Property inheritance / forfeiture

tracinaz

Hello all,
I am hoping that someone on here can help me. First, let me say, this is a completely hypothetical situation and is for research for a book (fiction) so I don't need exact details, but enough to make my fictional situation believable. The plot of my story revolves around a land dispute between a family that owned a small farm and a large landowner. Many years ago, the farm belonged to the large landowner, but the family that took care of the land (the tenants???) were able to purchase the land in the late 1800's. The same family owned and farmed the land from then on out. Is this believable? In the 1970's the landowners son went to America with every intention of coming back but ended up staying most of his life. When his parents died, they left the land to their son. Now, here's where I'm trying to figure things out. I need something to happen that would give control of the land back to the large landowner. Could the son claim his inheritance if he wasn't in Ireland at the time of his parents death? Would he have had to appear in person in court? The parents death would have been in the 1980's so would all communication between the parents lawyer (called solicitors in Ireland, right?) and the son have been through mail or on the phone? Would he have been able to hire someone to care for the land in his absence? When the son retired from his job in America, he goes back to Ireland to claim his land and the dispute begins.
Like I said, I don't need detailed specifics, just an idea of how to make this plot work so that my editor doesn't slam me because it isn't something that could actually happen.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Traci

Samuel T. Cogley

The land owner could start farming the farm again and claim adverse possession after 12 years. (Squatters rights)

tracinaz

Brilliant! Thank you so much Samuel. This is exactly what I needed. So unless the son hired someone to care for the land, the land owner could start farming and claim it under adverse possession? Or could this happen even if the he did?

tracinaz

tracinaz wrote: »

Brilliant! Thank you so much Samuel. This is exactly what I needed. So unless the son hired someone to care for the land, the land owner could start farming and claim it under adverse possession? Or could this happen even if the he did?

He wouldnt need to farm the land to prevent adverse posession, just to tell the landowner that he had no rights to the lands if he was encroaching on them. Better with evidence of this, obviously.

For the story, it might be a twist if, after inheriting the land he told the landowner that he could use the land until he returned home, but left no evidence of this agreement... and on returning home more than 12 years later discovers that the landowner has double crossed him, claimed adverse posession and denied that he ever had any permission to use the lands.. (using lands with permission will not entitle you to squatters rights)

tracinaz

I was trying to think along those lines, but you said it much better than I could have! Thank you! I really appreciate it.