Our Litigation department successfully represented claimants/appellants in the Court of Appeal this October on an important decision on adverse possession.
The case of Clapham and Wright v Narga has been reported in The Times and The Daily Mail on 11th November 2024 and [2024] EWCA Civ1388 & [2024]11 WLUK 134.
The dispute started in 2020. Following a trial lasting several days, the Judge held that the claimants had proved adverse possession but because of the application of Section 75 of the Land Registration Act 1925 they could not become the registered owners of the land to the north of the brook.
After an unsuccessful appeal in the Birmingham High Court, the claimants successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal which held that as the Claimants had acquired adverse possession over the land between the brook and a fence to the north of the brook before Brook Barn (purchased by the defendant in May 2020) was first registered at HMLR in 2003 (by which time adverse possession had been acquired), the Claimants became the legal owners of the land.
On this matter the HMLR plans appeared to show that the brook and the land to the north of the brook to be part of Brook Barn but the Court of Appeal held that the HMLR plan depicted only general boundaries and did not result in Brook Barn owning the disputed piece of land as it had been acquired by the Claimants under Adverse Possession.
Mrs Ubhi, Head of our Litigation Department, states that this is an important case as it states that Section 75 of the Land Registration Act did not apply where first registration at HMLR was effected after the title to a piece of land had been extinguished by adverse possession.
The case is also an important reminder that a title plan only depicts general boundaries and cannot be relied upon as determinative of where the actual boundary lies between the two properties.
Mrs Ubhi hopes that her clients can now resume the enjoyment and tranquility of their Land and the brook.
