Involuntary alienation

Key Takeaways

• Involuntary alienation moves title by operation of law, with no deed signed by the owner and no agreement from the owner.
• The usual routes are foreclosure, tax foreclosure, eminent domain, adverse possession, and escheat when an owner dies leaving no one entitled to inherit.
• Voluntary alienation covers sale, gift, and transfer by will. The dividing line is consent, not whether money changes hands.
• In Washington the general clock for recovering possession of real property is ten years under RCW 4.16.020, and a possessor holding under claim and color of title who pays all taxes assessed can take title in seven years under RCW 7.28.070.

What It Means

Involuntary alienation is a transfer of title that happens to an owner rather than by an owner. No deed is signed, no price is negotiated, and the owner's agreement is not part of it. The law itself moves the ownership because some condition has been met. Five routes cover almost every case. A foreclosure follows an unpaid secured debt, and a tax foreclosure follows unpaid property taxes. A government exercising Eminent Domain may take land for a public use as long as it pays for it. A neighbor can take title by Adverse Possession after occupying land long enough under the right conditions. Property passes to the state by Escheat when an owner dies with no one entitled to inherit.

The mirror image is voluntary alienation: a sale, a gift, or a transfer by will. The line between them is consent, not money. A gift moves title for nothing and is still voluntary, because the owner chose the taker. A foreclosure sale may move title for hundreds of thousands of dollars and is still involuntary, because the owner did not. Descent, meaning the passing of property under the intestate statutes when a person dies without a will, is grouped with the involuntary transfers for that same reason. Which estate is moving matters as much as how it moves, and this guide to estates in land is the companion piece.

How It Works in Washington

Washington runs each route to involuntary alienation through its own statute, and the differences matter more than the shared label. Most residential foreclosures here are nonjudicial. RCW 61.24.020 provides that a deed conveying real property to a trustee to secure performance of an obligation may be foreclosed by trustee's sale, so a lender holding a Deed Of Trust can move title without filing a lawsuit. Unpaid property taxes go the other way, through court. Under RCW 84.64.080 the court enters judgment for the taxes, interest, and costs and orders a sale. The county treasurer then sells to the highest and best bidder, the minimum bid is the total of taxes, interest, and costs, and the property is sold strictly as is, with no warranty of title, buildability, or zoning.

Adverse possession runs on two clocks in this state, and mixing them up is the common error. RCW 4.16.020 gives an owner ten years to bring an action to recover real property or possession of it. RCW 7.28.070 shortens that to seven successive years for a possessor in actual, open and notorious possession under claim and color of title made in good faith who also pays all taxes legally assessed during those years. Escheat is the last stop. RCW 11.08.140 provides that when a person dies leaving property in this state without being survived by anyone entitled to it, that property is designated escheat property. Fence lines are where brokers meet all of this in the field, which is why Washington's boundary fencing rules are worth knowing before assuming a fence marks a boundary.

Example

Ray inherits a 12-acre parcel outside Wenatchee in 2010 and never visits it. In 2012 his neighbor Deb takes a deed whose legal description mistakenly sweeps in 1.5 acres of Ray's land. Deb fences that strip, grazes it every season, and pays the roughly $180 a year in county tax assessed on it. By 2019 she has held it in actual, open and notorious possession under claim and color of title for seven successive years while paying every tax on it, which is what RCW 7.28.070 requires. Title to the 1.5 acres is hers by operation of law. Ray signed nothing and received nothing.

In 2026 Deb lists her place for $640,000. The title company will not insure 1.5 acres that exist only as a fence line and an old error, so her attorney files a quiet title action, gets a decree, records it, and the sale closes on the full parcel. The transfer away from Ray was involuntary and finished in 2019. The paperwork that made it insurable came seven years later.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Escheat and eminent domain both move property to the government, but escheat requires a death with no one entitled to inherit while eminent domain requires a public use and payment of just compensation.
• A transfer by will is voluntary alienation even though the owner has died, because the owner named the taker. Intestate descent is the involuntary version of the same event.
• Adverse possession in Washington is not a flat seven-year rule. Seven years under RCW 7.28.070 requires claim and color of title plus payment of all taxes assessed. Without those, the ten-year period in RCW 4.16.020 controls.
• A trustee's sale is involuntary alienation even though the owner voluntarily signed the deed of trust years earlier. Signing the loan was consent to the debt, not consent to the transfer.