Zarb v Parry
Under the Land Registration Act 2002, a squatter on registered land who reasonably believed that the land belonged to him can be registered as owner under the boundary exception.
Facts
Mr and Mrs Zarb and Mr and Mrs Parry were neighbours, and there was a dispute about who owned a strip of land between their properties. The Parrys had used the strip as their own for more than ten years, believing that it belonged to them. The Zarbs, who held the registered title to the strip, then entered it and asserted their ownership. The Parrys claimed that they were entitled to be registered as owners of the strip.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the Parrys were entitled to be registered. Arden LJ said that, under paragraph 5(4) of Schedule 6 to the Land Registration Act 2002, a squatter who has been in adverse possession of registered land adjoining his own for ten years, and who for at least ten years reasonably believed that the land belonged to him, is entitled to be registered as owner, even if the registered owner objects. The Zarbs' self help in entering the land came after the period had already run, so it did not stop the Parrys' claim.
Related cases on adverse possession
- Buckinghamshire County Council v Moran [1990] Ch 623
- Fairweather v St Marylebone Property Co Ltd [1963] AC 510
- Hounslow London Borough Council v Minchinton (1997) 74 P & CR 221
- IAM Group plc v Chowdrey [2012] EWCA Civ 505
- JA Pye (Oxford) Ltd v Graham [2002] UKHL 30, [2003] 1 AC 419
- JA Pye (Oxford) Ltd v United Kingdom (2008) 46 EHRR 45
- Leigh v Jack (1879) 5 Ex D 264
- Ofulue v Bossert [2009] UKHL 16, [2009] 1 AC 990
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