By law, "squatters' right" allows a person to acquire land by occupying it without the consent of the true owner of the property if the owner fails within a certain period of time to remove or evict the squatter or trespasser from his land.

If the owner does not take action his ownership of the land (which lawyers call "title") is lost. The general rule is that no action can be brought by a person to recover land after the expiration of a continuous period of 12 years from when the so-called squatter first started occupying the land without the consent of the original legal owner. The squatter will not have the original owner's title transferred to him, the existing owner will simply be unable to assert his true title against the squatter.

The squatter will be able to register occupation of the land after that 12-year period at H M Registry and will become the new owner, on paper, of the land in question. This is called possessory title. The squatter will have to show that he did not share physical possession of the land and had the intention to exclude all others from using the land.

If the original owner decides within the 12-year period in which the squatter is occupying the land to try and recover the land, and issues court proceedings, the squatter will not succeed in his claim.

H M Land Registry require very strong evidence before they will register a squatter with possessory title. If insufficient evidence is produced, the application will be cancelled.

If the application goes ahead, notice will be served on the original legal owner which may result in a dispute which can only be resolved by legal proceedings. The squatter may be obliged to abandon his claim.

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