Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his Montegomery County, PA, neighbors have filed lawsuits against each other over an escalating land dispute.
They’re fighting over a narrow 2,900-square-foot piece of property, which is a common boundary between Shapiro’s $830,500 private residence and his neighbors’ house.
Neighbors Jeremy and Simone Mock are accusing Shapiro of unlawfully taking over part of their lot, according to court documents.
Shapiro has countersued them, claiming that he owns the land being disputed through “adverse possession.”
“This is a case of squatters’ rights, which is the colloquial term for the legal doctrine known as adverse possession,” says attorney Chad Cummings, who is not associated with the case but has reviewed the arguments.
“Where a person continuously maintains possession of another’s property openly, visibly, and notoriously for a set period of time, which varies by state, the squatter can file a court action to ask the court to recognize the squatter—the ‘adverse possessor’—as the legal owner through a quiet title action,” Cummings tells Realtor.com®.
A court document shows the common boundary between the Mock property and the Shapiro property. (Mock vs. Shapiro Court Documents)
Details of the dispute
The Shapiros wanted to build an 8-foot security fence on the disputed land, after their official residence in Harrisburg was a target of arson last spring, according to court documents.
When they tried to get a permit for the fence, a land surveyor discovered that the existing fence line “did not fall within the metes and bounds description of their property,” according to their deed.
Court documents outline the area (shaded in green) of the Mock property that the Shapiros were offering to purchase from the Mocks. (Mock vs. Shapiro Court Documents)
The complaint alleges that the Shapiros then offered to buy the land from the Mocks—who had been paying taxes on the property for nine years—so they could move forward with the fence.
The Mocks’ lawsuit says that when the Mocks and Shapiros couldn’t agree on a purchase price, the Mocks instead offered to lease the land to the Shapiros.
Although the Shapiros allegedly agreed to the lease in the beginning, according to court documents, they eventually backed out.
According to the countersuit documents, Shapiro and his wife, Lori, claim they are the owners of the disputed area as a matter of law by “adverse possession.”
The Shapiros claim that for more than two decades—from 2003 to 2025—they have cared for the contested area as their own property. Under Pennsylvania’s adverse possession law, an individual who occupies property without the owner’s consent may obtain legal title after maintaining continuous possession for 21 years.
The countersuit claims the Shapiros have maintained and improved the disputed area by mowing the lawn and clearing leaves and debris since May 22, 2003.
The countersuit also alleges that a fence separating the two properties was already in place when the Shapiros bought their home in 2003, and that both households treated it as the property line until 2025.
According to the countersuit, the Mocks have not occupied the contested parcel since buying their home in April 2017. The filing also says they did not dispute the Shapiros’ use of the land until October 2025, when they were notified that the Shapiros considered it part of their property.
Once the lease agreement fell through between the Mocks and Shapiros, “what followed was an outrageous abuse of power,” the Mocks’ lawsuit alleges. “The Shapiros started to treat the Mock Property as their own by, among other things, planting large arborvitae type trees and other plants on the Mock Property, flying a drone over the Mock Property, threatening to remove healthy trees on the Mock Property, and chasing away the Mocks’ arborist and surveyor.”
The lawsuit further claims that “Governor Shapiro personally directed the State Police to patrol the Mock Property. On multiple occasions, when the Mocks have attempted to use their property, the State Police have insisted the area was ‘disputed’ and told them to immediately exit their property.”
The Mocks claim they were forced to pause construction of a fence at the command of the state police because police said the fence contractors were approaching a “disputed area” in the “security zone”—and that they may not enter without permission of the Shapiros and/or the state police.
“To be clear, these members of the State Police are on the Mock Property,” the Mocks claim in their lawsuit. (Mock vs. Shapiro Court Documents)
Shapiro’s countersuit alleges the Mocks posted signs on the disputed property, claiming that they owned the area.
A person familiar with the situation told the Washington Post that the signs said, “This is my property” and “Hippity Hoppity, stay off my property.”
Shapiro’s re-election campaign affected
Meanwhile, Shapiro—a Democrat—is currently running for re-election in the 2026 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race.
One of his opponents, Stacy Garrity, has used this neighbor dispute in her campaign—posting Valentine’s Day messages on social media with Shapiro’s face that say: “I love you more than I love my neighbor’s yard.”
“This dispute over a small piece of the Shapiros’ backyard has been turned into a shameless political stunt by their neighbors and members of the Republican state Senate, who are now harassing and exploiting the Shapiros,” Rosie Lapowsky, a spokeswoman for the governor, told the Washington Post. “We look forward to a judge ruling on the merits.”
“The governor looks forward to a swift resolution and will not be bullied by anyone trying to score cheap political points, especially at the expense of his family’s safety and well-being,” Will Simons, another Shapiro spokesperson, told NBC10.
But the Mocks’ attorney, Walter Zimolong, a prominent Republican lawyer, told the Washington Post, “This is not a political action or ‘stunt’—it’s a straightforward defense of the property rights of two innocent people.”
Realtor.com reached out to the attorneys for the Shapiros and Mocks for comment.