ChatterBank1 min ago
Land behind my home
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by mogden. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Doesn't sound as if there's much you can do. You extended the boundary of your property knowing that the land wasn't yours and you've been asked to put it back.
I don't understand why you think that you should have been able to do this in the first place.
It's not illeagal to let land go untended, obviously there are issues if there are certain noxious weeds which I think must be controlled by law, but even then I can't see that giving you the right to occupy the land.
It all depends on the land being registered with the Land Registry. This is where you would trace the ownership of the land in question.
Prior to the Land Registration Act 2002, a squatter wishing to claim ownership of land by adverse possession would have to:
- be in actual possession of the land,
- enclose the land so as to keep out the world at large and the rightful owner in particular, thereby enjoying exclusive use of the land,
- act with the intention of being the owner,
- hold himself out to be the owner,
- cultivate the land,
- satisfy the 12 year qualifying period laid down in the Limitation Act 1980.
The above still applies in the case of a squatter seeking to adversely possess unregistered land.
However you would still fail on the last point.