Land and the Law of Adverse Possession

             Under Schedule 6 Para 1, upon completion of 10 years, squatter must apply to be registered as owner. The Registrar will notify the paper owner and they will then be give three options – i) willingly forfeit the title as in Balevents v Satori; ii) paper owner objects to the squatter's application, making finalisation of the application impossible until the objection is dealt with, or; iii) serve a counter notice to evict the squatter requiring the application under Schedule 6 Para 5. A squatter who has been in possession for 10 years will be able to acquire title to the estate by registration if he can make out his claims under one of the three criteria. Schedule 6 Para 4 is where such notice is given by the Registrar. Here, the recipients either do not respond or do not oppose the application. The applicant may be registered as proprietor of the estate. However if they do not respond, Schedule 6 Para 5 will apply. Following this, the claimant can be registered as proprietor by estoppel [Schedule 6 Para 5(2)], some other rights to the land [Schedule 6 Para 5(3)] and reasonable mistake as to boundaries. A squatter's defence to proceedings to evict him is if he reasonably believed that the land belonged to him, like in the case of Zarb v Parry. If the claimant does not fall into any of these categories, then the claimant will not be registered as a proprietor. If paper owners do not take action to reclaim possession within 2 years, claimant will be entitled to be registered as a proprietor under Schedule 6 Paragraphs 6 and 7. The dispute about co-ownership in the case of Mount Carmel Investments Ltd v Peter Thurlow was that a letter demanding possession does not stop time running in favour of a squatter.
             Schedule 6 of the LRA 2002 is in line with Human Rights Act and Article 1 Protocol 1 of European Convention on Human Rights. Rosemary Auchmuty discusses in her article 'Not Just a Good Children's Story: A Tribute to Adverse Possession' the demise of adverse possession following the introduction of the LRA 2002 making it incompatible since paper owners are not automatically losing their land anymore.