What is Adverse Possession?

Full Definition

Adverse possession, often referred to informally as squatter's rights, is a legal doctrine that can allow someone who has occupied land belonging to someone else -- without permission, and openly as if it were their own -- for a sufficiently long period to apply to be registered as the legal owner instead of the original owner. For registered land, the Land Registration Act 2002 made successful adverse possession claims considerably harder than under the old law: an applicant with at least ten years' factual possession can apply, but the registered owner is then notified and can normally object and block the claim outright, unless one of a small number of specific exceptions applies (for example, the applicant reasonably believed the land was theirs and it turns out to be a boundary error, or the applicant has an independent right to the land, or the owner cannot be traced). For unregistered land, the older and more permissive common law rules broadly still apply, generally requiring twelve years of factual and exclusive possession with the necessary intention to possess the land as the "true" owner would, without needing to give the paper-title owner an opportunity to object in the same way. Adverse possession claims most commonly arise from boundary disputes over small strips of garden or access land, long-term unchallenged use of a neighbour's driveway or parking area, or occupation of land whose true owner has died, disappeared, or lost track of an outlying parcel, and disputed claims are usually resolved through the Land Registry's adjudication process (or the First-tier Tribunal) rather than in the ordinary courts in the first instance.

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