LAND LAW

Land Law

2006

INTRODUCTION

The phrase adverse possession is a convenient one . We are all familiar with it and the Land Registration Act 2002 continues to use it Butterworths publish a HYPERLINK "http /www .propertylawuk .net /books .htm " \l "jourdan " book by that title . However , the word adverse has tended to confuse . It implies that the squatter should in some way be aggressive towards the owner of the property . The House of Lords has now made it abundantly clear that this is not so . As will be explained below the test

is simply : Has the trespasser possessed the land for the requisite period using the ordinary meaning of that word ? The case is J A Pye (Oxford Ltd v Graham HYPERLINK "http /www .parliament .the-stationery-office .co .uk /pa /ld200102 /ldjudgmt jd020704 /graham-1 .htm . The judgment was given on 4 July 2002 and the main speech is that of Lord Browne-Wilkinson . Except where otherwise stated the quotations in this article are from his opinion . In real estate common law , adverse possession is a means of acquiring title to another 's real property without compensation , by , as the name suggests , holding the property in a manner that conflicts with the true owner 's rights

Adverse possession requires the actual , visible , hostile , notorious exclusive , and continuous possession of the property , and some jurisdictions further require the possession to be made under a claim of title or a claim of right . In simple terms , this means that those attempting to claim the property are occupying it exclusively and openly as if it were their own . Some jurisdictions permit accidental adverse possession as might occur with a surveying error . Generally , the openly hostile possession must be continuous without challenge or permission from the lawful owner , for a fixed statutory period in to acquire title . Where the property is of a type ordinarily only occupied during certain times , the adverse possessor may only need to be in exclusive open , hostile possession during those successive useful periods Fundamentally , adverse possession is an application of traditional statute of limitations . Once the cause of action for trespass arises the landowner has a certain number of years to bring an action . Once that time has passed , the trespasser can no longer be evicted from the property , since the trespass action is time-barred . Adverse possession does not typically work against property owned by a government agency It also fails to give any rights if the land is registered under a Torrens title registration system

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Adverse possession is a means by which someone may acquire title to the land of another through certain acts over a defined period of time (Andrew J . Pain .1992 . Such acts must continue uninterrupted for the time period defined by state laws , which vary by state . In general , the acts of possession must be overt , hostile , exclusive , uninterrupted , and under a claim of right , etc , so as to give the owner or others claiming entitlement to possession notice and an opportunity to counter...