Jonathan Pennington Legh defended the successful local authority landowner in an application for adverse possession in the First Tier Property Tribunal concerning a patch of land next to a caravan site used by travellers.
Mr Baker, the applicant's 1st application under the Land Registration Act 2002 was rejected when he had failed to rely on any of the conditions in para 5 of sch 6 of the Act.
His new application was brought under the rarely used para 6, sch 6:
(1) Where a person’s application under paragraph 1 is rejected, he may make a further application to be registered as the proprietor of the estate if he is in adverse possession of the estate from the date of the application until the last day of the period of two years beginning with the date of its rejection.
The issue
The parties were agreed that to succeed under that paragraph, Mr Baker needed to show not only that he was in adverse possession for the 2 years after the 1st application was rejected, but for the 10 years leading up to the making of the 1st application.
Mr Baker’s case was that he was in adverse possession from 2004 to date, because he “has fenced the land off to the exclusion of all others and has maintained a gate and padlock on the land and the fences which enclose the land”.
The tribunal’s conclusion
The tribunal rejected the application on the evidence after analysis of photographs and considering the oral evidence of Mr Baker and his witnesses in particular.
The tribunal preferred the local authority’s account of the use of the land and its fencing.
A cautionary note for landowners
This case is an important reminder for landowners to take action once an application is rejected and not let 2 years elapse.
Although not part of the decision (the point was agreed), the case also highlights that to be able to use para 5, sch 6 Land Registration Act 2002 that original period of 10 years’ adverse possession is necessary.
Read the judgment in full in: Baker v London Borough of Redbridge FTT 2024/0301