In Illinois you get 20 years, and must possess the property continuously, in actuality, open and notoriously and exclusively. The occupation also must be hostile. In all these regards, the burden of proof is on the person trying to claim adverse possession.

My question for you, as a lawyer who might know this: can you beat an adverse possession claim simply by giving the squatter permission? Would a written notice permitting occupation for, say, 60 days, reset the clock on "continuous hostile actual occupation"?

> must possess the property continuously, in actuality, open and notoriously and exclusively.

That's pretty much the law everywhere in the U.S. (save perhaps Louisiana, which has a system rooted in Napoleonic law and not English common law). The mnemonic is ONCHA - open, notorious, continuous, hostile, and adverse.

> can you beat an adverse possession claim simply by giving the squatter permission?

I don't recall any cases off the top of my head. I doubt that an owner could unilaterally transform hostile possession into non-hostile possession; it'd be too tempting for the owner to try to fabricate backdated evidence of consent.

(Your question brought to mind a line from Henry Fielding, which my torts professor used to illustrate how consent is sometimes a defense: He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him. [3])

[3] http://quotationsbook.com/quote/35415/

Given the article it sounds like he's satisfied all of the conditions, everyone wants him out (hostile), he's filed the paperwork (open), he's had it written about in the paper (notorious), and he's established residence by camping in the living room.

Even if he doesn't get the house he's still living rent free.

Rent free, but living without water and electricity (not to mention the respect of your neighbors) has got to suck, especially in Texas.

In South Carolina, I met a cabbie who was renovating a big Federal style house in the north part of town. No furnace, and certainly no AC. He was also camped out in the living room, and doing all of the work himself. Got a $20,000 community reinvigoration loan from the government to help him out.

> can you beat an adverse possession claim simply by giving the squatter permission?

You can beat it with a peppercorn:

> [A] peppercorn rent is often used as a form of nominal ground rent where a (potentially substantial) premium has also been paid on commencement of a long lease of, say, 99 or 125 years (a "virtual freehold"). The notional collection of the annual peppercorn rent helps to maintain a formal Landlord and Tenant relationship between the two parties, precluding the risk of a claim for adverse possession from the tenant arising, were no consideration to be paid for an extended period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercorn_%28legal%29

(In this case, a 'peppercorn' is any tiny amount of money or other consideration, which is required to make a contract valid. It may, in fact, be a literal peppercorn.)

Could this ignite a Texas land rush to occupy foreclosed homes? Possibly. But what would happen if the new occupants struck deals with the owners for them not to complain?

Right of redemption laws allow the original owner of a foreclosed house to seek redemption on the property if they are able to come up with the money they need in a specified amount of time. The redemption is transferable and in essence is just as powerful as having the deed of the property itself.