How long is squatters' rights in North Dakota?
Twenty years, under North Dakota Century Code section 28-01-04, on land the occupant fenced in or cultivated. A 2025 law adds a criminal charge: unlawfully occupying someone's home is a felony.
If someone is living in your home now, the clock matters far less than getting them out lawfully, and that is where we can help.
- Statutory period
- 20 years
- What's different here
- fenced or farmed land only, and a felony to occupy a home unlawfully
- Statute
- N.D. Cent. Code §§ 28-01-04, 28-01-11, 12.1-22-03
Someone living in your home in North Dakota? Dardaris helps you get them out.
Changing the locks or cutting the power turns the law against you. We hand it to people who remove squatters lawfully, for a living.
If they are moving in right now, call the police first. Once they have settled in, it takes a formal process, and that is where we come in.
Your contact at Dardaris
Dardaris is not a law firm and removes nobody itself. If you hire the specialist we introduce, they pay us a referral fee, and you deal with them under their own terms. We pass your details on only once you agree.
- Tell us what is happening, by email or on a call. Talking to us costs nothing.
- We put you in touch with a removal specialist who works through the court and the sheriff, never around them.
- Once the home is free, Dardaris manages the letting for you.
North Dakota sets one ordinary period for adverse possession: twenty years. Section 28-01-07 presumes that anyone occupying land does so under the owner's title, unless it was held adversely to that title for twenty years, and section 28-01-08 gives the same twenty years to an occupant who claims under a written instrument or a court judgment.
For an occupant with no written instrument, what counts as possession is narrow. Under section 28-01-11, land is treated as possessed only if it was protected by a substantial enclosure or was usually cultivated or improved. Occupation has to show up on the land itself, as a fence, as farming or as an improvement.
The newer rule is criminal. House Bill 1305, passed in 2025, amended section 12.1-22-03 of the Century Code so that an individual who unlawfully detains, occupies or trespasses upon a residential dwelling is guilty of a class C felony for a first offense, and of a class B felony for a second or later offense at the same dwelling. It is a criminal charge and not a removal procedure: the act as passed creates no sheriff or affidavit process for taking the home back.
Where North Dakota sits against the rest of the United States, in years
Of 50 places in the United States on these pages, 39 have a shorter clock and 3 a longer one or none at all.
From the day someone moves in to the day a claim is possible
The same three stages in most places. The exact rule, and whether the last stage exists at all, is on each place's own page.
- Day oneMoving inCaught in the act, it is usually a matter for the police: a trespass, not a tenancy.
- Weeks to yearsSettled inOnce someone lives there, removing them usually takes a court order, the same route as for a tenant.
- After 20 yearsA claim becomes possibleOnly if every test held, without a break, for the whole period. Where the law allows no such claim, this stage never comes.
Not yours to do, once they have moved inChanging the locks, cutting the water or power, or removing belongings yourself. It is illegal in every US state and most places on these pages forbid it too. Each page says how removal works there.
The record a court asks for, kept as you go
Wherever your property stands, removing an occupant usually comes down to showing who had the right to be there, and since when. Dardaris files every lease, message and document for a building by date, so that record already exists on the day you need it.
- Every lease, with who signed it and when
- Every message with a tenant, on the thread it was sent in
- Every document, filed against the building it concerns
Frequently asked questions
What are the squatting laws in North Dakota?
North Dakota's squatter law comes down to N.D. Cent. Code § 28-01-04: 20 years of adverse possession before a squatter can claim ownership. What sets North Dakota apart: without a deed, only fenced or cultivated land counts, and since 2025 unlawfully occupying a home is a felony under § 12.1-22-03. Squatting itself is trespassing, and a squatter who has settled in is removed through the courts or by the police acting under the criminal law, never by changing the locks or cutting the utilities.
How long is squatters' rights in North Dakota?
Twenty years, under N.D. Cent. Code §§ 28-01-04 and 28-01-07. An occupant who claims under a written instrument or a court judgment needs the same twenty years (§ 28-01-08).
What applies to an ordinary squatter with no deed in North Dakota?
Twenty years, and the land must have been protected by a substantial enclosure or usually cultivated or improved (§ 28-01-11). The statute has no shorter track for an occupant with no deed.
What is North Dakota's 2025 squatter law?
House Bill 1305 amended N.D. Cent. Code § 12.1-22-03 so that unlawfully detaining, occupying or trespassing upon a residential dwelling is a class C felony for a first offense, and a class B felony for a second or later offense at the same dwelling. It makes the conduct a serious crime. It does not add a sheriff or affidavit procedure for returning the home to the owner.
Can a North Dakota owner remove a squatter without a court order?
Not by self-help: changing the locks or cutting the utilities on someone who has settled in is illegal. Call the police at once, since unlawfully occupying a dwelling is now a felony and they have a crime to act on. If the person produces a lease or another claim to be there, expect it to go through the courts.
Can someone help me get squatters out of my home in North Dakota?
Yes. Removal specialists do it through the court and the sheriff. Changing the locks or cutting the power would put you in the wrong. Dardaris can put you in touch with one, and once the home is free, manage the letting for you.
Elsewhere in the United States
The same question, on a different clock. Every place sets its own period and its own shortcuts.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
- See every place
This is general information, not legal advice.Laws change, and a county or a city can add its own wrinkle on top of the state rule, the way New York City does. Confirm the current rule for your address before acting on it, and talk to a local attorney before relying on any of it in a real dispute.