Adverse possession

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The law on adverse possession differs depending on whether the land is registered and when the period of adverse possession was completed. There is one regime for unregistered land, and registered land where the period of adverse possession was completed before 13 October 2003, and another for registered land under the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA 2002).

Before 13 October 2003, under section 15 of the Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980) a squatter could obtain title to either registered or unregistered land if they could demonstrate 12 years' uninterrupted factual possession and an intention to possess the land. After the expiry of that period, LA 1980 prevented the 'paper' owner from recovering possession:

  1. •

    the 'paper' title to unregistered land was extinguished, and

  2. •

    the 'paper' title to registered land was held on a statutory trust so the owner was obliged to transfer legal title on request to the squatter

If the title to the land is already registered, the claimant steps into the shoes of the registered proprietor and inherits the existing class of title. It is not

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Latest Property Disputes News

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This week's edition of Property Disputes weekly highlights includes: a Privy Council decision confirming that leases can be terminated for repudiatory breach and Court of Appeal decisions on the ‘tenant condition’, the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and the status of an unregistered landlord for the purposes of the right to manage. It also includes High Court decisions on claims for property damage by an RTM company and for remedial expenditure to prevent damage caused by continuing nuisance, and Upper Tribunal decisions on the calculation of time periods, the evidence required to impose a civil penalty, and the jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal to review the rent under an assured tenancy, and publication of the minutes of the Online Procedure Rule Committee.

Tenant Fees Act 2019—check-out challenge fails (Switaj v McClenaghan)

Property Disputes analysis: the Court of Appeal addressed whether tenancy fees can amount to prohibited payments under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (TFA 2019) even though they were paid prior to the Act taking effect. The tenant sought to defend proceedings for possession by relying upon a tenancy check-out fee which had been charged with the original tenancy in 2018, arguing that the fee held-over to subsequent replacement tenancies and became a prohibited payment post-TFA 2019. The appeal relied by analogy on the position with deposits where a deposit is notionally treated as being repaid upon replacement tenancies (Superstrike v Rodrigues). The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision at first instance to distinguish Superstrike. The case helps clarify the status of tenancy fees paid prior to the Act and whether these can amount to prohibited payments post-2019. Written by Kevin Long, solicitor at Hackney Community Law Centre.

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