To amend section 5303.01 of the Revised Code to require that a person have paid all taxes and special assessments due on property while in their possession in order to use that period of possession to establish title to the property through adverse possession.

Section 1. That section 5303.01 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:

Sec. 5303.01. (A) An action may be brought by a person in possession of real property, by himself personally or as tenant, against any person who claims an interest therein in the real property adverse to him the person in possession, or an action in recovery may be brought by the person out of possession, for the purpose of determining such adverse interest. Such the interests of the parties in the real property. An action may be brought also by a person out of possession, having, or claiming to have, an interest in remainder or reversion in real property, against any person who claims to have an interest therein in the real property, adverse to him the person out of possession, for the purpose of determining the interests of the parties therein in the real property.

(B) In any action to establish title to real property by adverse possession, possession of the property does not establish an interest in or right to the property by the person in possession that is adverse to the interests and rights of the titled owner unless the person seeking title by adverse possession paid, in a timely manner, all taxes and special assessments that the person reasonably believed to be due on the property during the period that the person seeking title by adverse possession claims to have been in possession of the property. This section does not relieve any person seeking title by adverse possession from proving all of the elements of title by adverse possession required by law.

(C) Whenever the state or any agency or political subdivision thereof of the state has, or appears to have, an interest in real property adverse to the person in possession claiming the right thereto in the real property, the state or such the agency or such the political subdivision may be made a party in any action brought under this section.

(D) The clerk of the court shall cause to be recorded in the deed records of each county in which any part of the real property lies, a certified copy of the judgment or decree determining the interests of the parties. The usual fees of the clerk and recorder shall be taxed as part of the costs of the case.

Section 2. That existing section 5303.01 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.