The effect of the new regime under the Land Registration Act 2002 (“the Act”) is to makes it harder for a squatter to succeed in a claim for adverse possession of registered land after 2003.
In addition to proving that a squatter has been for at least 10 continuous years in exclusive factual possession of the land without the owner’s consent with the necessary intention to possess if the owner objects and seeks to rely on Schedule 6 paragraph 5 of the Act the squatter must also satisfy one of three conditions specified in paragraph 5 of Schedule 6 or the application will fail. The most commonly relied upon condition by a squatter is the third condition.
The 3 conditions set out in paragraph 5 of Schedule 6 are that:
- It would be unconscionable because of an equity by estoppel for the registered proprietor to seek to dispossess the squatter and the circumstances are such that the squatter ought to be registered as the proprietor. This condition is akin to proprietary estoppel.
- The squatter is for some other reason entitled to be registered as the proprietor of the estate.
- The squatter has been in adverse possession of land adjacent to their own for at least 10 years and that for at least the last 10 years before the application the squatter under the mistaken but reasonably believed the land belonged to him and the owner’s title has been registered for more than 1 year.
Recently, in Brown (Respondent) v Ridley and another (Appellants) [2025] UKSC 7
The third condition specified in paragraph 5(4) of Schedule 6 was considered. The court gave guidance with regard to the third ground and clarified that it means that only genuinely mistaken squatters can acquire adverse possession. It was said that the effect of the requirement that the belief be reasonable rather than just genuine “adds an element of objectivity to which makes an assertion of reasonable belief by the squatter more easily tested by reference to objectively ascertainable facts and documents. This affords some added protection to the owner and is likely to avoid rewarding a squatter whose belief that he is not trespassing is not objectively justifiable, even if genuine.”
The case also considered the requirement that the belief that the squatter owned the land must be held for at least 10 years of the period of adverse possession ending on the date of the application. Whether this meant that a period of time between the ending of a 10-year period of reasonable belief and the date of the application made by the squatter will be fatal to the ability of the squatter to satisfy the boundary condition 3.
It had previously been believed that the 10-year period of reasonable belief needed to be the 10 years ending on the date of the application meaning that the squatter would need to apply for adverse possession almost immediately after the end of their reasonable belief under Schedule 6 or risk of the application failing.
The Supreme Court held that the 10 years of reasonable belief could be held within any period of time and that it did not have to be held immediately before the application. Accordingly, failure to apply almost immediately after the end of period of the reasonable would not be fatal to an application for adverse possession.
However, an application should be made within a practical period of time once the squatter has obtained legal advice and considered the evidence in support of the application
Adverse possession claims are complex and are often disputed. It is therefore essential before making an application to take specialist legal advice as to whether or not there are good grounds to support such an application.
Quinn & Co have expertise in this area of the law. Should you wish to discuss an application or objection to an application for adverse possession please contact Joseph Quinn on 01392 248858 or email us at mail@quinnlaw.co.uk or fill in our contact form and we will call you as soon as possible.
This article is provided free of charge for information purposes only; it does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such