Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is in legal trouble. For the past six months, he’s been fighting with his Montgomery County neighbors in a dispute that involves everything from trespassing to harassment, from politics to alleged abuse of power.
His next-door neighbors filed a lawsuit against him earlier this week, claiming that he’s been using the state police to forcibly take control of their property. Shapiro and his wife then countersued in Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas. Here’s what happened.
The Neighbors Say Property Negotiations Stalled
The neighbors, Jeremy and Simone Mock, filed their complaint in federal court in Philadelphia. In it, they claim that Shapiro and his wife Lori met with them in July 2025, seeking permission to build an eight-foot security fence on the Mock’s property, along the border line.
First, the Shapiros offered to purchase a portion of the Mocks’ property to build the fence. But when discussions stalled, the Mocks claim that the neighbors switched to negotiating a lease agreement for the land.
Things completely fell apart by August 2025. Negotiations stopped, and a lawyer for the Shapiros allegedly told the Mocks that the governor would be taking “alternative actions” to obtain the land. “What followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former attorney general,” the Mocks wrote in their complaint.
Gov. Josh Shapiro Claimed Adverse Possession: Here’s What That Is
The Shapiros claimed that they already owned the roughly 3,000 square feet of land through a legal doctrine called “adverse possession.” Adverse possession essentially gives a long-time trespasser ownership of land if they use it for years and years. In Pennsylvania, that period is generally 21 years, with a shorter 10‑year period in some cases for single‑family homes on less than one‑half acre under a separate statute. The person claiming adverse possession must prove actual, continuous, exclusive, visible, notorious, distinct, and hostile possession of property.
Basically, if the trespasser has treated the property as if they owned it, the actual owner knew and didn’t do anything about it, and enough time has passed, the trespasser could go to court and claim they should now own the property.
There are some standards that the trespasser has to meet. They must have actually possessed the land, and a court might look for evidence of this with things such as making improvements, fencing it in and doing yardwork, planting a garden, building a shed, even paying property taxes.
The land use must be continuous, not sporadic or occasional, and consistent with how the true owner would have used the property. For an adverse possession claim to succeed, the use can’t have been broken by the true owner taking trying to take legal action to get the property back.
You can’t just claim adverse possession and own land, though: a court has to make the determination. And that hasn’t happened yet in this case.
The Mocks Claim the Shapiros Had the State Police Patrol The Disputed Area, Among Other Things
After claiming adverse possession, the Mocks allege that the Shapiros began treating the land as their own, including:
- Planting large trees on the disputed area
- Flying drones over the property
- Chasing away the Mocks’ arborist and surveyor
- Directing the Pennsylvania State Police to patrol the Mocks’ property along the border line
- Stopping the Mocks from building a fence by claiming it was in a “security zone”
Local papers have also reported that the Shapiros replaced an old fence with a new one and did extensive landscaping, which allegedly cost nearly $1.1 million of taxpayer money.
Before This All Happened, An Arsonist Set Fire To The Governor’s Residence
In April of last year, the Shapiros had experienced more trouble. A man — later identified as 38-year old Harrisburg area resident Cody Balmer — climbed a fence and entered the governor’s Harrisburg property in the middle of the night. He used a hammer to break a window, threw a Molotov cocktail inside, broke another window, entered the home, and lit two more fires before escaping.
Balmer later turned himself in and told authorities that he would have beaten the governor with the hammer if he’d seen him. Balmer was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated arson and terrorism. He later pleaded guilty to multiple counts and received a lengthy prison sentence. So, we can probably assume that the Shapiros were pretty shaken up by the whole incident. No wonder they wanted to build a fence around their Abington property.
A Spokesperson Called the Mocks’ Lawsuit 'a Shameless Political Stunt'
A local news source reported that a spokesman for the governor called the Mocks’ lawsuit “a shameless political stunt” and cited the Mocks’ attorney’s involvement in litigation related to the 2020 election.
In the Shapiros’ countersuit, they say that when they bought their family home in 2003, there was an existing fence and a tree line that separated their property from the Mocks. The Shapiros claimed that, when they began making extensive security upgrades to their home after the arson attack, including replacing the old fence with a new one, they realized that the land they thought was theirs actually fell outside what the deed said they owned. They’d been treating the fence line as the boundary between the two properties, but the legal boundary actually followed the tree line instead.
The Shapiros are claiming that they have title to the land going up to the fence line through adverse possession pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S §5530.
Shapiro Just Wrote a Memoir And Would Probably Rather We Pay Attention To That Instead
This legal dispute has the potential to be a big distraction from the things Shapiro wants people to remember him for, namely his brand-new memoir called Where We Keep The Light, which just came out at the end of January. The book details his story of public service and personal faith. Many people also expect him to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Related Resources
- Answers to the Most-Asked Legal Questions Over Neighbor Disputes in 2025 (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- Adverse Possession: Continuous Trespassers' Rights (FindLaw's Learn About the Law)
- Neighbor Disputes: Your Legal Options (FindLaw's Learn About the Law)
