Poseedor

Poseedor is a legal term used in civil law to describe a person who has the physical control of a thing and exercises it as if it were theirs, but who may not be the lawful owner. The concept is distinguished from the owner (propietario), who holds the title to the property, and from a detentor or tenedor, who possesses the object for another and not with the intention of asserting ownership.

Posesión, the state of being a poseedor, involves two elements: corpus (the actual control of the object) and animus possidendi (the intention to possess it as owner or to exercise rights of ownership). Courts and codes also distinguish possession in good faith (posesión de buena fe) and in bad faith (posesión de mala fe). A poseedor de buena fe believes they have a right to the thing or that they are the owner, while a poseedor de mala fe knows they do not have such a right.

These classifications have legal consequences, especially regarding usucapión (adquisición por posesión). In many jurisdictions, a poseedor de buena fe may acquire ownership after a specified period of uninterrupted possession, whereas a poseedor de mala fe may face longer periods or narrower rights.

A poseedor generally has the right to use and enjoy the thing within the limits of the law and of the possession, and may defend possession against disturbances. The owner, however, retains title and can reclaim the property through appropriate legal actions, such as reivindicación, if possession is disrupted.

Etymologically, poseedor derives from poseer, meaning to possess. The term is widely used in Spanish-speaking jurisdictions to describe the practical, not necessarily ultimate, ownership relationship over property.