Adverse possession is a way for individuals to acquire legal title to land through long-term occupation, even though those individuals are not the original owners.
This article discusses the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v Ridley [2025] UKSC 7, which has shed further light on one of the three conditions an applicant must show to successfully claim adverse possession.
Mr Brown and Mr and Mrs Ridley owned neighbouring plots of land, with the Ridleys purchasing their land in July 2004. A previous owner of the Ridleys’ property had erected a fence and planted a hedgerow along what he understood to be the boundary between the two plots of land. In fact, this actually enclosed part of the Brown’s land (“the disputed land”).
Initially, the Ridleys used part of the disputed land as part of their garden and then later as part of the site for the building of their new home. Planning permission was granted in early 2018; however, in October 2019, Mr Brown notified the Ridleys that he considered the work to be in breach of the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
In December 2019, the Ridleys applied to the Land Registry to be registered as the owners of the disputed land on the grounds of adverse possession. Mr Brown objected to this application, and eventually, the case made its way to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court was concerned with the third of the four elements under the third condition of Paragraph 5 of Schedule 6 of the Land Registration Act 2002, namely “for at least ten years of the period of adverse possession ending on the date of the application, the applicant (or any predecessor in title) reasonably believed that the land to which the application relates belonged to him”
The question was whether the ten years of reasonable belief had to be ten years prior to the date of the application or whether it could be in any ten years of adverse possession. This issue was particularly important as the Ridleys had only reasonably believed they owned the disputed land until around February 2018, approximately 21 months before making their application.
Unanimously, the Supreme Court, adopting a flexible and practical approach, agreed that any ten-year period of reasonable belief was sufficient. To put this into context, if you have been using a piece of land for 15 years and reasonably believed it to be yours for the at least 10 of those years, you may be able to make a successful adverse possession claim.
Consequently, whilst Claimants have benefited, landowners should ensure property boundaries are accurate and that no one is using their land who shouldn’t be. If you suspect someone has been using land long enough to make a claim, it is best to take action sooner rather than later. Please do not hesitate to contact the Dispute Resolution team at Warners who are experienced in dealing with adverse possession claims.
To book an appointment or to discuss this further, please contact the Property Dispute Resolution team on [email protected], 01732 770660
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note the law may have changed since this article was published. We do not accept responsibility or liability for any actions taken based on the information in this article.
