Bill Text - HB1135 (2026)

Prohibiting the acquisition of prescriptive rights in private roads through adverse use.


Revision: Dec. 1, 2025, 8:51 a.m.

HB 1135  - AS INTRODUCED

 

 

2026 SESSION

26-2311

09/05

 

HOUSE BILL 1135

 

AN ACT prohibiting the acquisition of prescriptive rights in private roads through adverse use.

 

SPONSORS: Rep. Aylward, Merr. 5; Rep. Fracht, Graf. 16

 

COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill prohibits acquiring of rights in private roads, ways, driveways, or trails through adverse use.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

26-2311

09/05

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty-Six

 

AN ACT prohibiting the acquisition of prescriptive rights in private roads through adverse use.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  Subdivision Heading Change.  Amend the subdivision heading preceding RSA 477:33 to read as follows:  

[No] Prescription Prohibited [Against the Public]

2  New Section; Private Roads and Trails.  Amend RSA 477 by inserting after section 34 the following new section:  

477:34-a  Private Roads and Trails.

The use of a landowner’s roads, ways, driveways, or trails, by any person or the public, regardless of duration, shall not create or establish any right, title, interest, or easement by prescription, adverse use, or implication, nor raise any presumption of a grant thereof.

3  Application.  This act shall not apply to any claims already fully adjudicated before the effective date of this act.

4  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.