Adverse possession claim defeated by estoppel St Pancras and Humanist Housing Association Ltd v Leonard [2008] EWCA Civ 1442 Summary In a claim for possession the claimant successfully used estoppel to defeat the defendant's argument that he was entitled to remain in...
Boundaries and Adverse Possession
Human rights
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights decided (by 10-7) that the English law of adverse possession (as it relates to claims under the law prior to the Land Registration Act 2002) is not incompatible with the Convention. Pye, which lost land under...
Acknowledgement of title
A person claiming adverse possession who acknowledges the paper owner's title will set time running again. This can mean that he has not run up 12 years adverse possession prior to the coming into force of the Land Registration Act 2002 (13 October 2003); or if the...
Land Registration Act 2002
This page sets out the procedure for applying to the Land Registry under the Land Registration Act 2002 to be registered as owner of land that has been in adverse possession. It also deals with the leading cases that have been decided under the Act since it came into...
Adverse possession and Pye v Graham
This page explains meaning of the phrase "adverse possession" as set out in Pye v Graham, the leading case on the topic. Other important issues that arise in adverse possession cases are dealt with on the other pages in this section of the site - go back to the page...
Trees and hedges
High hedges Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gives local authorities powers to deal with complaints by neighbours in relation to high hedges. A complaint may be made by the owner or occupier of a domestic property on the grounds that his or her reasonable...
Tidal waters
Foreshore Prescriptive right Lynn Shellfish Ltd v Loose [2016] UKSC 14 Summary The Supreme Court ruled on the extent of an exclusive prescriptive right to take cockles and mussels from a stretch of the foreshore. Facts The proprietor of land adjoining the foreshore...
T-marks
Who owns the boundary feature? What do T marks mean? Seeckts v Derwent [2004] EWCA Civ 393 This was a dispute as to position of a boundary turning upon construction of a conveyance that used T-marks on the plan. There was some conflict between those T marks and...
Presumptions
This page is concerned with the hedge to ditch presumption and the hedge to hedge presumption. Hedge and ditch presumption Introduction The presumption is contained in this classic statement:"The rule about ditching is this. No man, making a ditch, can cut into his...
Deeds, plans and boundary features
Introduction On this page we are considering the following question: "Who owns the disputed land according to 'the deeds'?". That person is commonly known as the -paper owner-. A number of factors will be looked at but as will be seen the key point is to find the...