Adverse Possession and Prescription
What the exam tests
Adverse possession and prescription test how rights are acquired by long use. You must know the requirements for adverse possession, limitation periods, and the rules for prescriptive easements.
Core rules
- Adverse possession requires actual, open, exclusive, continuous possession without the owner’s permission, with an intention to possess. Possession must be adverse, not subordinate.
- The limitation period varies by jurisdiction and by whether land is registered or unregistered. On expiry, the paper owner’s title may be extinguished or barred.
- Time stops if possession is interrupted or the owner asserts title by action or written acknowledgment.
- Prescription of easements may be at common law (20 years), under the doctrine of lost modern grant, or by statute. Use must be as of right: without force, secrecy or permission.
- Registered land often has special rules: adverse possession may not extinguish registered title automatically, and a statutory application may be required.
Worked example
A fences off B’s unused strip for 15 years and uses it openly. B visits but says nothing. A’s possession is open, exclusive and without permission, but it is not yet continuous for the full limitation period if the period is 20 years. If the period were 12 years and B took no action, B’s title could be barred. The result depends on the statutory period and registration status.
Traps
Treating permission as adverse possession; forgetting the need for intention to possess; assuming prescription from mere use; ignoring registered-land reforms.