Adverse Possession

Paley71

So further to my other thread (thanks GB2222)
I have no discovered that the land/outhouses on my property are unregistered. This means I can claim 'Adverse Possession' but we've only live here 10 yrs 4 mnths and we need to have owned the property for 12 years.
I will be speaking to the previous owner of our house later as I know that they used the said land in the same way as we did.
If they agree to state this when making a claim will we win?
If so how long does it all take to arrange?
Many thanks
Lindsay

Paley71

*sniffs armpits*
Another question
After speaking to the previous occupants (who are more than happy to help)
they told us that they believed that the house belonged to Mr *** at no*but that's was never confirmed...Would attempts be made to contact them?

martindow

I know nothing about this, but if you need to have been there 12 years why not wait another 20 months when your claim would be straightforward?

owner

I would assume you need to be there 12 years yourselves as it is you who is claiming 'possession'. Adverse possession is a myth anyway, everyone talks about it but no-one knows anyone who has done it (successfully) come back when you have title and I'll eat my hat/words.

hethmar

You should read up on the new act. If the unregistered land is adjacent to yours and you have been using it for 10 years in the reasonable belief it were yours then thats all the time you need to then apply to register it as yours.

If however it is registered the time period is 12 years use prior to the 2002 act- if you apply to have it registered in your name then the registered person will be contacted and he can object. It is very unlikely if he objects that you would be successful.

Have a look at the Land Registry site.

mlz1413

I used to own a house that did not have the front garden registered as belonging to the house, through the old owner and neighbours I had verbal proof it had been fenced and used solely by my house for at least 50 years, so I went through First Registration with the Land Registary.

Its reasonable easy to do but you will need a solicitor and you will need to swear a declaration. LR also put in a clause that if anyone came forward with the original deeds it would over-rule the registration - but as I had 50 yrs of history that didn't worry me.

I have heard via here that certain rules have changed and I thought they had changed so that now you have to register the land you wish to claim and then if no one came forward within 12 years you gained title of said land. So I would speak to Land Registry and a decent solicitor about First Registration.

Paley71

Thanks
I've spoken wiith my solicitor...the law is that unregistered land can be ad possessed after 12 years...that can include previous occupants as long as they never agreed to buy the land or were given permission from the owner
(they didn't)
With registered land it's much harder and you can claim after 10 years...however the owner is informed and has two years to counter claim...if they do you're pretty much stuffed apparently!

The solicitor reckons it should be fairly easy to sort out...the land in question is slap band in the middle of my garden and we're talking about an area of about 6ft x 6ft so I'm hardly robbing anyone of their rightful inheritance!

It stems back from years ago when our garden and all the houses backing onto it were one courtyard, over the years it's all been divided up.

Oh, and the reason we can't wait the full 12 years is that we're selling up and have a buyer...only wish I'd got all this sorted earlier but I'd actually forgotten all about it!

hethmar

Have I got it back to front then?? LOL. My case has gone on for nearly 4 years and I think Im shell shocked by all the aggro.

Good luck on yours.

mlz1413

I only registered my old front garden when I was selling for the same reason, did all the research when I bought as intended to do something about it straight away, then it loses importance and slowly gets forgotten, 16 years later I decided to sell and the issue of the front garden came up again!

I managed to get the first registration in about 2 months, the buyers solicitor insisted on an imdentity policy to protect himself against future problems which cost £200, I refused to pay it as it was their solicitors wish, but for you its probably worth it to keep the sale.

Paley71

Well, our solicitor finally submitted our application to the land registry and after being advised it would probably take weeks we were awarded possessory title after two days!!
We should be exchanging next week...keeping fingers firmly crossed as I still can't quite believe this sale will ever go through!


*Waits patiently for Owner to eat his hat*