Legal Title and Squatters Rights

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samfarrell

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Adverse possession is obviously a much debated topic in law and I am sure it comes up a lot.

My question has to do with the legal definition that a squatters claim must be to land they had 'no legal title to originally'. Does that mean that anyone, for example, who was ever mentioned in a will relating to a property could never claim squatters rights even if sufficient time had passed and the true owner was deceased?

Say Mary creates a will and leaves her property to John to hold in trust for Jack and Jill. Mary dies and now John holds the property. John then dies but the property is still in Marys name at the land registry. If Jill subsequently lived in the property for 13 years, could she claim squatters rights, or could Jack still be entitled to his share ?
 
The original will was made by Mary requesting John to hold the property in trust for J and J. I'd imagine it's now jointly owned by J and J.
 
I am pretty sure the law will disregard any attempts to claim AP when there is other legal instruments in place. In this case a will, if proven, would guide any claim to the property.

AP is much more difficult to prove than some people imagine. Basically the onus is on the person claiming squatters rights to prove they have had exclusive control over the property for 12 years at the exclusion of all others.
 
Twoflutes is wrong - adverse possession has the effect of extinguishing the paper title and creating a new title. The fact that you have documents are irrelevant if you allow someone else to use your property and acquire title by adverse possession.

Establishing adverse possession is a matter of fact, and there's not enough facts there to determine whether there was adverse possession or not. However, in general terms, there is nothing to stop a person named in a will being statute barred, allowing the person in possession to make an application.

Have a look here for Land Registry Practice - http://www.prai.ie/adverse-possession-title-by-adverse-possession-to-registered-land/#7
 
5.1. Proved Wills
Where an applicant is a devisee under a Will of a registered owner and a grant has been extracted there is no adverse possession and an application under Section 49 of the Act should not be entertained.
 
That makes sense. Because the person would have had a legal right to live in the property so therefore could not claim adverse possession over it at anytime in the future. The 12 years can only start when you have no legal right to the property in the first place.
 
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