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About Property Disputes Law

Lexis+ Property Disputes helps you to understand property disputes practice and procedures and the implications of legislation and case law on this. Clear, concise practice notes have direct links to relevant cases, legislation, guidance and commentary and our daily news feeds and weekly highlights keep you informed of new cases, legislation, and commentary.

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Security of tenure for business tenancies under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is a key area for a property litigator. Get the research and tools to advise on how security arises and how it’s terminated, daily.

Forfeiture

Guidance covers the procedural and practical considerations prior to and throughout the process of forfeiting a lease. We give detailed guidance, linking deeper commentary, forms, precedents and a wide range of Q&As.

Electronic Communication Code

Guidance to secure rights to install and retain equipment to provide electronic communications services. Code issues, in respect of granting and terminating agreements, frequently arise between landowners and operators.

Property disputes

Understand practice and procedures, the implications of legislation and case law. Our notes have direct links to relevant cases, legislation, guidance and commentary. Get daily news feeds and weekly highlights.

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Associated legal terms

Continuing trespass

Continuing trespass describes an unlawful interference with land, buildings or goods that is not merely momentary but persists over time, for example where a person remains on land after permission is withdrawn, or leaves an object or structure in place without consent. It is a descriptive common law expression recognised in case law rather than a defined statutory term, and is used broadly consistently across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland (though Scottish law more often uses the language of “intrusion” or “encroachment”).

Key legal features include: a single wrongful act that results in a state of affairs which continues (such as leaving a vehicle or fence on another’s land), or a failure to remove something once the duty to do so arises. Each day the trespass continues can give rise to a fresh cause of action, affecting limitation periods and the calculation of damages.

In practice, continuing trespass is important in property litigation, boundary disputes, nuisance claims, commercial real estate, and injunction applications, where claimants seek ongoing remedies (such as mandatory injunctions or removal orders) rather than compensation for a one-off trespass.

Forcible entry

Forcible entry describes entering land or buildings without lawful authority using force, threats, intimidation or other conduct overriding the occupier’s will. It commonly arises in criminal law, landlord and tenant disputes, repossessions and protest or trespass litigation.

Historically, “forcible entry” was a standalone criminal offence in England and Wales and in Ireland, but most old common law and statutory offences have been repealed or replaced by modern offences (for example, criminal damage, burglary, aggravated trespass or violent disorder). Northern Ireland has similar modern offences rather than relying on historic forcible entry laws. In Scotland, the concept appears mainly through common law breach of the peace, malicious mischief and statutory protections for residential occupiers; there is no single codified “forcible entry” offence.

Across the UK and Ireland, the term is now largely descriptive rather than a technical label, but it remains relevant when assessing whether entry was lawful, whether reasonable force was used (for example by enforcement officers, police or mortgagees), and whether civil remedies such as injunctions, interdicts, possession orders or damages for trespass and harassment are available.

Hostile possession

Hostile possession describes a person’s factual possession of land without the paper owner’s consent, and in a manner inconsistent with the owner’s title. It is a key element of adverse possession in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, and of “possession nec precario” in Scots property law.

The “hostile” element does not require aggression or ill-will; it means the occupier is in possession as of right, not by permission, lease, licence or tolerance. In practice, this often involves exclusive use, enclosure, maintenance or development of land as if the occupier were owner.

In England and Wales and Northern Ireland, the concept is developed through case law on adverse possession and limitation (for example under the Limitation Act 1980 and the Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989), and interacts with Land Registration legislation. In Ireland, similar principles arise under the Statute of Limitations 1957. In Scotland, case law on positive prescription and possession “adverse” to the owner fulfils an analogous role.

Hostile possession is crucial when assessing whether time for adverse possession or prescription has begun to run, whether the owner has acquiesced, and whether registered or unregistered title can ultimately be displaced.
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