Recent House Purchase & Retrospective Claim for Land UK

[Openlaw15]

Re: Recent House Purchase & Retrospective Claim for Land UK

What statutory criteria is it you are referring to? There are 3 ways of prescription: tracing the use of the land to before 1199 (unlikely), Prescription Act (not applicable here) or the doctrine of lost modern grant which is what I referring to above. If the use of the land has been enjoyed for 20 years without any lawful explanation then it is presumed to have been in a deed of grant and that grant has been lost and will pass on to new owners. The OP could in reality request a statutory declaration or go to court on this and if successful, use the judgment to register it at the land registry.

But as I said before, looking at the land registry title and plan to determine if the land is owned by someone else or if there is any reference to it and also wait on the response from the conveyancing firm

It's called a common law prescription, and it's 1189 (not 1199) since time immemorial (ie in living memory). No, a prescriptive easement does not need to be registered to be legal if it's for unregistered land anyway.

[Openlaw15]

Re: Recent House Purchase & Retrospective Claim for Land UK

Lost grant is 20 years or more not less, and I agree not be done with permission but I don't believe it must be exclusive use. The onus is on the person claiming the land to show that there was no grant or that there was a licence of sorts to rebut the presumption. I don't think a barrister is going to be laughed out of court if there is enough evidence on a balance of probabilities that the land has been used as a garden for the last 25 years or so and there is no evidence from the person claiming a right to the land and trespass. Ancient law and case law on lost modern grant has been applied throughout the years right up to the present day.

Having said that, there could also be an argument here of adverse possession For the OP's reference, adverse possession in the case of registered land, allows a person who has used the land without permission for at least 10 years to apply to be the registered proprietor. Schedule 6 of the LRA allows a person to count the previous number of years as long as the criteria is satisfied e.g. a successor of the previous owner. So this option could in theory give the OP a right to apply to be the registered owner of the land.

Rob, think about it. Why else would you not use the Act which consolidates all existing prescriptive law into one? The only reason you would not if you could not meet the statutory 20 yrs use, as lost modern grant at common law does not require 20 years continuous use. For lost modern grant the only criteria is that it is lost right subject to a potential grant.

[Openlaw15]

Re: Recent House Purchase & Retrospective Claim for Land UK

Lost grant is 20 years or more not less, and I agree not be done with permission but I don't believe it must be exclusive use. The onus is on the person claiming the land to show that there was no grant or that there was a licence of sorts to rebut the presumption. I don't think a barrister is going to be laughed out of court if there is enough evidence on a balance of probabilities that the land has been used as a garden for the last 25 years or so and there is no evidence from the person claiming a right to the land and trespass. Ancient law and case law on lost modern grant has been applied throughout the years right up to the present day.

Having said that, there could also be an argument here of adverse possession For the OP's reference, adverse possession in the case of registered land, allows a person who has used the land without permission for at least 10 years to apply to be the registered proprietor. Schedule 6 of the LRA allows a person to count the previous number of years as long as the criteria is satisfied e.g. a successor of the previous owner. So this option could in theory give the OP a right to apply to be the registered owner of the land.

If any easement were applicable it would in fact be an implied easement by sale, it would not require a prescriptive event. Prescriptive types are a different creature and come to the fore when it is not by a sale of land, rather its emergence comes through acquirement in that it's long use, ie before a different owner takes over the land, which is why it's called a 3rd party interest against the new owner.

[wales01man]

Re: Recent House Purchase & Retrospective Claim for Land UK

You can quote reams of laws but if their neighbour wants to pursue this and makes life difficult it could well become a legal fight no winners no losers just big fee payments.
The OP should consult a Solicitor ASAP to see if this can easily be reolved