Usucaption and housing. Divergent interpretations between domicile, residence and dwelling

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze usucaption and the term dwelling, which is explored in some articles of the Civil Code of 2002, mainly in chapter II, section I, of book III, of its special part, which deals with the usucaption of immovable property. The 2002 Civil Code, in the chapter on usucaption, unlike its predecessor, used the word "dwelling" in five articles, and its meaning, according to a wide range of Brazilian doctrine, seems to conflict with the meaning used in the normative texts mentioned above. The method used is hermeneutic, based on an analysis of legislation, doctrine and case law. It concludes that there is a dissonance between the meaning of the expression dwelling disseminated by the doctrine when studying domicile and that used by the legislator and interpreted by our doctrine and courts in the articles dealing with the usucaption of immovable property.