In the judgment of Brown v Ridley (UKSC/2024/0044) the Supreme Court has provided much needed clarity on the issue of for how long there must be a reasonable belief that a person owns a piece of land in order to assert ownership over that piece of land, in particular, from when that period of time should commence.
Mr Brown owned a piece of land in Consett, County Durham, which he purchased in September 2002.
Mr and Mrs Ridley owned the neighbouring plot of land, purchased in July 2004. The dispute centred on a strip of land enclosed by a fence and hedge, which the Ridleys used as part of their garden and over which they later constructed a dwelling.
In December 2019, the Ridleys applied to the Land Registry to be registered as the owners of the land, claiming adverse possession. Mr Brown objected, leading to a series of legal cases that eventually ended up in the Supreme Court.
Adverse possession (or ‘squatters rights’) allows someone to claim ownership of land if they’ve occupied to the exclusion of others for a certain period of time without the owner's permission.
Under the Land Registration Act 2002, in order to claim adverse possession, the following must be proven:
• Uninterrupted possession of the land for a period of ten years.
• An intention to possess the land during this period.
• Possession without the owner’s consent.
In addition, one or more of the following three grounds must be established:
1. It would be unconscionable for the registered owner of the land to dispossess the applicant due to an equity by estoppel, meaning that the applicant has a right to stay and should be registered as the owner.
2. The applicant is entitled to be registered as the owner for some other reason, such as a legal right or entitlement.
3. The applicant has been in adverse possession of neighbouring land under the reasonable belief that they owned it.
The law on adverse possession was reformed by the Land Registration Act 2002 to make it more difficult to claim where the land in question is registered title. However, an application for adverse possession can still succeed over neighbouring land where:
“for at least ten years of the period of adverse possession ending on the date of the application, the applicant (or any predecessor in title) reasonably believed that the land to which the application relates belonged to him”.
The difficulty is that the wording in the legislation is ambiguous. It could mean:
1. the ten-year period of reasonable belief has to end on the date of the application; or
2. any ten-year period of reasonable belief within the period of adverse possession is sufficient.
The Supreme Court finally clarified the situation by ruling that the second interpretation was correct. Accordingly, the court ruled in favour of the Ridelys thereby allowing them to be registered as the owners of the disputed land.
The problem with the first interpretation was that it required a person to apply for registration as soon as they learnt that they did not have title to the land which was somewhat unrealistic in view of the need to undertake necessary investigations and obtain legal advice.
The second interpretation permits a person more time in order to seek legal advice, consider the position carefully and then attempt to resolve any disagreement with their neighbours without potentially expensive and protracted litigation.
For further information regarding the law of adverse possession or any other aspect of property law, please do not hesitate to contact the writer of this article at bill.dhariwal@lawcomm.co.uk.
The content of this article does not constitute legal advice.
