The Supreme Court's judgment in the case of Brown v Ridley on 26 February will come as welcome clarity to those dealing with adverse possession claims and boundary disputes under the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA 2002). 

Facts of the case 

Mr Brown, the respondent, purchased his plot of land in 2002 and the Ridleys became registered owners of adjacent land in 2004. A dispute arose in relation to a strip of land running along the boundary between the two pieces of land. According to Land Registry plans, the strip formed part of Brown's land, but the Ridleys had mistakenly believed it had formed part of their property and had consequently used the strip as part of their site for the building of a new property. In 2018, as part of the planning process to erect the new property, the Ridleys ascertained that the strip of land was not registered in their ownership. They submitted an application for adverse possession of the strip of land in December 2019, to which Mr Brown objected. 

LRA 2002 

Schedule 6 of the LRA 2002 sets out the process on which adverse possession of registered land can be relied on. Under this process, certain conditions must be satisfied. One of the conditions is that "for at least 10 years of the period of adverse possession ending on the date of the application" the applicant must have had reasonable belief that the application land belonged to him/her. 

The main issue of the dispute being considered by the Supreme Court was the construction of this "10 year condition", which could be interpreted one of two ways: 

• the ten year period of reasonable belief has to end on the date of application; or 
• any period of ten years of reasonable belief within the period of adverse possession is sufficient. 

Mr Brown contended that the 21 month delay between the time at which the Ridleys realised the strip of land was not within their ownership (i.e., the point at which their "reasonable belief" ended) and them making the application for adverse possession meant the "10 year condition" was not satisfied. By contrast, the Ridleys relied upon the second interpretation, arguing they held a reasonable belief that the land was within their ownership for a period of 10 years before they made the application, albeit their reasonable belief was lost some time before the application was made. 

Decision 

The Supreme Court unanimously decided in favour of the Ridleys and the second interpretation of the "10 year condition", that any ten year period of reasonable belief was sufficient. 

The problem with the first interpretation is that it required a person to make an adverse possession application as soon as they learned that the property is not registered to him/her, which could lead to unnecessary dispute and litigation, which is not what Parliament could have intended. Consideration of boundary issues requires time, as people deliberate the situation and take advice on making an appropriate application - "an application for registration of title to adjacent land along an undefined…boundary is not something which can be put together in an afternoon".