Adverse Possession and the Transmissibility of Possessory Rights – the Dark Side of Land Registration? Mark Pawlowski* *Barris
Adverse Possession and the Transmissibility of Possessory Rights – The Dark Side of Land Registration? Mark Pawlowski* *Barrister, Professor of Property Law, Scholl of Law, University of Greenwich James Brown** **Barrister, Senior Lecturer in Law, Aston University It is trite law that, if unregistered land is adversely possessed for a period of 12 years, the title of the paper owner is automatically barred under s.15 of the Limitation Act 1980. Where the land is registered, however, there is no automatic barring of title by adverse possession1 – instead, after being in adverse possession for a minimum of 10 years,2 the adverse possessor can apply to be registered as the proprietor in place of the registered proprietor of the land.3 Upon receipt of such an application, the Land Registry is obliged to notify various persons interested in the land, including the registered proprietor.4 Those persons then have 65 business days5 within which to object to the registration6 and, in the absence of any objection, the adverse possessor is entitled to be registered as the new proprietor of the land. 7 In these circumstances, the registered proprietor is assumed to have abandoned the land. If, on the other hand, there is an objection, the possessor will not be registered as the proprietor unless he falls within one of the three exceptional grounds listed in paragraph 5, Schedule 6 to the Land Registration Act 2002, where: (1) it would be unconscionable for the registered proprietor to object to the application; (2) the adverse possessor is otherwise entitled to the land; or (3) if the possessor is the owner of adjacent property and has been in adverse possession of the subject land under the mistaken, but reasonable belief, that he is its owner.
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