Adverse possession

frogglet

If you know there's a will, has probate been granted  to the executors?
 Maybe contact them ask them what's happening.

Tiglet2

Copied from the Gov.UK website:

Squatters' rights to property

A long-term squatter can become the registered owner of property or land they’ve occupied without the owner’s permission.

Get legal advice from a conveyancer or solicitor if you’re a squatter in a property and want to claim ownership.

Who can apply

You can apply if you can prove:

• you, or a succession of squatters, have occupied the property continuously for 10 years (12 years if it’s not registered with HM Land Registry)
• you (or your predecessors) acted as owners of the property for the whole of that time
• you (or any of your predecessors) did not have the owner’s permission, for example the property was not originally rented to a squatter

If the property’s registered

Fill in a form for adverse possession.

Complete and sign a written ‘statement of truth’, or get a solicitor to prepare this for you.

Send your form and statement to the HM Land Registry Citizen Centre.

HM Land Registry
Citizen Centre
PO Box 74
Gloucester
GL14 9BB

HM Land Registry will decide if your application is valid and will let the property owner know. The owner has 65 days to object - your application will usually be automatically rejected if they do.

You’ll be registered as the owner of the property if there’s no objection.

You can apply again after 2 years if:

• the owner has not tried to remove you
• the property has not been reclaimed
• you’re still in possession of the property

HM Land Registry will usually then register you as the owner.

caprikid1

Mickey666 said:

caprikid1 said:

Never could work out why people think it's acceptable to steal like this. If I removed a car from a lockup for 10 years I doubt I could get solid title to it.

Stealing is just a legal construct.  If something is genuinely abandoned and unwanted by the legal owner, is it stealing to take possession of it?  The law says not.  The law also allows 10-12 years of abandonment before someone can claim ownership and efforts are made to contact the legal owner before such a claim if ratified and if they object then your claim will fail, so there is plenty of protection and you don't need to worry about someone claiming your house because you've been away for a few months.

Also, the reason you can't get title to car after 10 years is because the law does not provide a legal route for such a circumstance, so such an act WOULD be stealing as far as the law is concerned.

I fully appreciate the law, the challenge was to the sentiment  / morality. I appreciate if you were living next to a derelict house you might want to do something about it but making effort to find the owner would be my first port of call.

pleasedelete

Someone will be paying council tax  on it- if not the local authority would have taken action to take control of it? 

lucypilates

You can claim AP after 12 years of possession ... you have to be able to prove it somehow.
I'm actually buying a property where i'm going to have to make an adverse possession claim as part of the registering of new ownership. The built an extension on some unregistered land so because the property was built in 2002, that's my proof.

After you get AP, you get Possessory Title for 10 years and, if all well in that time, you apply for it to be granted Title Absolute ...