that may be granted to a person who has openly possessed and continuously occupied it without legal authority for a prescribed period of years.

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Etymology

Origin of squatter's right

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60

Example Sentences

Informally known as the “squatter’s right,” it holds that if you take someone’s property and openly use it for long enough, it can become yours by law.

From Time

It may be a kind of squatter's right, or anything else, or it may have no standing at all.

From Project Gutenberg

Up to that time no settler had more than a squatter's right.

From Project Gutenberg

We did not fail to examine our shoes before putting them on in the morning, lest the scorpions should have established a squatter's right therein.

From Project Gutenberg

The folk pay for their houses a nominal rental of a bushel of wheat per annum, in order to secure the owner's proprietary claim, which would otherwise pass to the occupier by squatter's right after thirty years of unmolested occupation.

From Project Gutenberg