Most people are familiar with the concept of squatter’s rights, technically known as adverse possession, whereby if someone occupies a piece of land for a prolonged period of time they can ultimately claim the title to that land.

There are now slightly differing regimes, depending on whether or not the land in question is registered or unregistered, but broadly speaking where someone can show uninterrupted possession of the relevant land for the requisite period and also the intention to possess that land during the requisite period without the consent of the owner then they can apply to the Land Registry to be registered as the owner of that land. When it comes to proving possession the applicant must be able to show a sufficient degree of exclusive physical control over the land which can include doing things like paving the land with a permanent surface. The applicant must also show an intention to possess the land in their own name to the exclusion of all others including the actual owner.

Although this sounds reasonably simple in principle the Land Registry sets a high bar where they are effectively being asked to permanently deprive someone of their title to a piece of land.

We recently submitted an application on behalf of a client where the client had owned a property for over 20 years and throughout that time the client and their tenants had used an area of unregistered land adjoining the property for parking in connection with the use of the property. The client had during that time paid for the parking area to be surfaced with tarmac and they had also built a small structure on the piece of land. In recent years they had also erected posts and a chain to prevent others from using the parking area and had painted “no parking” on the wall at the rear of the piece of land. Critically they had also never received any objection to their use of the land or been approached by anyone claiming to own the land in question.

Having considered our application the Land Registry concluded that simply using the land for parking was not sufficient for a claim for adverse possession as a right of parking can exist and so our client might simply have acquired right to use the land for parking. The Land Registry stated there needed to be “something more, such as an enclosure of the land and/or putting up car parking signs, to give some outward indication that the party in possession regarded the disputed land as its own”. The Land Registry asked for further information such as receipts for the tarmacking to show when this was done and also evidence of when the spray paint signage was put on the wall but the client was unable to provide this information and they concluded that they could not at this time register our client as the owner of the land.

If you are looking to claim adverse possession of a piece of land then we would recommend that you take reasonable steps to secure the land to prevent others from having access to it and put up formal signage to make it clear that you consider the land to be yours. Most importantly you should retain records of all works carried out to the land so that you can prove to the Land Registry when it was first secured and that you have carried out works which show that you consider the land to be yours.

If you would like any more information in relation to the above please contact James Davies or any member of the Property Team.

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