Tacking on or tack is when an individual who is trying to claim adverse possession of a property they do not own transfers his or her adverse possession period to another party.
One of the main requirements to claim property through adverse possession is to openly use the landowner’s property in open defiance of their rights for a period of five consecutive years. If the property is not being used for five consecutive years, the non owning land user cannot take possession through adverse possession. Tacking on is used to give the non owning landowner the ability to transfer that adverse possession period to another party to continue use of that property to get to that five year required threshold.
In order to claim adverse possession the non owning land user must use the property for five years. In instances when the non owning landowner cannot stay at the property for the required five years they can have another party tack on time to the period in which the original non owning land user used the property for.
