Originally published April 2005
A recent decision of the Chancery Division of the High Court1 may have a profound effect on the law relating to claims for adverse possession of land, more commonly known as "squatters’ rights". The judgment is being appealed, but pending the outcome of the appeal, landowners should think twice before conceding claims made by squatters.
The Facts of the Case
The Claimant company was the owner of an area of green belt land near Heathrow Airport. It commenced proceedings seeking an Injunction restraining the Defendant from entering onto or using its land. The Defendant alleged he had acquired adverse title to the land because he had enclosed it and allowed his horses and cattle to graze there from October 1986 until October 1998. He further stated that he had charged other people to graze their horses on the land. It was the Claimant’s case that the Defendant had not proved his claim for adverse possession because he had made no substantial use of the
