Adverse Possession

• Adverse possession


  Legal concept where a person who is NOT the original owner acquires legal ownership over that land by openly using it without owner's permission for a specified amount of time
• Trespasser or squatter


  When a trespasser or squatter has been on the land for a long period of time and becomes the owner of the land
• Proving a claim in adverse possession


  1. Stage 1: Elements of Adverse Possession

  2. Dispossession or discontinuance

  3. The claimant must have factual possession of the land

  4. The claimant must exhibit requisite intention to possess the land
• Dispossession


  A person comes in and drives another out of possession
• Discontinuance


  A person goes out and is followed into possession
• Dispossession is easier to prove, discontinuance involves giving up the land
• Factual possession


  The adverse possessor must demonstrate a sufficient degree of physical control over the land in question
• Examples of factual possession

  • Enclosing the land by the erection of fences
  • Padlocking a gate which provides the only access to the land in dispute
• Factual possession cannot be presumed from mere temporary or trivial acts by the adverse possessor
• Factual possession must be open, not secret, peaceful, not be force; and adverse, not by consent of true owner
• The squatter must act as an owner would and possess exclusively
• Intention to possess


  The claimant must have the intention in one's own name and on one's behalf to exclude the world at large including the owner, i.e. intention to treat the land as their own
• The adverse possessor need not have an intention to dispossess; merely an intention to possess
• The adverse possessor need not have an intention to own the disputed land; merely an intention to possess it for as long as he can for his own benefit
• If the adverse possessor believes that he has the consent of the paper owner to be on the land, this will defeat any claim for adverse possession
• Unregistered land


  A claim of adverse possession of unregistered land is based upon limitation of actions. The paper owner has 12 years to remove the adverse possessor. After this period, any action is barred and the title to the land extinguished.
• Registered land


  A claim of adverse possession of registered land post-2003 is not based upon limitation of actions. Instead, the adverse possessor must take positive steps to apply to the Land Registry to be registered with title to the land.
• Adverse possession of registered land

  1. After a minimum of ten years of adversely possessing a piece of land, the adverse possessor can apply to the Land Registry to be registered with title to the land

  2. The Land Registry will notify the registered title holder and other interested parties who then have 65 working days to submit an objection

  3. If no objection, the adverse possessor will be duly registered as title holder

  4. If there is an objection then the paper owner has two years in which to remove, or give permission to, the adverse possessor
• Effect of a successful claim - Unregistered land

  The claimant acquires a possessory title which after 12 years becomes a title that the true owner is unable to challenge. The true owner's title is extinguished.
• Effect of a successful claim - Registered land

  The applicant's name will be substituted for that of the former proprietor. The effect is to transfer the estate to the applicant.
• A person who has completed 12 years adverse possession before 13 October 2003 is entitled to be registered as proprietor of the land.
• Adverse possession and Criminal Law

  Squatting in a residential property is a criminal act, but peaceably entering property as a squatter has not been regarded as a criminal act.
• The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 makes squatting in a residential property a criminal act.
• A tenant who continues to live in property after lease is not committing an offence.
• Squatters who occupy abandoned non-residential buildings or land will not commit any offence.