Adverse possession

Adverse possession

The law on adverse possession differs depending on whether the land is registered and when the period of adverse possession was completed. There is one regime for unregistered land and registered land where the period of adverse possession was completed before 13 October 2003, and another for registered land under the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA 2002).

Before 13 October 2003, under section 15 of the Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980) a squatter could obtain title to either registered or unregistered land if they could demonstrate 12 years' uninterrupted factual possession and an intention to possess the land. After the expiry of that period, LA 1980 prevented the 'paper' owner from recovering possession as:

•
the 'paper' title to unregistered land was extinguished, and
•
the 'paper' title to registered land was held on a statutory trust so the owner was obliged to transfer legal title on request to the squatter

If the title to the land is already registered, the claimant steps into the shoes of the registered proprietor and inherits the existing class of title.

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