What Is Adverse Possession?
When a person takes "adverse possession" of a home, the legal term for occupying someone else's property, they obtain what are known as "squatter's rights." In the state of New York, a person has to live on the property openly and without permission of the owner for a period of at least 10 uninterrupted years to be able to claim "adverse possession." But New York City has its own set of adverse possession laws—and those laws grant a person squatter's rights after just 30 days!
30 DAYS.
After 30 days, a NYC squatter has the right to continue living there until the actual owner goes through
the process of legal eviction. Just as the post in HONY described, the NYC eviction process is lengthy (it can take up to a year!) and expensive. For smaller scale landlords like the one this person works for, it can be easier to just pay the squatter off than to pay hefty legal bills.