Test Your Knowledge of Adverse Possession

Adverse possession is a method of acquiring legal title to real property by the actual, open, hostile, and continuous possession of it to the exclusion of its true owner for the period prescribed by statute law.

The law of adverse possession arises by virtue of the cumulative effect of the Land Registration Act 1925 and the Limitation Act 1980.

The Land Registration Act 2002 goes some way to reduce the impact of adverse possession, but there are still pitfalls for landowners.

Under the old regime, an adverse possessor simply had to show at least 12 years of continuous occupation of the land to establish a legal title.

The possessor also had a right to be registered as the legal owner in place of the paper owner.

In a surprising development this long standing legal position was thrown into doubt. A High Court decision PyevGraham (2000) ruled that adverse possession under the pre-2002 Act was incompatible with human rights law, which provides for the right to peaceable enjoyment of possessions.

The new law of adverse possession came into effect in September 2012 to try to re-balance the rights of residential property owners who have needed to use the civil justice system to remove squatters from their buildings in the past.

The law of adverse possession is concerned with the duty of care owed by occupiers of premises or land toward visitors, whether invited or uninvited, who suffer either personal injury or property damage during the course of their visits.

An occupier is any person who has occupation or control, whether it is partial or whole, of land or a structure standing on the land.

The law of occupiers' liability originated in common law but is now contained in the AC Billings & Sons Ltd v Riden case.

The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 states that an occupier of land or a person with permission to enter onto the land may expect that a person, in the exercise of his job, will appreciate and guard against any special risks ordinarily incident to it.

The common duty of care is a duty ‘to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he is invited or permitted to be there’ (s2(2)).

An occupier must take reasonable care and owe a common law duty of care to ensure that anyone (even trespassers) who comes onto those premises are not injured.

If an occupier is negligent and someone is injured as a result, the occupier may be liable for damages.

Construction Professionals should be aware of this law in order to ensure that visitors to construction sites are safe.

The HM Land Registry is a government department that manages the largest property register in the world.

The HM Land Registry is charged with the responsibility of providing access to up-to-date land information, registering land title in England and Wales, recording the details of purchases, sales and mortgages, and guaranteeing title to registered and interests in land.

The Land Registry levies a charge for registering the new owners names against the property they are purchasing.

The Land Registry also allocates a unique reference number to each plot of registered land, and this is known as the Title Number.

The Land Registry operates an online computerised search facility that can be used to search the Land Register on the property being purchased.

Registered land has boundaries certified to be correct, and it is a term to define an interest in the land, not ownership of the physical land itself.

The HM Land Registry is open to any user paying a fee to obtain details of any registered property.