Could someone please explain adverse possession?

We have a neighbor that has been parking on our parking spot for about 10 years. She claims it is "common area" and that she has every right to park there. After looking at our property survey and the Cook County (Illinois) assesment website I found out she was wrong and IS parking on our property.

I talked to my brother in law who is a lawyer (he deals with labor and employment law so real estate isn't his specialty) and he said that she it's possible she couls claim adverse possession. Is that true? Could be really lose our property because she's parked on it that long?

I tried looking it up online but it's all in legalese and I don't understand it. Could someone break it down for me?

Also please don't tell me to contact a different lawyer, I plan on doing , I just want a little more info.

My sister in law school just told me that basically if you own land but don't do anything with it and then someone comes along and lives/builds/etc. on it for a prolonged time (say, 20 years or something, depending on the state) but you never come take action against them or what they are doing then effectively they become the new owners of the land. Legally.

It's a nod to (1) practicality (since it removes old disputes) and (2) Locke's "homesteading" theory of property.

If nobody asserts a claim to the land, then somebody can homestead the land. In this case, the parking space.

P.S. Unless your state imposes really fubar laws, Jay's wrong. An area which nobody claims and everybody uses has been homesteaded in common.

I do not know the law in Illinois, and I do not practice real estate law. However, from what I do know, if this other person is claiming the property is a "common area" then she cannot take the property by adverse possession.

Adverse Possion: a method of acquiring complete title to land as against all others including record landowner through certain acts over a period of time, prescribed by statute. Usally such posscession must be actual, visible, hostile, under claim of right. Bestly known as the phrase if you don't use it you lose it.