How long is squatters' rights in South Dakota?
Twenty years, under South Dakota Codified Laws section 15-3-1. The ten-year route in section 15-3-15 is for someone holding a paper title in good faith who also paid every tax, which an ordinary squatter is not.
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
- 10 or 20 years
- What's different here
- 10 years with a good-faith paper title and taxes, 20 years otherwise
- Statute
- SDCL §§ 15-3-1, 15-3-13, 15-3-15
Someone living in your home in South 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.
South Dakota bars an owner from suing to recover land once someone else has been in possession of it for twenty years (SDCL 15-3-1). That is the period for a squatter with no paperwork, and it is the number most people searching for squatters rights in South Dakota are really asking about.
Section 15-3-15 gives a shorter route. A person in actual possession under claim and color of title made in good faith, who stays ten successive years and pays all taxes legally assessed on the land during that time, is held to be the legal owner to the extent of the paper title. Both parts are required: the title and the taxes. A successor who takes over before the ten years run can finish the term.
Without a written instrument, section 15-3-13 limits what counts as possession to land that was protected by a substantial enclosure or was usually cultivated or improved. A squatter who moved into someone else's property without permission does not wait on any of these periods to be removed: the owner starts with the courts, and the periods only matter in a long-running ownership dispute.
Where South Dakota sits against the rest of the United States, in years
Of 50 places in the United States on these pages, 17 have a shorter clock and 18 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 10 or 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 South Dakota?
South Dakota's squatter law comes down to SDCL 15-3-1 and 15-3-15: 20 years of possession before a squatter can claim ownership, or 10 years with a good-faith color of title and every tax paid. What sets South Dakota apart: the shorter route needs both the paper title and the taxes. Squatting itself is trespassing, and a squatter who has settled in is still removed through the courts, never by changing the locks or cutting the utilities.
How long is squatters' rights in South Dakota?
Twenty years of possession under SDCL 15-3-1, or ten successive years under claim and color of title made in good faith with all assessed taxes paid, under SDCL 15-3-15.
What applies to an ordinary squatter with no deed in South Dakota?
The twenty-year period. A squatter with no written instrument cannot use the ten-year route, which needs color of title, and under SDCL 15-3-13 the land must have been protected by a substantial enclosure or usually cultivated or improved.
What is South Dakota's ten-year route?
Section 15-3-15: actual possession under claim and color of title made in good faith, kept for ten successive years, with all taxes legally assessed on the land paid during that time. The owner of such a title is held to be the legal owner to the extent of the paper title.
Can a South Dakota owner remove a squatter without a court order?
No. Self-help eviction is illegal in South Dakota once an occupant has established residency, whichever adverse possession period might eventually apply. Removal goes through an eviction action in court. Call the police only while someone is still in the act of moving in, before they have settled.
Can someone help me get squatters out of my home in South 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
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- 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.