FR1 form for adverse possession of unregistered land

AKW

Hi all,

I am in the process of filing an FR1, and I am uncertain what to put in box 15. The person who owned the land is undoubtable deceased. I don't know who would legally own this land now, and this person surely doesn't know about us having occupied it for the last 30 years.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated

greatcrested

You can only claim land you have been occupying as if it were your own.

Any successful claim will result in it being registered in your name, but will not extinguish any existing ROWs, whether public or private.

AKW

Affirmative. We have been using it as if it was our own, including sweeping all the leaves off it every autumn.
In box 15 of the FR, would I fill in our names as transferees, and leave the transferors open? In the DL, would I include all the ancient conveyances or all registered titles surrounding, which make reference to the ancient conveyances?

AKW

Sorry, meant to say box 16 of the FR

AKW

I read in practise guide 5:

2. Adverse possession: the essentials

You must show that:

• the squatter has factual possession of the land                            yes, we have that
• the squatter has the necessary intention to possess the land       we make use of the land every day, for the purpose of access, and for storage of ancillary equipment. The actual owner has no remaining RoW to reach the land
• the squatter’s possession is without the owner’s consent         we are not trespassers as we have RoW, but am I right to think that RoW is not consent to possession? Our possession is without owner's consent, since no owner has ever come forward. 
• all of the above have been true of the squatter and any predecessors through whom the squatter claims for at least 12 years prior to the date of the application                      30 years, actually

greatcrested

if you post your query on the Land Registry thread, the LR Rep will answer.

MobileSaver

we are not trespassers as we have RoW, 

I suspect this is your downfall. My understanding is that essentially you do have to be trespassers to be able to claim adverse possession!

As you have permission (i.e. a legal RoW) to be on the land in the first place then I believe any adverse possession claim will fail. (Oh and to answer your earlier question, although probably moot, yes you can only claim adverse possession on land that has been exclusively used by you and to the exclusion of all others.)

As greatcrested noted, Land Registry are the experts so will be interesting to see if they concur.

AKW

Thank you Greatcrested and MobileSaver for your contributions and thank you for the link.
I will put my next question there: In the interest of completeness, is there a way to achieve registration of an unregistered strip of land that we possess, where the legal owner can not be located, other that on the basis of adverse possession?

MobileSaver

AKW said:

I will put my next question there: In the interest of completeness, is there a way to achieve registration of an unregistered strip of land that we possess, where the legal owner can not be located, other that on the basis of adverse possession?

Hats off to the Land Registry rep for responding late on a Saturday night; that would be impressive for any company or organisation but for a government department is quite incredible and deserves praise!

I see that Land Registry do concur and there's a specific reference in Practice Guide 4:

In Buckinghamshire County Council v Moran, ( [1990] Ch 623, 636) Slade LJ explained:
“Possession is never ‘adverse’ ... if it is enjoyed under a lawful title. If, therefore, a person occupies or uses land by licence of the owner ... he cannot be treated as having been in ‘adverse possession’ ”

If you think about it, it makes complete sense both legally and morally. It would be wholly wrong for someone to give you permission to use their land for 12 years at the end of which you turn around and claim the land as your own.

To answer your final question I would say there is no way for anyone other than the owner of the land to register it.

• You cannot register it because you have permission to use it.
• No third-party can register it because you use it and so a third-party cannot claim exclusive use.

If you really want to register this land in your name then the only way I can think of is to hire a tracing company to see if they can locate the actual owner and then buy the land off them.

A checking question for you though is if you already have pretty much exclusive use and no-one has complained in 30 years then how much time and money is it worth to get the land registered in your name?

SDLT_Geek

Yes, well done @Land_Registry for answering so many questions so well and so promptly.  I understand it is difficult for someone with a right of way over an access to claim title to the access by adverse possession.  They have an existing right to use it and so the possession would not usually be "adverse" such as to create new rights of ownership.

davidmcn

SDLT_Geek said:

Yes, well done @Land_Registry for answering so many questions so well and so promptly.  I understand it is difficult for someone with a right of way over an access to claim title to the access by adverse possession.  They have an existing right to use it and so the possession would not usually be "adverse" such as to create new rights of ownership.

Though the OP suggests they are not merely exercising the right of way but using the land to an extent which (as we Scots would say) is "repugnant with ownership" i.e. the owner can no longer get any real benefit out of their land.