Adverse Possession-Past Paper Questions

2008 Zone A
Question 1
“The Land Registration Act 2002 has effectively abolished the law of adverse possession, in the
sense that it will be extremely rare in the future for a claim based on adverse possession to be
successful.”
Discuss.

2010 Zone A
Question 2
In 1989 Zeb moved from his farm, Greengate, to live in a nearby village after all his cattle and
sheep were slaughtered as part of a government scheme to control the spread of foot and mouth
disease. Florence, the owner of Hillside, a neighbouring farm to Greengate, told her friends that
she was anxious to ensure that Greengate did not deteriorate in case Zeb decided he wanted to
return to farming. She therefore let her goats graze the fields on Greengate.
By 1992 Florence had regularly repaired the dry stone walls between Greengate and the road to
stop the goats from escaping. In 1994 she installed a permanent water supply and built a shed in
which to store animal feed. When Florence died in 1999, her son, Dylan, inherited Hillside.
Dylan continued to graze goats on Greengate land and repair the walls. Zeb sold Greengate to
Macdonald, who asked Dylan to remove his goats.
Advise Dylan on the basis of each of the following alternative assumptions:
(a) title to Greengate is registered; and
(b) title to Greengate is subject to unregistered land law principles and there had been no sale by
Zeb.
2012 Zone B
Question 1
Early in 1990 Grant entered (via an insecure back door) a boarded-up shop, of which Stretford
Council was the registered proprietor. Stretford Council had left the shop empty because it did
not have enough money to make the shop viable for it to be leased. Grant has occupied the
garage adjacent to the shop since he agreed to buy it from Stretford Council in 1988. Through an
administrative oversight Stretford Council failed to complete the sale of the garage to Grant.
By 1998 Grant has completely renovated and re-fitted the shop, which he has been using to sell
spare parts for cars. In 2000 Grant met Max, Stretford Council’s surveyor, outside the shop. Max
admired the work that had been done on the shop. Grant told him that he would be prepared to
pay rent for the shop if Stretford Council asked him. Max said he would pass the information on
to his boss. Grant heard nothing more from Stretford Council, until they wrote to him a month
ago asking him to leave the shop.
Advise Grant whether he has to leave the shop and the garage.
How would your advice differ if Grant entered the shop in 1999 and, after the conversation with
Max, the letter Stretford Council sent him last month asked him to leave the shop and the
garage?

2012 Zone A
Question 1
Some years ago Joe became too infirm to maintain his garden. He took expert advice and
decided to wait until the property market improved before selling the land. The garden soon
became overgrown with weeds. Neil, Joe’s neighbour, assumed that the garden was abandoned.
He therefore put his lawnmower in Joe’s shed. The shed stands near the boundary between the
two gardens. Neil moved part of the boundary fence two meters into Joe’s garden to get access to
the shed. That winter Neil repaired the leak in the shed’s roof to protect his lawnmower.
When Neil died last year, his son, Chris, inherited his house and garden. Chris assumed that the
shed was part of his late father’s garden. He continued to use it, and installed power and water.
Last month, when Joe decided to sell his garden to Lillian, a property developer, he discovered
Chris’s garden tools in the shed and that part of the boundary fence had been moved.
Advise Joe as to his legal position in respect of each of the following:
(a) the Land Registration Act 2002; and
(b) on the assumption that title to Joe’s property is unregistered.

2013 Zone A
Question 1
“The Land Registration Act 2002 makes it much more difficult for an owner of land to lose title
to a squatter. Most commentators assume this to be a good thing but only time will tell whether
this actually represents an improvement on the previous system governing adverse possession of
registered titles.”
Discuss.

2013 Zone B
Question 1
Numbers 1 and 2 The Copse are adjacent, detached houses. There is a piece of open ground
running across the rear of both properties. The Village Council owns the registered title to the
open ground, which it intends to use once it has enough money to renovate and extend the
neighbouring leisure centre.
In May 1990 when Abe purchased the registered title to Number 1 he cut back the vegetation on
an overgrown metre-wide strip of land between Numbers 1 and 2. He continued to mow it
regularly until 1994 when he replaced the grass with gravel because it required less maintenance.
When Babs moved into Number 2 in September 1990 she noticed Abe mowing the strip between
their two houses and assumed it must belong to Number 1.
Shortly after moving in, Babs also noticed the piece of open ground at the rear of the properties.
As she did not have enough space in her own garden she decided to use it to grow cabbages. In
1993 Babs erected a small fence to stop rabbits from eating the cabbages. The following year she
installed a water sprinkler system on the open ground.
In April 2013 Abe decided to build an extension to Number 1. His surveyor discovered that the
gravel strip between Number 1 and 2 actually belonged to Number 2. Babs wonders whether she
has any rights to the piece of open ground belonging to the Village Council.
(a) Advise Babs.
(b) How, if at all, would your advice differ if the Village Council’s title to the open ground was
unregistered?

2014 Zone A
Adam was the registered owner of a large estate. There was a disused cottage on the estate that
had been empty for some time. In 1990, Tim decided to renovate the cottage and make it his
home. In 1993 he began refurbishing the property and occasionally stayed overnight when
working late on the refurbishment. In 1995 he and Lisa, a keen gardener, moved in and began
landscaping the gardens and mended the fences to keep their pet chickens from wandering off.
Adam, who was attempting to secure finance to demolish the old cottage and build a sports
complex, was aware that Tim and Lisa had moved in but raised no objection. Tim continued to
live in the cottage until his death in 2000, leaving all his ‘worldly goods’ to Lisa. Last year, after
failing to secure finance, Adam sold the registered title to Saul, who bought the property after
noticing its magnificent gardens. Last week, on legal advice, Saul wrote to Lisa stating that he
was content for her to remain at the property for the ‘time being’.
(a) Advise Lisa.
(b) How, if at all, would your advice differ in EACH of the following ALTERNATIVE
circumstances:
(i) Adam had expressly told Lisa that he did not mind her and her boyfriend using the cottage
while he was seeking finance;
(ii) Lisa threw Tim out last year after he refused to stop picking her prize flowers from the
garden?
2015 Zone A (same as Zone B)
Question 1
In January 1999, Aisha came across a disused cafe, the title to which was registered. Aisha wrote
to the cafe’s owner, Todd, asking to rent it for a short period so that she could try opening a
coffee house. Todd told Aisha that he was waiting until the market picked up and he would then
develop the premises. However, he agreed to grant her a licence until June 1999 so that they
could both gauge whether it was viable as a coffee house. At the end of the licence Aisha had
attracted a large and loyal clientele and wrote to Todd offering to pay rent but did not receive a
reply. Aisha continued to run the coffee house and Todd finally wrote to her in 2003 offering to
grant her a lease but she ignored the letter. In 2004 Aisha decided to take a year off and
embarked upon a world cruise, employing a part-time security guard, Ellen, to check the
premises each evening. On receiving a postcard from Aisha informing her that she was extending
her holiday, Ellen resigned her position and, despite Aisha’s objections, re-opened the coffee
house herself in January 2006. Aisha has still not returned and Badbucks have now
contactedTodd seeking to buy the premises from him.
a) Advise the parties.
b) How, if at all, would your advice differ if title to the cafe was unregistered?

2016 Zone A
Question 1
‘It would seem unlikely that many lawyers would advise a client in adverse possession to apply
to the Land Registry to be registered as proprietor, knowing that would begin a process by which
the registered owner is traced, notified and given a very real incentive to commence possession
proceedings in a timely fashion.’
Discuss.

2016 Zone B
Question 1
Sarah and Molly are the owners of a small cottage and garden that they bought in 1990. As they
wanted to use the garden to grow organic vegetables they erected a climbing frame, for their
daughter Nikita, a few metres into a large area of wasteland at the end of their garden. The
wasteland was owned by European Nuclear Fuels (ENF) who, as the registered proprietors, had
unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to build a nuclear power plant on the site. Nikita
invited children from the local village to play on the climbing frame and, as a keen footballer,
began playing football on the wasteland with her new friends. As there was no football pitch in
the village Sarah and Molly installed goalposts and, a little later, planted turf to improve the
playing service. They also dismantled the fence separating their garden from the wasteland and,
after hearing rumours that an area beyond had been contaminated by radiation, installed a new
fence beyond the football pitch to stop Nikita and her friends wandering further. On discovering
what had happened ENF’s public relations department issued a press statement welcoming the
fact that the wasteland was being used to provide sporting facilities for the local community.
In May 2007 Nikita left home and the football pitch soon became overgrown. A couple of
months later, Dillon, a new age traveller who toured the country protesting against nuclear
energy arrived with the intention of setting up camp on the wasteland. Because of his fear of
radiation he pitched his tent on the football pitch which he knew, from consulting the land
registry website, also belonged to ENF despite appearing to be part of the cottage garden. Sarah
and Molly decided not to confront Dillon about his intrusion although they soon reinstated the
former fence, separating their garden from the wasteland, when he began helping himself to their
vegetables. As he had no other source of food or income Dillon removed the football posts and
dug up the pitch to plant vegetables, much to the consternation of ENF’s public relation’s
department who issued another statement condemning the anti- social activities of the anti-
nuclear movement. Last week ENF were granted planning permission to build a nuclear power
plant.
a) Advise ENF on their rights regarding the wasteland.
b) How, if at all, would your advice differ if title to the wasteland was unregistered?

2017 Zone A
Question 1
Fiona owned the freehold title to business premises from which she operated the offices of a
small charity providing counselling for homeless people. The premises are registered land. At the
rear of the property there was an outbuilding. The outbuilding was on the opposite side of the
long yard hidden behind a row of tall trees. The outbuilding was on two storeys. The yard was
only used occasionally, mainly by employees of the charity who wanted to smoke during
working hours. Otherwise it was neglected. Fiona decided to use the outbuilding to provide
emergency care for homeless people during the Christmas period in 2003. Fiona opened a soup
kitchen on the ground floor of the outbuilding. On the upper storey, she provided temporary
accommodation for two homeless people. These arrangements were only supposed to last for one
month until 31st January 2004. The homeless occupants were Alan and Colleen. Each of them
was provided with a new bed which was advertised by the manufacturer as being ‘a temporary
bed designed only to be used for one or two nights at a time’.
On 1st February 2004, Fiona gave permission for Alan to continue to occupy the outbuilding
rent-free until the local authority provided him with permanent accommodation. Fiona expected
that this would only take one or two months. She assumed, mistakenly, that Colleen had left the
property because Colleen had been absent from the premises for two months. Colleen went
travelling on occasion for about two months at a time. Alan spent £100 on fixing an electrical
problem on the upper floor of the premises which he occupied and spent small amounts of
money throughout his occupancy maintaining the property in a habitable condition.
On 1st March 2004, Ed broke the padlock on the door to the outbuilding and began to occupy the
empty rooms on the ground floor of the building. Fiona met Ed by accident in the yard on 1st
April 2007 and told him that he would have to leave the premises. Ed refused to leave on the
basis that he was homeless. Fiona said that Ed could remain in the property rent-free for
onemonth if he painted the ground floor of the outbuilding. Ed agreed. He bought some paint and
brushes but never finished painting the property. All three occupants have remained in
occupation, having nowhere else to go.
Advise Fiona (a) as to the claims of Alan, Colleen and Ed to adverse possession, and (b) how
your advice would differ if the land was unregistered.

2017 Zone B
Question 1
‘The law on adverse possession has always been depicted as a scandalous interference with the
rights of legitimate property owners. As a result, the changes effected in the Land Registration
Act 2002 provided a timely reform to the law. However, these alterations to the law on adverse
possession have robbed English land law of a vital tool for achieving the proper use of land that
otherwise is unused or abandoned.’
Discuss.

2021 Zone A
Question 7
Charlotte bought the registered title to a small cottage in May 2004. The house used to be the
gatekeeper’s lodge for a country property, Branwell House. As the cottage did not have its own
garden, Charlotte agreed with her neighbour, Anne, to make use of a neglected secret garden at
the rear of Branwell House. Anne is the registered proprietor of Branwell House.
Charlotte used the secret garden to grow vegetables. When Charlotte’s licence of the secret
garden expired in December 2011, Anne was not prepared to renew it because she had plans to
replace the garden with a maze. Shortly afterwards Anne, who was not in the best of health,
boarded up Branwell House and moved to live in her cottage in Yorkshire. In Anne’s absence,
Charlotte continued to use the secret garden to grow vegetables. To deter the birds, she installed
a sonic device to scare them and erected a Perspex roof to protect the soft fruit.
In March 2021 Anne sold Branwell House to Emily. A few weeks after she moved in, Emily
discovered that Charlotte was using the secret garden to grow vegetables. Emily has written to
Charlotte insisting she vacate the garden immediately. A few days later, Charlotte received a
letter from the legal department of Wuthering Council. The letter instructed Charlotte to remove
the picket fence at the front of her cottage so that Wuthering Council can make use of the land
inside the fence to build a pavement. It claimed that a previous owner of the cottage must have
wrongly enclosed the strip of land, which Wuthering Council’s plans show rightly belongs to it.
Advise Charlotte.

2021 Zone B
Question 4
‘The Land Registration Act 2002, in conjunction with more recent legal developments, has
fundamentally altered the way the law balances the interests of a registered proprietor and those
of an adverse possessor.’
How far do you agree this is, and should be, so?