Short answer. Yes. Under Article 1125 of the Civil Code, any express or tacit recognition you make of the owner's right interrupts your possession for purposes of prescription. Once interrupted, the period you have already accumulated does not count — it resets, and you would need to start again from zero.
What the law says
Any express or tacit recognition which the possessor may make of the owner's right also interrupts possession.
Civil Code, Article 1125 — Recognition by the Possessor. Read the full provision →
What the law says about recognition
Article 1125 of the Civil Code states that any express or tacit recognition which the possessor may make of the owner's right also interrupts possession. The word "also" signals that this is one of several ways prescription can be cut off — and recognition is treated as an immediate interruption the moment it occurs. It does not matter whether you recognised the owner's right in writing, in open conversation, or simply through conduct that could only be read as an acknowledgment; the legal effect is the same.
Express and tacit recognition — what counts
An express recognition is a clear, direct statement: signing a document that identifies someone else as owner, paying rent to a person you call the owner, or writing a letter that concedes you hold the land on their behalf. A tacit recognition is indirect but equally clear from the circumstances — asking the owner's permission to make improvements, accepting a lease from them covering the same land you were already occupying, or allowing them to exercise acts of ownership without objection over a sustained period. Both carry the same consequence: interruption.
What interruption actually means for your prescription period
Interruption wipes out the entire period you have already accumulated. If you possessed land for eight years and then acknowledged the owner's right, those eight years are lost. To acquire the property by prescription after that, you would need to begin a fresh, uninterrupted period — ten years for ordinary acquisitive prescription over registered land under good faith and just title, thirty years for extraordinary prescription without those conditions. The interrupted period cannot be "resumed" or added to a new one; it vanishes.
Practical things to watch for
People sometimes acknowledge an owner's right without realising it. Agreeing to pay even a token annual amount in exchange for staying on the property, calling yourself a tenant in any written document, or countersigning a survey plan that identifies another party as the registered owner are all potential tacit recognitions. If you have done any of these things after you began possessing the land, the clock may have restarted. Whether a specific act actually amounts to recognition under your facts is a question that depends on the full circumstances and is best reviewed with a lawyer before you take any further steps.